Not that we need even more context when it comes to President Trump, but here’s one that is sometimes overlooked. It’s the comparison with Richard Nixon, who was deceptive, disgraced and unlawful—and quit the presidency to avoid impeachment and conviction.
Nixon didn’t grow up rich, didn’t philander, served in the Navy as well as the House, the Senate and the vice presidency. He was qualified, however unethical and unlikable. He even gave the go-ahead for the EPA.
But the way he handled his razor-thin, popular-vote loss to Kennedy speaks to the stark difference between “Tricky Dick” and a would-be dictator.
Nixon, unsurprisingly, was suspicious about vote-counting and-buying—in states such as Illinois, West Virginia and Texas. “We won, but they stole it from us,” he told insiders. But he left it there. “The bitterness that would be engendered by such a maneuver on my part would’ve done incalculable and lasting damage throughout the country,” he later explained.
Upon reflection—amid the Trump era—Nixon never looked so patriotic.