Nelson Rockefeller had big dreams, he wanted to be president of the United States. Over the course of his political career, as a four term governor of New York, and as Vice President of the United States, Rockefeller's views and the things he stood for changed a lot. He went from some fairly liberal views on civil rights for example to finally embracing some quite conservative and intolerant opinions. He saw that draconian drug laws were passed, laws that primarily punished minority offenders. By the end he had failed to achieve his ultimate goal after sacrificing any good will and popularity within his own party that he might have gained with his shifting beliefs, or at least the expressions of what he claimed to believe. Who really knew by the end?
Marsha Barrett does a superb job of taking us through Rockefeller's legislative record and his governance. It is fascinating and really tragic. As we look around our political landscape today we are dealing with many of these same issues.
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