Scuttlebutt: Nixon and Trump
A friend who was too young to be politically aware during the Nixon years recently asked me if things were politically worse now or then. It was a good questions because both eras are characterized by major street protests and a morally bankrupted president. The answer, of course, is not a simple one. Comparing different eras is always a tricky business.
How do you compare systemic racial inequality and white supremacy with 55,000 dead soldiers fighting a war merely to prop up the military industrial complex? Both are life and death issues that in some way had effect on virtually every American. Perhaps because I was living in cities during the Nixon years and participated vigorously in the anti-war protests, I would tend to think that the fight against the war was, if not more important, more fervent than the current protests. Of course, if I was an African American who had friends killed by police I would probably feel differently. We should also take in account that black men died in Vietnam in larger proportions than whites. May I also add that I have had a cop stick a gun to my head for no reason whatsoever when I had no weapon and offered no resistance of any kind. That made that culture war seem very real to me.
So let's call the protests then and now a wash. Each deeply affected millions in our country and brought the nation historic upheaval. One ended a war much too late and the other is hopefully changing our national attitude about race (also much too late). I suppose it just depends on your point of reference. Are you a black parent fearing letting your sons go out at night or are you a potential draftee into the quagmire of Southeast Asia?
When it comes to the Presidency it is a no-brainer. Not many people despised Nixon more than I, although millions joined me in my disgust. Nixon was a small-minded, mean-spirited man politically who fanned the flames of racism, sent thousands to their death in Vietnam (not to mention the geometrically larger number of Asians killed), plotted to subvert our democracy, lied to the American people while attempting to cover up his misdeeds and plotted revenge against his “enemies”.
Hey, this sounds a lot like Trump if you substitute his immigration policies for the Vietnam War, but let the comparisons stop there. Though Nixon put his own self interest before the country, I never believed that he didn't love our country. It is obvious to anyone who cares to notice that Trump only loves himself (reflected in the adulation from his disciples), junk food, and sex. The nations well-being is not even on his list. He has no interest in anything that exists outside the triangle between his hand, his mouth and his genitals. He could be described as an evil infant.
Nixon also created the Environmental Protection Agency in the year that Time magazine gave the environment the “Issue of the Year” award (1970). Need I point out Trumps' views on the environment? Nixon restarted the food stamp program, but mainly because his domestic policy advisor, John Ehrlichman, saw revolution brewing in the street and noted that only hungry people will risk their lives in a violent revolt.
What truly makes today's politics worse than during the Nixon years is the character of the Republican party. It was Howard Baker, the Republican Senate Minority leader, who went to the White House and told Nixon to resign for the good of the country. Try to imagine Mitch McConnell doing that to Trump.
Although religious conservatives were welcome in the Republican party during the Nixon years, the party had not been taken over by people whose politics are based primarily on religious doctrine. The other cornerstone of today's Republican party—the conspiracy freaks only—occupied the fringes of the party. It was the John Birch and Ayn Rand people then and even they didn't believe in a flesh eating cabal of pedophiles. They only feared communists.
Of course, there was no Internet then. Today social media platforms make it possible to reach every uninformed, gullible, naïve, angry, disappointed, frustrated, or racist person who cares to look. There they will find whatever is needed to justify and amplify their feelings. That is why Trump proudly declared, “I love the uneducated!”
Another thing to consider is that the stakes are higher now. The environment worldwide is far worse off. Population pressure is making every issue more urgent and there is a global pandemic that requires leadership, not denial. I can't imagine Nixon reacting to 200,000 dead Americans by saying, “I don't take any responsibility.”
So, without trying to downplay how messed up things were in the Nixon years, I have this to say: I have been closely following politics since I was a teenager and what we are going through politically right now is the worst I have ever seen in those 60 years. So congratulations Millennials, you have suffered through two major recessions and the worst political climate since the Civil War.
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Ruth Bader Ginsberg is dead so here's a shout-out to those Democrats in the Great Lakes States who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton because she didn't pass their purity test. I'm sorry she rubbed you the wrong way. Perhaps the Trump Supreme Court appointees come closer to your definition of honorable.
I'm afraid I need to particularly point the finger at white women in those states. 61% of non-college educated white women voted for
Trump while 53% of all white women voted for him. Yes, 62% of all white men voted for Trump, but I have very low expectations for them. I sure hope for their sake none of the stay-at-home voters or their daughters ever want to end a pregnancy.
