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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe mistake Nixon made was he kept his criminality and bigotry secret. Trump brags about it openly.
And on an hourly, Tweet-vomiting basis. And with the help of FOX and Fiends, Republican Congresspeople and Senators - who are to a person, less popular among Republican voters than Trump is - are cowed into falling in line (that is, if they are not part of Trump’s conspiracies themselves).
Trump, unlike Nixon, figured out that if you commit crimes and voice the vilest of bigotries overtly and shamelessly, and constantly hold rabid Nuremberg-style rallies like a fascist cult leader, you can get away with anything.
“When you’re a star they let you do it..”
“I can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose a vote!”
Trump is getting away with it. Our only hope of salvation is in November.
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maryellen99
(3,788 posts)They didn’t care that he did anything wrong,They blamed the media and Democrats for “driving him” out of office.
Listen to Rachel Maddow’s podcast about Spiro Agnew called Bagman. They also called Watergate “ a witch hunt”.
The same thing were said back then.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Indeed, that sticks out to me now more in this context than when he said it.
He gets away with everything he does. We keep waiting for karma to drop, and it doesn't.
Caliman73
(11,736 posts)The major difference between Trump and Nixon with regards to flouting the law, is that Trump has the power of Media behind him while the coverage of Nixon in the media was at least balanced and factual.
As maryellen99 said, the attitudes of Nixon supporters and even the Republican establishment were the same as they are today however, news was provided by the 3 major networks and PBS (which began right around Watergate and really made its name in new like CNN did with the 1st Gulf War). You had the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other legacy news papers along with local networks and papers.
What you did not have is an entire system of right wing partisan broadcasting. Nixon did not have Fox News, OANN, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Levin, Breitbart, Drudge, and all of the other right wing media spewing lies and propaganda.
Nixon's supporters blamed the media for sure, but people trusted the media to give the facts. People still tried to spin the facts back then, but they had to operate from the same basic set of facts.
Ask a Fox viewer about Trump's actions and they will have an ENTIRELY different set of assumptions than someone who does not watch Fox. This is the major difference. A minority, though a significant and very vocal minority have been fed lies since the 1990's. Media is not trusted generally, and is considered "liberal" by one side even though it is generally "corporate run" and typically reports what will generate the most business, while trying to operate at least nominally with journalistic standards in mind.
Nixon and Ailes wanted to start GOPTv because Nixon HATED the press and Ailes wanted to put out the conservative view. When Nixon was made to resign by his crimes, Ailes and others vowed to not let that happen again, and they set out to do it by a combination of buying up radio stations, and by creating a broadcasting system that would only put out conservative messaging. They also started attacking traditional media as being "liberal" in order to pull conservative leaning viewers away and to pull traditional media to the right in order to avoid the dreaded word "bias". Remember that one of Fox's first taglines was, "We report the News, you decide" which was complete bullshit because they spent all of their time maligning Bill Clinton and calling every Democratic politician a socialist and ranting against Big Government.
Trump may be more media savvy or at least has people around him that are such. Nixon was infinitely smarter, and more devious but he had to convince a professional and objective press about what he was doing. Trump just farts out stupid stuff and the media does a lot of his work for him.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)Not having Bill Barr as his AG. Barr directed the obstruction. He knew that Trump could get away with anything in this GOP as long as they all stuck together to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.
