When America celebrated the Bicentennial, our nation’s 200th anniversary, I was living and working in Washington, D.C. On July 4, 1976, our nation was nearly two years past Watergate. After Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford immediately took the oath of office. He reassured a traumatized public by saying, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
Ford’s road to the presidency happened because of two resignations. In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to a single charge of tax evasion and resigned from office. Agnew took the lesser plea after he was being investigated for criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and tax fraud, going back to his time as Baltimore county executive and governor of Maryland when he allegedly took kickbacks from contractors.
After Agnew’s resignation, which had nothing to do with Watergate, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment. A year later, Ford would become president.
Ford’s resume casts him as someone who would stand up for those marginalized. He was the star player on the University of Michigan’s football team when Georgia Tech refused to play if a Black player named Willis Ward took the field. Ford, Ward’s best friend on the team, threatened to quit. But after Ward urged him to play he did. Ford also enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He eventually saw action on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific theater.
Ford certainly had experience in government having served in Congress. But his presidency got off to a rocky start when he pardoned Nixon, something he felt would help the nation put Watergate in the rear view mirror. He also presided over an economy that was sputtering.
During his time in office, Ford was the target of two assassination attempts. In 1976, he lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In the following years, he and Carter put behind them the sometimes raucous campaign and became close friends.
Historians consistently rank Ford as a below average president. But for those of us who lived through Watergate, he became a steadying presence. And when the Bicentennial rolled around, we found much to celebrate. Against all odds, Ford righted the ship and said all the right things to bring the country together, even for a few days.
Fifty years later, our country is more divided than ever and we have a president who is so thin skinned he uses every opportunity to take the focus off our country and place it back on himself. He couldn’t even stand that Taylor and Travis sopped up some of our attention with their wedding at Madison Square Garden. His postings were embarrassing and online creatives wasted no time turning it around and reminding everyone who this man really is.
What joy I found in the holiday focused on New York City. Despite all the odds, our city continues to pull off the impossible, whether it’s winning an NBA championship, celebrating our immigrant community, helping our neighbors during a heat wave, donating to food banks, and rejoicing in those tall ships on the Hudson. And, yes, celebrating love with Taylor and Travis who not only got married but donated $26 million to food banks and other charities around the country. (Remember that extravaganza in Venice? Remember any donations from Jeff and Lauren?)
The summer seems to be flying by. What that means is that the midterms will soon be here. And we will have the opportunity to do what we do best, get to the polls and vote to make sure that we will have a democracy well into the future.
Top photo: Shutterstock AI Generator
