Bobby Ray Inman Quotes
I can remember - I don't want to identify the individual - but a very prominent Democrat, who compared looking at Carter and then Reagan, and then Bush, and observed that many of the people around Carter were totally disloyal to him.
Inman, Bobby R. Interview by Stephen Knott. George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, Miller Center, University of Virginia, 19 Sept. 2000.
This passage from the Watergate tapes show how even after the Watergate scandal had started to unravel, Nixon and his staff were oblivious to what Nixon’s behavior had been and blamed critics for all the problems. It also shows the mindset that existed then in the White House that political opponents were enemies of the state and traitors. It was a throwback to monarchies were any opponent or critic of the King was by definition a traitor. This quotation is used by historians to not only show the Nixon paranoia about critics, but it shows the way Kissinger pandered to the President’s paranoia at the time. Whether Kissinger’s behavior was self-serving and hypocritical as his critics charge or a clever attempt to manage the President and Watergate crisis into a “soft landing” with Nixon’s resignation, as his supporters argue, it is hard to tell.
It was used as a whipping boy and led to a re-alignment of Southern politicians to the Republican party.
The War of 1812 produced the first “peace movement” in the United States. The transgressions against our ships on the part of the French were much greater than those of the English who each accused us of trading with their enemy and ignoring their blockade. Nonetheless we want to war against England. Meanwhile, New England and some New York farmers and merchants were supplying not only English Canada with food and merchandise including supplying the British Army in Canada, which was not against the law then even in wartime. The “Western Frontier” in contrast were strongly in favor of the war, as they had expansionist designs on invading Canada and resented the British for supplying and allying with the Indian Tribes that were resisting the white expansion into their territories and frequently attacked and massacred farmers on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and the Carolinas. Morse wanted to hang opponents of the war.
Closest reference to this quote is during remarks at a Fundraiser for Gov. James R. Thompson, Jr., in Rosemont, Illinois August 12, 1986 where he said: “When [Jim O’Grady] was at the White House, Jim said to me, "The great Democratic Party of my father's and grandfather's time just doesn't exist anymore. Mr. President, I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me. That's why I switched parties." And I said, "Jim, join the crowd.”” http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=37732
In contrast to Trump, most political leaders engender loyality via their exemplary and admirable personal qualities and character and/or via a shared philosophy or ideology. Their loyalty tends to transcend proagmatics and the utility of the moment.
Bobby Ray Inman is a retired United States Navy admiral who held several influential positions in the United States Intelligence Community.
