Happiness Insights From ……… Richard Nixon?

kinda wild that Richard Nixon of all people had a profound insight about happiness pic.twitter.com/zAU6fWxd5s

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) August 9, 2026

Trippy

There a lot of things that could be said about Richard Nixon, many of them not printable, but, "Jolly," was not one of them.

On the other hand, as much as I despise him, Nixon was not an unintelligent man, and I do think that he was self aware to a degree that seems absent from our current polity. 

I do think that Nixon is right about how idle wealth and its ilk make for miserable people being miserable. 

He is a complex figure.

This is the guy who created the EPA, OSHA, ended military conscription, went to China, signed the Endangered Species Act, and proposed national healthcare and universal basic oncome.

This is ALSO the guy who authorized illegal acts against his political opponents, engaged in a coverup of such actions, dropped more bombs on Cambodia than the US dropped on Germany during WWII, actively stoked racism as a political tactic, fomented a brutal coup in Chile, delayed the end of the Vietnam War for as long as he could, (including colluding to prevent a peace deal as an election ploy), and campaign finance related money laundering.