Bobby and Frost/Nixon

Politics but about political philosophy rather than partisanship.

For quite awhile we had a copy of the DVD Bobby, bought from one of those sale bins, which I had held off on watching. Its reviews had been good; it had an excellent cast; but I think it was the pain of what inspired it that made me delay although I expected it to be an engrossing story. Then from Netflix, we watched Frost/Nixon about Nixon's series of David Frost post-resignation interviews. It was the obvious time to watch Bobby.

If Robert Kennedy hadn't been killed, he might have won the presidency in 1968. . Richard Nixon would not have been the same man who resigned in 1974 or did that fateful interview in 1977. Our country would not be the same nation it is today. A nation and lives were changed by one man's gun. It's what, besides the pain of them, that I hate most about assassinations.

If I was a believer in spiritual intervention, I'd believe that all such events happened for a reason and were meant to be. But if I was a believer in life evolving and our need to do what we can to make that be the right way, I'd not feel any such comfort.

Robert Kennedy had not been my choice of a candidate in 1968. I was in the McCarthy camp. These were not the days where that meant I walked house to house or donated money. McCarthy got my vote but not anywhere near the support I gave last year to Obama. Of course, with one small child and wanting a second, just starting out in the world, I wasn't in the same position to be heavily politically involved. Or so I thought at that time. Raising babies was my cause. Some mix both together. I hadn't even though it was certainly a critical turning point for our country. I see that even more clearly over 40 years later.

That year, I did see Kennedy speak but not planned. I happened to be in downtown Portland for a medical test. I saw the crowd and then him on a stand created on one corner right downtown. I rarely pass that street without remembering it. I doubt that kind of event could happen today. I stood at the back and listened to him talk. I still didn't vote for him.

Then came a morning, June 7th, where my Avon lady showed up early and told me that Bobby Kennedy had been shot. I was completely shocked. She and I both cried. I turned on the television to see more about it. It couldn't have happened again, but it had. JFK, King, and now Bobby. It was heartbreaking.

I painted a painting that morning with broad strokes of blacks and reds. It was of a man crouched in the foreground while in the background a city burned. It was about hopelessness and sorrow. I gave that painting to someone who liked it and wish I had not.

Frost/Nixon was a reminder of something also-- of a time after Nixon had taken the reins of power, a time where I believed his administration was trying to take power from the people. I remember a friend of ours saying they would prefer competent dictatorship to incompetent democracy. I felt we were heading to that royal presidency and then Nixon also shocked me by resigning. Some thought he never should have done that. Doubtless Dick Cheney was one of those someones.

The year after Robert Kennedy had been killed, on that same day, coincidentally also D-Day, my son was born. I don't remember even thinking of it being the day Kennedy had been killed. Perhaps the pain of political assassination was something I didn't want to equate with birth.

After watching these films, I thought a lot more about the things Robert Kennedy had said, his dreams, what he had hoped to birth. They reminded me again how differently people see the world. Despite not voting for him in the primary, Kennedy would have had my vote if he had gotten the nomination. I wanted the war in Vietnam over. I felt it had been a huge mistake. Instead we got Richard Nixon who said he'd end it and waited years to do it; then was politically destroyed by believing he was above the law-- exactly what I feared he thought.

Today as then, there is a huge divide in this country, and it's not just whether someone believes war is a good solution. It's not even whether a president should be above the law. It's a bigger gulf.

Our gulf is whether we want to see government solve problems or do we think people can do it best without federal intervention-- health care, safe food, environment, programs for the disadvantaged, transportation, education, and pretty much anything except wars.

The question to ask, that goes beyond parties, is do we think the only wolves the government must protect us from are overseas or do we think there can be others, who operate more close to the line of legality, but where individuals must band together to protect themselves? Do we believe say monopolies are a bad thing or do we feel the blocking of them in the past was the bad thing? It takes government to prevent monopolies but if someone doesn't believe government should be involved, perhaps they see monopolies as a good thing.

Robert Kennedy believed in government and how united we could change things for the better, we could make this a better nation, and good place for all to live. He saw government as part of a solution. I am not going to get into whether he was the man to fix things but just this is about what he said, his philosophy that drew to him the crowds.

Today the argument is still between those who see government as the problem (Ronald Reagan followers) or those who want to make it be the solution (those who voted for Barack Obama). Can that kind of divide really be broached?

I recommend both films for political insights into their times. Frank Langella did an excellent job in making Richard Nixon both sympathetic and powerful. While the Ron Howard film didn't gloss over Nixon's problems, it also was fair. Nixon accomplished a lot using the tool of government-- some things others regretted even in his own party. I do think he followed his own star.

It is hard for me to think sympathetically about Richard Nixon-- and yet I twice saw him put his country ahead of his own ambitions. In 1960, when JFK won but probably by fraud and then in 1974, when the country was facing a potentially very divisive impeachment trial where the end result would be removal from office anyway.

(Incidentally to those who think the Clinton impeachment and Nixon's would have been comparable, I don't agree. I think what Clinton did was a personality flaw of a sexual nature. How many people involved in sexual immorality don't lie about it if they think they can get away with it? What Nixon did involved an imperial presidency, committing crimes in its name like burglary, and very much did matter and still does today.)

Bobby combines actual footage of Kennedy, his speeches, with imagining who might have been at the hotel that night. Predominantly the story is about those other people, names we never heard of and the impact of being there that night on who they were. It ended with one of his speeches and left me feeling sad for what was lost in terms of the promise.

Both films were about personalities more than politics. Anybody who can make me feel sympathy for Richard Nixon has made a good film.