So Gerald Ford died the other day, and after reading a little bit about his life and remembering what I had learned about his brief presidency, I have found that many people in the United States consider him to be one of the greatest presidents. Talking with some friends, they told me that he came into a situation after Nixon with a country completely broken by war and suspicion. But moreso, he came into that situation surrounded by cabinet members and aides and informants whose sole purpose was to persuade him to continue these disasterous policies that were tearing apart the United States and decimating the world.
And in this situation, he came and did not heed the advice of those hawks who wanted more destruction. He finished the withdrawal from Vietnam and untill he lost to Carter he pretty much didn´t do anything bad. And I think that sadly enough, that is how one must look at the quality of politicians in the United States. Their greatness or poorness is not seen on what they do, but rather on what they manage NOT to do. That´s almost funny. Perhaps the worst presidents are those who do a lot of things, especially in the age of America as Empire. And I hate that people are afraid of that word, empire. America is an Empire, one of the strongest our world has ever known. And its leaders by fault inherit a country completely wrapped in the claws of Empire. I have always believed that Empire exists in the United States for many reasons, one of which being that it is necessary to have Empire in order to maintain the consumer, lavish, wealthy lifestyle we suffer in the United States. (Oftentimes people say the lifestyle we "enjoy" in the United States, but I cannot bring myself to say that we should "enjoy" a lifestyle that brings so much pain and hurt to this world). And thus, with Empire as a reality, all policies reflect its influence. And thus for our politicians and our leaders who are supposed to lead our country, the best thing they can do is to do nothing at all. The least possible amount of damage. And perhaps Ford achieved that in some manner or other. I guess that taking into account and accepting the fact that the United States is an Empire, there are two ways anyone can see the situation. 1) Accept that we are an Empire, but believe that Empire is neccesary for our world and that the United States plays the role of the benevolent empire bringing democracy, peace, etc... to the world. This belief system obviously has different levels. There are the Neo-cons on one extreme and perhaps more sane people who see things a little more reservedly. But ultimately I think that this way of seeing things is wrong. A Roman writer many years ago wrote that "they have created a wasteland and called it peace," referring to the Roman Empire. The same could be said of the united states empire. And thus, for those who seek to go a bit deeper into the causes of Empire will probably see things as 2) We are an Empire as all other Empires and our policies and way of life bring damage and pain and inequality and injustice and poverty to our world. And thus our politicians and public leaders, in the present state of things, are best when they do nothing, cause no damage, do not follow the mandates of Empire in the foreign policy arena. This made Ford great. He did the least amount of damage. Because perhaps, if we give President Bush the benefit of the doubt, he is doing what he is doing, creating a "wasteland" out of sincere desires for a better world. The same could be said for Kennedy, he was supposedly interested in creating a better, more humane policy for relations with Latin America as well as creating the idealistic Peace Corps. But with both presidents, assuming they wanted to work for good, the influence of Empire corrupted their policies. I think that is painfully obvious in Bush´s policies. And with Kennedy, his new Latin America policy as well as the Peace Corps were spring boards for CIA involvement in Latin American affairs which generally led to violence, coups, blood, and all sorts of other injustices.
So congratualtions President Ford for doing the least amount of damage.