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Explore our coverage of government and politics.

Delaney: National Tranquility

The national turmoil caused by the nomination of Bret Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was deeply disturbing to me – and to many.
Divisions were deep and harsh among senators while demonstrators swarmed outside the capital and filled the halls with angry protest. But as bad as it was, many of us can remember another turbulent political moment in our recent past that was arguably worse – and we survived.

It was 1974 and the end of the infamous Watergate scandal. President Richard Nixon was under threat of impeachment by the House of Representatives, trial in the Senate, and likely removal from office.

Nixon risked indictment in criminal court as well for obstruction of justice.

It was a nightmare for the American people, who’d already been battered by stagflation, the energy crisis, and the Viet Nam war.

Then, on August 9, 1974, Nixon, having resigned, left the White House and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn into office. Following the oath of office, Ford addressed the nation. “Our long national nightmare is over” he said. And I took comfort in those words.

They were similar in spirit to other words spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, during the depth of the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s strong voice in what came to be known as his “fireside chats” on the radio also comforted an anxious nation.

Both men took strong action to back up their words. Roosevelt established federal programs that helped to pull the nation’s economy back from the brink. And a few weeks after Nixon’s resignation President Ford issued a presidential pardon of all crimes committed by Nixon. In a televised speech, Ford said he was certain that without a presidential pardon “the tranquility to which the nation has been restored could be irreparably lost.”

Many American were outraged, but I thought Ford’s pardon of the disgraced president demonstrated an intriguing mix of the ordinary man’s common sense with the vision of a leader. And I still believe in the resilience of American democracy.

So during this political season I’m hopeful that a leader of both common sense and vision will once again find the right combination of words and action to restore our nation’s tranquility.

Dennis Delaney is a former Republican State Senator.
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