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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBruce Bartlett, former adviser to Ronald Reagan, compares Donald Trump to Nixon and it's EPIC
Link to tweet
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/4/1640099/-Bruce-Bartlett-former-adviser-to-Ronald-Reagan-compares-Donald-Trump-to-Nixon-and-it-s-EPIC
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)And Bartlett should know.
iluvtennis
(19,876 posts)AnnieBW
(10,459 posts)The two differences between the Shitgibbon and Nixon are that 1) Nixon at least knew how to run the government and 2) he was smarter.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,621 posts)he came up the hard way. He never had anything handed to him in his life. He did not come from a wealthy family.
charlyvi
(6,537 posts)and also opened up diplomacy with China. He had government smarts.
He was also a lying, sneaky egomaniac who coined the phrase, "If the President does it, that means it is not illegal". He ruined many lives, and got away scot free while his minions did prison time. I think our problems today go back to Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon. It taught the American people that the more powerful you are, the more you can get away with; therefore, the President can get away with anything. Hunter S. Thompson said it best in his Nixon eulogy:
He was a Crook
Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that "I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.".....
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/
mgardener
(1,820 posts)The Republicans are arrogant and deplorable precisely because they saw what Nixon got away with.
He was not impeached " for the good of the country".
The Republicans learned that lesson well and used it with Bush and Cheney.
That is why I fear that Trump will start a war and we will be stuck with him.
charlyvi
(6,537 posts)They could get away with ANYTHING! It spawned today's crises of fake news (FOX), fake character (Ryan, McConnell), and fake patriotism (USA! USA!). If you're not held accountable for what you do, why not do anything. I agree with Thompson, surely Ford is in hell with him.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Today we are letting torturers off the hook.
The next John Yoo will not worry because John Yoo was not punished.
After the Trump administration self - immolates, we must all stand for prosecution of the torturers. The govt contractors, Yoo, Frith, Addington, and Bybee MUST be ostracized. No matter how much it's been done before secretly or illegally -- we know what these guys did.
If we care about America we can't let off the hook those who tore up our most sacred principles. Or we'll just be repeating the Nixon error.
charlyvi
(6,537 posts)drm604
(16,230 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,819 posts)For Tricky Dick, setting precedence for presidential melt downs since...what was it, 1969?
Thanks kpete. ♡
Nixon was actually really smart, so maybe like 90 IQ points.