#nixon-comparisons

#nixon-comparisons

The idea for a new canal to move oil from the Middle East had emerged two decades earlier, in the context of another Middle East conflict, the Suez crisis. In 1956, Egypt seized the Suez Canal from British and French control, causing the price of oil to spike for European consumers.

For a nation whose founding symbols were carefully engineered around the balance of peace and war, that omission is hard to read as accidental. Dropping the olive branch from the dime isn't just a design choice: it's a cultural signal.

In a deposition last Friday before the House Oversight Committee, the former president said he could recall sending only two emails in his entire life. He said he sent an email to former US senator John Glenn when the former NASA astronaut was "in space at age 77" and an email to US military members aboard a ship in the Adriatic Sea during the Kosovo War.

Our first president could have remained all-powerful but chose not to twice. In doing so, he set a standard for all presidents to live up to. Washington modeled what it means to put the good of the nation over self-interest and selfish ambition. He embodied integrity and modeled why it's worth aspiring to. He carried himself with dignity and self-restraint, honoring the office without allowing it to become invested with near-mythical powers.