Thoughts of the recently deceased Betty Ford are a bright spot in this depressing period in our nation’s history as it becomes increasingly likely in the debt limit discussions that programs that benefit the poor and the elderly will soon be gutted so that the wealthiest Americans – the truly entitled segment of the population – will continue to be subsidized by historically low tax rates.
With all of the wheeling and dealing going on in Washington today we offer a toast to the integrity of the former first lady so well eulogized by Eleanor Clift at the Daily Beast:
Betty Ford was always true to herself, and in politics that’s not easy. Sometimes to the chagrin of her husband, and certainly to his advisers, she had something to say on just about every hot-button issue of her time. The mother of three young adult sons and a spirited teenage daughter, she didn’t flinch when asked about whether they might be experimenting with marijuana, or how she might react if she learned her daughter was having an affair. “Not surprised,” she said.
She was a regular person who just happened to live in the White House, and she didn’t trim her sails to satisfy any political constituency. Conservatives were still a minority in the Republican Party then, and they weren’t fond of Betty Ford. She was pro-choice and pro-gun control, and an eager adoptee of the '70s, donning a mood ring and chatting away as First Mama on a CB radio, which was all the rage then.
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