Congressman Ford would soon be confirmed as vice president, joining the long
line of forgettable portraits of same. It was expected that he would restore
mediocrity to its safe place in the history of the Republic, all would go on
as before, and...
And then lightning struck. Also thunder and the whole raging flood called
Watergate, with the result that good fella Gerald R. Ford, without ever
having been elected either vice president or president, found himself placed
atop the greasy pole in the stormy wake of our own Richard III.
Bob Dole, who never could constrain his wry wit, and so was naturally
disqualified for the presidency, once spotted a line of ex-presidents at
some White House ceremony, and, seeing Messrs. Carter, Ford and Nixon all in
a row, he observed: "There they are. See no evil, hear no evil, and Š evil."
What a post-Nixon comfort it was to have an unobjectionable figure like
Jerry Ford replace one of the most objectionable figures in the country's
whole long presidential pageant. "Our long national nightmare is over," the
new president announced. "Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a
government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."
It was just about the first memorable thing Jerry Ford had ever said, and
the country began the long recovery from the criminal conspiracy and moral
insult that R. Nixon & Unsavory Co. had been.
It was also just about the last memorable thing Jerry Ford ever said. Within
a month, he had pardoned Richard Nixon, short-circuiting justice and
assuring (a) his defeat in the next election, and (b) the victory of one of
the most naturally incompetent, innocently destructive and utterly
demoralizing American presidents of the 20th century: Jimmy Carter.
Some would later call Gerald Ford's pardon of his predecessor courage, but
it was more the kind of instinctive conflict-avoidance that was always his
strength - and weakness. It was only as the president between Nixon and
Carter that Gerald Ford, whatever his miscues, would look like a towering
figure.
There is much to be said for mediocrity, and surely it will be at the state
funeral now in the offing. There are worse things. Certainly few things are
more perilous than man's eternal striving for greatness and the hubris it
engenders. Look what happened to Woodrow Wilson and Lyndon Johnson, and is
happening to George W. Bush.
At such times we are tempted to think, oh, yes, better someone who can wrap
up an indecent defeat as decently as possible, the way Jerry Ford did in
Vietnam. It wasn't his fault. He was just there in the White House at the
time, like Zelig. Give us another Zelig, the people cry. A nice unknown
quantity who will soothe things over - a Jerry Ford. (And now a Barack
Obama?)
It's exhausting, always acting on principle, seeking to shape history rather
than be shaped by it. There comes a time when the country just wants it all
to be over, and that is the time when a Gerald R. Ford earns our gratitude,
or at least gets it. And let it be noted that Mr. Ford was a good citizen
even if he was First Citizen - no easy thing.
Much like Gerald Ford himself, most of us want to do the decent thing and
overlook some other things in the interest of a little peace and quiet for
now, whatever whirlwind we are sowing for later. Let it be said that Gerald
Rudolph Ford was just the man for his time - a time not unlike this
discouraging one, a time yearning for a return to a normalcy that never was.
In the end the country was happy he came along; we could relax for a while.
It gets tiring, always striving for principle.