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Congressmen Adam Schiff (California)And Jamie Raskin (Maryland): Two Courageous, Principled Legislators!

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Two of the most outstanding, principled members of Congress serve on the January 6 House Committee investigating the US Capitol Insurrection, and both were involved in one or the other impeachments of Donald Trump in December 2019 and January 2021.

California Congressman Adam Schiff has served in Congress since 2001, and was the lead manager in the first Trump impeachment investigation in 2019, and is the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He represents part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin has served in Congress since 2017, and was the lead manager in the second Trump Impeachment investigation in January 2021. He represents Montgomery County, in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

Both men are courageous and totally decent, models of what all members of Congress should be like, but sadly, so many are not such!

45 Years Since The Watergate Scandal, And My Visit To The Richard Nixon Presidential Museum And Library, As Trump Scandal Metastasizes!

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I finally have made it to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, while on my week long vacation in Los Angeles, California.

This blogger has spent his entire teaching career, beginning in 1972 when he started teaching his first class just eleven days before the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, surrounded by Nixon, who I despised at the time, and analyzing and evaluating Nixon over the rest of his life, and in the 23 years since his death in 1994. I also had a sabbatical period where I did a lot of reading and reflection on the 37th President.

It can be said that the half century from Nixon’s first election to Congress in 1946 to his death in 1994, is the Age of Nixon. One cannot fully understand American history since 1945 without addressing the positive and negative legacy of Richard Nixon.

Many would say that Nixon was the most significant and influential President of the years since World War II, and still has a role in our lives in 2017, with all of the accomplishments he had, often forgotten in the cloud of the Watergate Scandal.

And with Donald Trump facing likely removal from office due to scandal and abuse of power, it makes it incumbent upon us to compare Trump to Nixon, as I did before the election in an article on History News Network, found on the right side of my blog. Nixon shines in so many ways, as he was a very intelligent, perceptive, experienced political leader, unlike Donald Trump. But Nixon also had demons which undermined his ability to be successful, so he ranks in the mid 20s among our Presidents, and is seen by many as a failure, due to the fact that he faced certain impeachment and removal from the Presidency, if he had not resigned in disgrace in August 1974.

My impressions of the Nixon Library and Museum are that after much work to change the tone and exhibits of the museum, originally not accepted as legitimate, now the ability to recognize the truth of Richard Nixon’s life is possible, and I would highly recommend everyone visiting Southern California to visit and reflect on the Nixon historical role in our history. I would say that the Nixon Library has succeeded in presenting the complex aspects of Richard Nixon, both good and evil.

13 Years Since Ronald Reagan’s Death, And My Visit To The Reagan Museum And Library

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Yesterdat, June 5, was the 13th anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan, and guess where this blogger was!

I finally made it to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, as part of my week long vacation to Los Angeles. I spent the entire day at the museum.

Ronald Reagan was certainly a very influential President, who everyone liked, even if one did not agree with his agenda and his policies.

Never a fan of Reagan in office, and believing that conservatives have distorted the reality of the Reagan Presidency, it was very revealing to visit the magnificent museum, which is the largest in total space of any Presidential library.

Of course, like any Presidential library and museum, the tendency is to glorify the life and historical record of such President. However, I wish to point out that I was surprised that the Reagan Museum and Library did not discuss any of the four Reagan children, from Reagan’s two marriages, and made no mention of actress Jane Wyman, Reagan’s first wife, with whom he had his first two children. I wonder how Reagan’s three surviving children, Michael from Wyman, and Patti and Ron Jr from Nancy, feel about that!

I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this visit, and that it has added to my understanding of Ronald Reagan, and that it will assist me in teaching and lecturing in the future on the 40th President. And as I write today, I also mark exactly 45 years since I walked into my first time teaching a class, on June 6, 1972, which turned out to be 11 days before the Watergate break in that brought down Richard Nixon, whose Presidential library and museum I am visting tomorrow, June 7!

And I wish to point out that I wrote an article on History News Network last year, comparing Reagan to Donald Trump, with Reagan coming out shining by comparison, and it can be found on the right side of the blog.

49 Years Since Robert Kennedy’s Assassination: The Beginning Of The End Of The Triumph Of Liberalism In The 1960s

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It is now 49 years since Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York was tragically assassinated in Los Angeles, where I am right now, in my first visit to the number two city in America.

RFK was seen as likely to win the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1968, and it is believed that he would have defeated former Vice President Richard Nixon in a close race, without being tied to the Vietnam War policy of Lyndon B. Johnson, which Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey had as an albatross around his neck, from which he was unable to escape.

It often seems as if RFK’s death marked a turning point to the right, from which America has never fully recovered, despite the best efforts of Barack Obama, the most liberal President since LBJ, but with the reality of a strong Republican opposition that helped to prevent much of his agenda.

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, while certainly more “liberal” than any Republican President in the past half century, were unable, and also to a great extent, unwilling to go anywhere as far as Obama attempted.

So in a sense, America lost its liberal champion, which Ted Kennedy represented after his brother’s death, but due to his own Chappaquiddick scandal, was unable to promote, with one failed attempt in 1980 against President Carter.

RFK was certainly one of the most talented and creative politicians we have seen, and had a broad appeal, and his goals and aims to unite people of all backgrounds in promoting progressive change, remain the goal of Democrats as they look ahead to 2020, and wish to find the best Presidential nominee possible.