I think Nixon was capable of feeling shame, while Trump does not appear to do so. OTOH, Nixon was probably more malicious. Does that make Nixon better or worse than Trump?
Trump is worse. Nixon actually cared about America, Trump only cares about himself.
Nixon understood government and foreign affairs. Nixon was responsible for things like the EPA, which certainly didn’t conform to a conservative Republican view on government, but at time when USA rivers were literally catching on fire, and air pollution was very dangerous in many cities was badly needed.
Now Nixon was more cunning, and more ruthless so in that respect he was more dangerous.
I lived through the Nixon years, although I was too young to really understand him, and here’s my comparison: Nixon was completely crooked, but a competent politician. Trump is far more crooked, and doesn’t understand or care about basic civics. He’s also about 1/12 as smart as Nixon. Trump is one of the dumbest people in the country. I’m not saying that to be snarky, it’s the fact.
Nixon was a great statesman, and legitimately a genius. While he was paranoid, he legitimately cared about serving the nation, and continued to do so even after leaving office.
There is no comparison. Trump makes Nixon look alike a saint. Like, Saint Einstein or something.
Nixon was paranoid, corrupt, ruthlessly cynical (he intentionally let the Vietnam War drag on for his own political purposes,) ambitious to the point of hubris, personally unlikable (the fact that so much of DC loathed him is one of the reasons he went down) and largely indifferent to the plight of anyone who didn’t offer him a political benefit. He was the one who transformed the Republican party with the “Southern strategy,” changing the party of Lincoln into the haven for racists it is today. His interest in diplomacy was largely fueled by the egocentric urge to create and polish his own legend as a master statesman, and not by any moral values.
But: Nixon was also smart, self-aware, and capable of foreseeing how his actions would affect and be interpreted by the future (which is why he resigned - he realized that if he did, he could get a pardon then rehabilitate his image as an international statesman.) His cynical but smart opportunism sometimes made him do the right thing for the wrong reasons (e,g the EPA - again he didn’t give a damn about the environment personally but he tallied up the political costs and benefits.) He doesn’t look like a saint compared to Trump, but at least he looks like a rational, self-interested adult. Trump is a toddler, controlled by his appetites and his tantrums.
Nixon was a paranoid man capable of ordering others to commit felonies on his behalf. The fact that he was able to make a few good laws and create some important foreign policy shouldn’t outshine the fact that Nixon probably belonged in prison like any mafia Don.
Trump is a businessman first who has no concept of how government at the national level works. He is narcissistic beyond any reasonable level. Like Nixon, I do think he thinks he is doing what is best for the country. That most of us disagree with what he wants to do doesn’t change that.
Nixon was a self serving public servant who was qualified for the presidency. Trump is a self serving billionaire who was not qualified for the presidency.
And this is where we have a terminal disagreement, because it is practically impossible to prove. However, from what I see, it seems he is driven by pure avarice and greed. What is good for me, what is against Obama.
The good of the country does not seem to factor mostly.
Not to Godwin things but I think Hitler did what he thought was best for Germany. And now I feel like banning myself for making the comparison I hate other people making.
Sorry. He’s doing what he thinks is best for himself. Nothing more.
Being a pathological narcissist, Trump literally has no idea what “the good of the country” means. He is the beginning and end of his universe. There are some other shadowy beings who inhabit it, some helpful, most hostile. But none of them are actually important.
I have tried to find the original quote on google but isn’t there some famous line from like 1900 that goes…“as business goes so goes America” or something like that.
I believe there is a part of America (and not just the rich who capitalize on it) who believe that is true.
I don’t think that’s true even half the time.
Trump ran for President to up his own brand. Unlike Nixon he never wanted to be POTUS; he never had a plan to do anything; he never had any vision for how he wanted to lead the country or what he wanted to lead it towards.
Now that he has fallen fat-ass-backwards into the Big Chair, I think most of what he is doing is primarily for himself, not for the good of the nation. Oh, I’m sure that some of the decisions he makes are based on a belief that he is making the right one for America… at least based on what aide X told him minutes before. But if he were presented with a choice between improving the country and improving his own standing, I have ultimate faith that he would choose “B”… and with Nixon that would not have been such an unambiguous choice.
I have no doubt that with Trump, Trump comes first.
Well, with Nixon, Nixon came first too. But he wasn’t about the money. Nixon was about the sheer power.
It’s entirely possible that Trump can’t separate himself and his gain from anything else, including the nation, so yeah, in that sense, he may believe he’s doing good for the country because his very definition of all good stems from what is good for him. If it’s good for him, it of course is good for the country. But man, that gets convoluted fast.
Probably best just to say, nope, he don’t care none.
In some transcendent sense, the good of the mythical German Volk – IFF you exclude German Jews, homosexuals, and communists as being ‘German’ – was indeed a goal of Hitler’s. At the same time, he didn’t much care about the lives of individual Germans, was happy to send them off to die in his wars, and once they had failed his test of defeating the Russian Horde, he was quite content to let them all die in a fire as far as he was concerned. In fact he would have lit the match himself had Speer not disallowed it.
So it really depends on what your definition of ‘best’ is.
I agree that Trump (sometimes) tries to advance the interests of the “American People” - if you disclude huge numbers of people from the definition of “American”. But he doesn’t have a firm grasp of what the government is or how it works, and seems intimidated despite all his bluster.
I was going to say something else but it slipped my mind while I was typing.
Trump loves Americans, for very small values of American, approaching only Donald Trump.
One other point in Nixon’s favor is that he served honorably in the Navy during WWII.
I guess so, but he seemed to have spent much of his navy time playing poker. By all accounts, he was a terrific poker player, tight aggressive but willing to bluff. He left the Navy with between $5-10,000, the equivalent of 2-4 years pays, not too shabby for only being deployed for just over two years.
I’m of the opinion that good poker player is an asset to being President. I’d love to play high stakes poker against Trump.