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Erik

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Erik is Currently Reading

Erik is currently reading

Sounded In Every Ear: 1955-2020 (Saints, #4)

by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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Sep 28, 2025 08:09PM

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Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America

by Rick Perlstein

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Erik said: " Went one of the the Stevenson/Galbraith jeremiads . . . "[O]ur nation stands at a fork in the political road, in one direction lies a land of slander and scare, the land of sly innuendo the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustle, pushing, s Went one of the the Stevenson/Galbraith jeremiads . . . "[O]ur nation stands at a fork in the political road, in one direction lies a land of slander and scare, the land of sly innuendo the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustle, pushing, shoving — the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland. America is something different." Adlai Stevenson and his learned speach writer had coined a useful word, Nixonland. They just did not grasp its full resonance. They described themselves as outside its boundaries. Actually they were citizens in good standing. Stevenson defined himself by his high mindedness. said things like from his 1952 acceptance speech, "What does concern me along with thinking partisans of both parties is not just winning this election, but how it is won. How well can we take advantage of this great quadrennial opportunity to debate the issues sensibly and soberly." And yet it only stood to reason that if you believe your opponent was neither sensible nor sober and would do anything to win and that his victory would destroy civilization, a certain insobriety was permissible to beat him. Thus, a more inclusive of Nixonland: it is the American where two separate and irreconcilable sets of apocalyptic fears coexist in the minds of two separate and irreconcilable groups of Americans. The first group, enemies of Richard Nixon . . . take it as an axiom that if Richard Nixon and the values associated with him triumph, America itself might end. The second group . . . believe, as did Nixon, that if the enemies of Richard Nixon triumph . . . America might end.

It is amazing to me how well this description of Nixonland still applies so well to the political state of our country today. Both sides of the political divide are crying that the other side will destroy the US Constitution. And I wonder — perhaps both sides are correct in that respect.

I first read Perlstein's book Reaganland, and like it well enough to seek out other books by him. This one is in the same series, and I felt was even superior to that.

frision vs frisson ...more "

13 hours, 19 min ago · see review

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The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution

by Shaul Bakhash

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May 11, 2025 08:52PM

Erik’s Quotes

“Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think- as long as they don't seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz

40 likes

“But the symbolism of the miners' strike was extraordinary. The miners embodied the vanguard of the proletariat, a bastion of Bolshevism in the old days. To look out at the great crown of them in Lenin Square was to see a kind of poster for what had once been called "the masses." And now the masses were walking off the job and declaring that socialism had not delivered anything—not even a bar of soap.”
― David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

2 likes

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

6903 likes

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

tags: food, happiness

10452 likes

“There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

tags: hypocrisy, zealots

208 likes

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