Political Hallucinogens
If JFK was ticketed for an early exit, what was the point of his election at all? His chief rival Richard Nixon was eventually installed, so why didn’t the powers that be just install Nixon in 1960? Why wait eight years?
One reason to delay Nixon was that although he was portrayed as electable given how close the votes were reported to be, he also came with a pile of suspicious baggage gathered during his time as Vice President under President Eisenhower. To let Nixon cool his heels for a time would allow the air to clear somewhat. He was destined to be used as a lightning rod of division and his personality was more conducive to riding herd over the systematic dismantling of the culture when the time came. A Nixon implosion in, say, 1966 would be too early to fully decimate the old values that the licentiousness of “the sixties” was to replace. By the time he did implode, the Vietnam War he was ordered to expand and continue as long as possible, as well as the complete breakdown of the family structure that came in the wake of the propagation of the sex, drug, and rock and roll lifestyle, his collapse took the integrity of the government down with him and with that the last signpost that anyone could measure their own civic obligations by crumbled to dust.