by NoahI'm old enough to have lived through the Nixon years, and, yes, he was a crook, but, as as bad as he was, Trump runs circles of sleaze around him. Back in the Nixon years, we thought that no one could be worse. It turns out we were wrong. For instance, Trump is brazenly, openly profiting financially from his position with his hotel right across the street from the White House, and doing so bigly. Notice I used 'position' not Nixon's phrase "public service." Trump can't even put those two words together.Although there will be secret and semi-secret things uncovered in the future, Trump's obstruction of justice is far more obvious and out in the open than most of what Nixon did. So is his ruthless and psychotic vindictiveness. True, Nixon famously said "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal," but Trump has taken that as an encouragement and a creed. Of the two men, Nixon was a more traditional Washington type in that he at least made some attempt to hide whatever little nasty thing he was up to from public view, especially his 1968 campaign treason. Trump's ego is so hugely out of control that he has to flaunt his actions in front of the cameras on a daily basis, whether at his rallies or in his interviews such as the one with Lester Holt. "See what I can get away with?"Trump usually attempts to hide his worst transgressions from view and probably does so reluctantly but he didn't even bother when he had Russian spymasters come to the oval office so he could hand over some top secret Israeli intelligence. His refusal to hand over his tax info and an un-redacted Mueller report is a case in point. He may chant "No collusion. No collusion," but you know he's looking forward to a day when he can smugly satisfy himself by boasting about it, probably when he's out of office or some statute of limitations has run out; maybe when he's living high up in his new golden digs at his Trump Moscow Tower.In the end, Nixon skated. He walked free, with his pension intact, giving future scumbags a kind of permission. Letting Nixon walk lowered the standards in Washington, as if they weren't already low enough. Nixon got to live out his days on our dimes at his San Clemente beachfront estate rather than in a cage at Leavenworth, which is exactly where he belonged. In a supreme case of Washington taking care of its own, his newly appointed dirtbag VP, Gerald Ford, a former House Speaker, pardoned him, saying that no one wants to see the president go to jail. Yeah, right, he actually said that.Nixon only erased (call it a redaction)18 minutes of his tapes and later regretted not incinerating all of them. Ask yourself what would Trumpie do. I think it's an interesting question. Would he burn such tapes, or, would he take them over to Sean Hannity and proudly play them on a nightly "Trump's Big Tapes" segment, boasting "See what I did. My party loves me for it!" Count on Rudy Giuliani being the Ed McMahon in the scenario. The more that Trump's mental condition deteriorates, the more likely it is that he would do the later. He'd even publish them in book form and offer to sign copies for any Republican who asks. Such a book would "grace the bookshelves of any Republican, right next to a book called "The Complete Tweets Of Donald Trump." There would, of course, be fawning forwards to the book by the integrity-challenged William Barr and Lindsey "Knee Pads" Graham.Trump is what happens when you let predecessors off the hook. It normalizes bad behavior and it assures that someone else who's even worse will come along and push the envelope even further. This is the reality that those who own and operate our politicians have been pushing for a very long time. More directly, consider Trump to be Nixon and Ford's worst gift to America, topping even Reagan. Blame all who sat idly by while Nixon was pardoned, too. Blame those who let the Bush administrations off the hook for their crimes against humanity. Both parties. Now, we have a president who really could murder someone out on Fifth Avenue to the cheers and applause of his supporters. If we continue to give him time, opportunity, and a get out of jail free card, he will do so, or a successor will down the line.
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