The difference between Trump and Nixon

cethklein

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
3,453
Reaction score
452
Location
USA
Of all the places to find such insight, Yahoo posts this:

This piece delves into the incident with Richardson and Ruckelshaus where Nixon ordered them to fire his special counsel and they refused. Of course as historians know, Bork did the deed and lost everything for it. One line above all else sums up the way this administration operates though:

This is something even Orwell didn’t spend a lot of time contemplating — the official voice of the government citing highly specific figures and sources that seem to have been completely invented or, at best, purposely misconstrued. This is our government saying: “Go ahead and disprove it. Nobody will listen, anyway.”
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,938
Reaction score
5,320
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
Oh, there's a difference, all right. Nixon actually cared that people perceive him (however erroneously) as a moral and honest person.

(I apologize for the slight derail from the OP, which is making some awfully good points. I found the thread title irresistible.)

Just as a side note, I strongly recommend reading the old cartoon books of Herblock (editorial cartoonist Hrbert Block) for a really concise, instantly graspable history of just what the heck was going on under Nixon (including Nixon's disgraceful behavior during the McCarthy anti-Communist witch hunts in the 1950s).
 

Twick

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
3,291
Reaction score
715
Location
Canada
Oh, there's a difference, all right. Nixon actually cared that people perceive him (however erroneously) as a moral and honest person.

(I apologize for the slight derail from the OP, which is making some awfully good points. I found the thread title irresistible.)

Just as a side note, I strongly recommend reading the old cartoon books of Herblock (editorial cartoonist Hrbert Block) for a really concise, instantly graspable history of just what the heck was going on under Nixon (including Nixon's disgraceful behavior during the McCarthy anti-Communist witch hunts in the 1950s).

I was small when Watergate hit, but I remember my father, a lawyer in Canada, telling me he'd once worked on a case with John Mitchell's law firm. He said the thing that struck him most were that they were the most upright, honest firm he'd ever worked with. Wouldn't even suggest anything that wasn't brightline ethical. He would just shake his head at how power corrupts if John Mitchell got dragged into the mire of Watergate when he should have known better. How he must have hated himself for what he was doing.

But with Trump, there's no underlying honesty to corrupt. He's mud all the way through.
 

ap123

Twitching
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Messages
5,652
Reaction score
1,746
Location
In the 212
Also, Nixon created the EPA. Honestly, I think this is the first president with absolutely no sense of this being a service position.
 

cethklein

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
3,453
Reaction score
452
Location
USA
Also, Nixon created the EPA. Honestly, I think this is the first president with absolutely no sense of this being a service position.

Exactly. It's something his supporters will hopefully come to grips with one day. They can't blame liberals, the media, or anyone else. At the end of the day, the reality is this man is a self centered dirtbag who has no interest in helping anyone but himself. They'll remain in denial for years to come and a lot may never acknowledge it, but that won't change the reality. I suspect Trump will do far more damage to the GOP than he'll ever do to the Democrats. the GOP have long prided themselves on the "moral high ground." While we can debate if they ever had it, by the end of Trump's term, even the GOP won't be able to sell that. they've sold their souls all in the name of some imaginary war against imaginary enemies.
 

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
16,938
Reaction score
5,320
Location
Near the gargoyles
Website
www.alessandrakelley.com
Also, Nixon created the EPA. Honestly, I think this is the first president with absolutely no sense of this being a service position.

This is what comes of thinking that running a government like a business makes sense.

Bosses never serve. Presidents are supposed to.
 

ap123

Twitching
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Messages
5,652
Reaction score
1,746
Location
In the 212
Exactly. It's something his supporters will hopefully come to grips with one day. They can't blame liberals, the media, or anyone else. At the end of the day, the reality is this man is a self centered dirtbag who has no interest in helping anyone but himself. They'll remain in denial for years to come and a lot may never acknowledge it, but that won't change the reality. I suspect Trump will do far more damage to the GOP than he'll ever do to the Democrats. the GOP have long prided themselves on the "moral high ground." While we can debate if they ever had it, by the end of Trump's term, even the GOP won't be able to sell that. they've sold their souls all in the name of some imaginary war against imaginary enemies.

I truly wish I believed that, but I don't think it will happen. I listen to his supporters who disagreed with him on certain issues, at least on a superficial level (LGBTQ rights, or women's rights) and see them contorting themselves to explain how and why he didn't mean what he said, his cabinet and advisor picks and their atrocious backgrounds have nothing to do with them, they will stand up if he *really* takes away "their" rights, etc.

People who support him because he says it like it is? Not bothered by his lies, still supporting him.

People who say they voted for him bc of jobs? Still not complaining, I don't see/hear them questioning his plans for a wall. Are the displaced coal miners and steel workers planning to move south to build the wall?

I could go on and on with examples, you get my drift ;)

And the GOP? Even those who have shown enough cojones to question him, or his nominees, are staying right in line, voting for those nominees, staying on their gravy train. There's money to be made here for them, corporations to strengthen alliances with, I don't see any of them worrying about the actual people who elected them, until and unless they're overwhelmingly voted out of office. The party that purports to be the party of integrity and character has none.
 

Cobalt Jade

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
3,330
Reaction score
1,487
Location
Seattle
Oh, there's a difference, all right. Nixon actually cared that people perceive him (however erroneously) as a moral and honest person.

I think Trump cares that people perceive him as powerful, charismatic, and competent. He will do anything to retain that, or the semblance of it.