tiedrich -- "let's GO"

[wnylib]

53. The souffle analogy might be true, depending

On who or what is the souffle. If it is the evidence and witnesses against him, no, I would not agree. But if Trump and his gang are the souffle, yes, they will fall. But they will fight explosively on the way down.

Nixon was a bit more dangerous than some people think.

Both men were/are obsessed with their own personal power. Nixon believed, like Trump, that the presidency gave him unlimited authority. After Watergate, David Frost interviewed him. Frost brought up the illegality of Nixon's actions and Nixon responded, "It's not illegal when the president does it." Above the law, not constrained by it. Sound familiar?

Nixon sought unlimited power for himself and for the military industrial complex whose interests he represented. But he did have some degree of a sense of governance, too. Trump totally lacks that. Trump was playacting at being president. Trump is willing to overturn the government completely. Nixon wanted to keep the government but have complete personal control over it.

Remember Trump's use of law enforcement tactics during BLM protests to intimidate people in Seattle with secret arrests and threats? Under Nixon, anti war protesters were demonized, arrested, and beaten. Protest and civil rights groups were infiltrated by government agents in order to spy on them in the COINTEL program.

Trump declared certain members of the press as enemies of the people. Nixon had an "enemies list" of journalists that he ordered the FBI to surveil.

Nixon's and Trump's styles are very different from each other but they share some motives and goals. I think that Nixon probably convinced himself that his actions were in tge best interests of the nation and people. Trump, as we know, doesn't give a damn about anyone's welfare but his own.

Nixon was most dangerous in his last days and weeks as revelations in the hearings and in the Washington Post's reportings by Woodward and Bernstein became public. Nixon had always had a paranoid streak. In his final weeks, he was decompensating psychologically - losing it, in other words. Leaks from the White House said that he was drinking heavily, mumbling to himself, carrying out arguments out loud (with no one). There were serious concerns that he might decide to take the country down with him. The military brass talked about adding checks and balances on any nuclear orders that Nixon might give out.

Trump is a more serious threat to democracy. He is a more practiced criminal and an iconoclastic person who enjoys destroying people and creating chaos. All the more reason to be sure that we've nailed the case before moving in on him legally. I fully expect him to foment violence on a larger scale than 1/6 when he feels cornered by the law.