Trump or Nixon? America’s Greatest Villain

This week we remember “Watergate,” an event which resulted in the resignation of Richard Millhouse Nixon. Members of Nixon’s reelection campaign staff burglarized the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel 50 years ago.

Unfortunately, this is how most Americans will remember our 37th president. His presidency should be celebrated as the most successful by a Republican since Eisenhower. Among his many accomplishments are the EPA, voting rights for 18-year-olds, ending the draft, and developing a relationship with the People’s Republic of China. The total accomplishments of Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Donald Trump are insignificant to those of Nixon. He was an American president who loved his country.

Trump was not an American president. He attempted to destroy the accomplishments of his predecessors. He succeeded in dividing our nation’s people forever with an agenda composed of white supremacist beliefs, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny, by encouraging anger, hatred, and violence. He is the first, and will be the last sitting president to plan, organize, and execute an attempt to overthrow his own government, and remain free after an insurrection in his name. He will be remembered by historians as America’s worst president and its greatest villain.

Other than the aforementioned accomplishments by Mr. Nixon there is a long list, including the allocation of $100 million to begin a war on cancer, the creation of Title IX guaranteeing women equal access to funding for collegiate sports, he oversaw the desegregation of southern schools which began under the Eisenhower administration, he organized a joint effort between law enforcement to end organized crime with more than 2,500 convictions, he restored autonomy to Native Americans and returned many of their native lands, Nixon participated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, SALT, which led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, ABM, easing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and many more.

Trump’s “accomplishments” were tax breaks for the super-rich and large corporations, failing to address an oncoming pandemic which has now cost more than one-million lives, and conducting a failed coup. Nothing more.

What is most upsetting is the failure of the mainstream media to hail the accomplishments of President Biden. Although he is facing Moscow Mitch McConnell’s “party of no” he has done more for the American people in 16 months than all four previous Republicans. Sadly, the media and the Republican Party is focusing on inflation, for which Mr. Biden shares zero responsibility. America’s businesses are guilty of price gouging. Their greed is the only reason for higher prices on every commodity. This situation is a much larger repetition of the early 1970’s when big oil raised gas prices after intentionally creating a supply shortage. Producers of coffee and sugar followed their lead and nearly doubled their prices falsely claiming “supply and demand,” and those prices have neve returned to a realistic level.

Finally, I am angry with every television network. There is no reason to allow Trump time in front of the television cameras. He has nothing positive to say. They are offering him additional time to tell his big lie and gain support from his ignorant cult. Trump is the “ultimate divider.” Unlike his predecessors, he has never been a “uniter.”

Op-ed by James Turnage
Edited Marrissa Kay

My nine novels are available on Amazon’s Kindle.

Sources:

Richard Nixon Foundation: Richard Nixon’s Top Domestic and Foreign Policy Achievements
Daily Kos: Republican Tom Rice gives long interview, calls Trump some pretty bad names; by Walter Einenkel
CNN Opinion: Opinion: The essential difference between Nixon and Trump, according to John Dean; by Jane Greenway Carr

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inline Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License