Politics & Power Quote by Gerald R. Ford

Ford’s line is political jujitsu: it admits conflict while refusing the corrosive thrill of vendetta. “Adversaries” is a cold, procedural word, the kind you’d use for opponents in a rules-bound game. “Enemies” is hotter, moralized, nearly existential. By drawing that boundary, Ford casts politics as contest rather than crusade, and himself as a man too disciplined (or too Midwestern) to indulge in the era’s paranoia.

The genius is in the last clause: “that I can remember.” It sounds casual, even a little self-deprecating, but it’s doing heavy lifting. It implies that if anyone treated him as an enemy, he declined to dignify it. Memory becomes a choice, not a record. That’s not naivete; it’s a governing posture. In a country coming off Vietnam, Watergate, and an almost cartoonish collapse of trust, Ford needed to sell stability without vengeance. His whole brand was restoration: lower the temperature, stop the bleeding, make institutions boring again.

Context sharpens the intent. Ford wasn’t elected president; he inherited crisis. His controversial pardon of Nixon demanded an argument for reconciliation that didn’t sound like a cover-up. This quote offers a moral alibi: if he doesn’t do enemies, then his most disputed act can be framed as civic triage rather than loyalty. It’s also a quiet rebuke to the politics of permanent outrage. Ford isn’t claiming purity; he’s claiming proportion.