WW on Prez Gerald Ford

With the death of former President Gerald Ford on Dec. 26, the corporate media have with one voice praised this capitalist politician, especially for “saving the nation” by giving a blanket pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after Nixon’s scandal-ridden resignation. In the Workers World issue of Aug. 9, 1974, we wrote about Ford, who had just assumed office. Here are some excerpts:

Criminal Nixon is out. Good. And now there’s suddenly a massive propaganda campaign that “the nightmare is over,” “the nation must bind up its wounds,” etc.

We think the Ford administration is just like Nixon’s in this respect: [Ford] is a life-long, true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool servant of the billionaire bosses who run this country. The poor people, the working people, the people of oppressed minorities will be just as shut out of power by Ford as they were by Nixon—and all the other big business presidents before him.

Here is Ford’s record to prove it.

Ford on labor:  Few right wingers in Congress can beat Gerald Ford’s antilabor record. He voted against raising the minimum wage from $1.60 an hour. He opposed unemployment insurance for farm workers. He’s consistent. Way back in 1950 he voted against the Fair Employment Practices bill. The AFL-CIO rated his quarter-century voting record on labor issues at 102 anti-union votes against only seven pro-union.

Ford’s legislative record includes votes against the occupational health and safety bills in 1970 and 1972. He has been a staunch friend of the antilabor “right to work” lobby.

In his recent speeches for Nixon, he has charged in a stock phrase that his boss was the victim of “left wingers, the ADA [Americans for Democratic Action] and the AFL-CIO.”

Ford on Nixon: “I think the president is innocent. I can say from the bottom of my heart the president of the United States is innocent and he is right.”—Ford speaking in Muncie, Ind., on July 26, 1974, two weeks before Nixon’s resignation.

“I believe President Nixon, like Abraham Lincoln, is a man uniquely suited to serve our nation in a time of crisis. Every action taken by Mr. Nixon since he took the oath of office as president bears out the confidence, the feeling of trust I have in the man who now leads the nation.”—Feb. 10, 1969

Ford on humanity;  Ford voted against the Civil Rights acts of 1965, 1966 and 1969. He cast four votes against busing. He opposed public housing seven times. He was against Medicare, against rent subsidies, against funds for daycare, and against legalized abortion.

But he’s been for more funds for the military, more funds for the aggression in Indochina—and for a constitutional amendment to introduce the Christian religion into all public schools.

Ford on repression: “There is and has been an atmosphere of permissiveness in this country, a mistaking of license for liberty. It won’t be corrected by soft-headed liberals in Congress, but only by Republicans who recognize that law and order must prevail in America.”—May 25, 1968

Ford on Vietnam: “Why are we pulling our best punches in Vietnam? Would the American people believe that after two and a half years of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, only three out of every 10 significant military targets had even been struck by U.S. airpower? Why are we still pulling our airpower punch?”—July 16, 1971

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