Question Regarding Politics and Religion

[gandalfe]

I'm old enough to remember JFK, but was not old enough to vote at the time. Perhaps in part because I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, I do remember that his Roman Catholicism was an issue in the 1960 election. Some people were worried a Roman Catholic President would be loyal to the Pope, and not the Constitution, and that was the issue. That seems silly now.

"I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic."

I honestly could not tell you which denomination any of the Presidents have belonged to, other then Kennedy.

I mostly just know because the plurality of them have been Episcopalian, which is the church I was raised in, although I don't identify as such any more.

 

[colton]

I honestly could not tell you which denomination any of the Presidents have belonged to, other then Kennedy.

I remember Nixon was a Quaker, just because that is such a strange fact. (His personality seems anti-Quaker to me.)

 

[The Thriller]

I remember Nixon was a Quaker, just because that is such a strange fact. (His personality seems anti-Quaker to me.)

Right. He was a quaker. Which is funny since there probably hasn't been a President in the past 100 years that was so difficult to get along with.

However, it's interesting to note that Nixon HATED personal confrontation. He would shy away from it often in cabinet meetings. He'd talk bad about his own Sec of State to Kissinger but once that secretary entered his presence, he'd shy away.

So while he loved/thrived the political fight, and enjoyed smearing others, he hated to be personally involved in it at the moment it occurred. That's why he'd always assign "someone else" to do it. Whether it be his campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, who created Nixon's star in Cali by accusing his opponents of being affiliated with communists or wearing pink underwear... Or his Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman (who Doug Stamper is clearly patterned after in House of Cards) scheming with him.

Chuck Colson, a lawyer in his cabinet known for doing all the dirty work, managed the plumbers. He and the plumbers did what Nixon only wished he could do.

 

[Red]

I remember Nixon was a Quaker, just because that is such a strange fact. (His personality seems anti-Quaker to me.)

Wow, how could I have forgotten that? I did know that at the time, now that you've jogged my memory.

 

[Red]

I remember I had a dream about Nixon at the time Watergate was engulfing his administration. I wrote it down in my dream journal. In the dream, I was in his office talking with him, and all of a sudden he turned into a tape recorder, and it was lying on his desk. I leaned over and said "Mr. President, how is it that you are a tape recorder?" I woke up. I wrote them all down at the time. Well, wouldn't you know, about a month later, testimony at the Watergate hearings revealed he had been taping his Oval Office conversations! I knew immediately it had been a precognitive dream. And of course that taping system proved to be his downfall.