Posted on 07/24/2015 10:21:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Donald Trump is certainly unlike most Republican presidential candidates of recent years. But as he has come to dominate the GOP's 2016 contest, there's been a touch of Richard Nixon in the tirade-friendly tycoon. At least, Nixonian rhetoric. In the past few weeks, Trump has deployed some of Tricky Dick's most memorable flourishes. Is this a mere coincidence? One of Trump's top political strategists is Roger Stone, a veteran political operative and unapologetic dirty trickster who is an ardent fan of the scandal-ridden but politically savvy Nixon. (On his website Stone, who has a tattoo of Nixon on his back, calls himself a "legendary American Republican political consultant who has played a key role in the election of Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.")
Whether Stone is prompting Trump to channel the only president who resigned, here are some of the signs that Trump is feeling the Nixon spirit.p>
The Silent Majority. At a campaign rally in South Carolina on Tuesday, Trump declared, "There is something happening. You know there used to be the expression, many of you have heard it, and for some reasons for years, it hasn't been....The silent majority. There's a silent majority out there. We're tried of being pushed around, kicked around, and acting and being led by stupid people. They're stupid people." Nixon popularized the "silent majority" term in a November 1969 speech, in which he pleaded for support for his war effort in Vietnam. He referred to those Americans not protesting the war or joining the counterculture as the "great silent majority."
◾Law and order. Following the recent shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which claimed the lives of five service-members, Trump exclaimed, "Whether it's Islamic or anything else, it's getting worse. We're losing law and order." Law and order—that was a core element of Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. As the Nixon presidential library puts it, "In January 1968, Nixon decided to once again seek the nomination of the Republican Party for president. Portraying himself as a figure of stability in a time of national upheaval, Nixon promised a return to traditional values and 'law and order.'"
◾A secret plan to end the war. In a recent interview with the Des Moines Register, Trump asserted that he has a plan to destroy ISIS: "I have an absolute way of defeating ISIS, and it would be decisive and quick and it would be very beautiful. Very surgical." What is this plan? Did it involve ground troops? Drone strikes? Trump wouldn't say. He was keeping it a secret: "If I tell you right now, everyone else is going to say, 'Wow, what a great idea.' You're going to have 10 candidates going to use it and they're going to forget where it came from. Which is me." During the 1968 campaign, Nixon promoted—or, at least, allowed to stand—the impression that he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. But he didn't. The war continued for years after his inauguration—until Nixon and Henry Kissinger negotiated with the North Vietnamese a US withdrawal. In the meantime, thousands of US GIs died.
◾And then there's this.
and
Richard Nixon flashes his signature victory sign during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Of course, there are profound differences between the two men. Nixon was an insecure introvert, and Trump is...well, not that. Nixon normalized relations with China, and Trump uses China as a political piñata. And one of Nixon's favorite restaurants was Trader Vic's in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, and Trump shut it down after he bought the hotel in 1988. But Trump was an admirer of the Watergate-scarred president. In a 1990 book, Trump observed, ''I've seen some real killers in my line of work, but Richard Nixon makes them look like babies. The man is a rock, like him or not.''
What a stretch comparing TRUMP to Richard Nixon. They are hitting rock bottom to come up with this analogy.
Looks like the left is going to the old playbook using the “Nixon” card in an attempt to slime Trump. Not gonna work. Nixon, at his RINO worst, was still better than any Democratic president in the White House.
I don’t care if Trump IS taking similar positions to Nixon’s. It doesn’t mean he’s ‘channeling’ him.
That’s like tarring someone because, like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, he likes peanut butter sandwiches.
Sheesh.
MOTHER JONES??? REALLY???
You like Huffington Post better? Duly noted.
First they said they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have the Presidency, House or Senate. Then they said they couldn’t do anything because Harry Reid was blocking everything in the Senate. Then they said they couldn’t do anything until the 2016 elections because Obama would veto. Now they are saying they won’t be able to do anything even with a Republican President because too many Senate seats are up for grabs in 2018.
They promised us they would defund Obamacare. All talk, no action. They said they would reduce regulations on small businesses. All talk, no action. More speeches, no action.
Republicans control purse strings for 5 years through control of the House. What have they done? All talk, no action!
Thanks to Donald Trump, they are holding hearings on the hill focusing on the deaths of Americans by illegals. Thanks to Trump, many low information voters in this country who had never heard of sanctuary cities, or didn’t even believe they existed when they did hear about it, and now they know hundreds of sanctuary cities exist.
This is all happening thanks to one man, Donald Trump. Trump isn’t making excuses. He’s getting things done.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet, and I wholeheartedly agree. Apart from Reagan, Nixon has been the best prez in my lifetime, he just intercoursed up the denouement. Goes to show how miserably poor the five Demwits have been.
These fools must lie awake at night, and there must be multitudes of them, trying to come up with new ways to smear Trump.
The difference is obvious.
Nixon broke into the Watergate Hotel.
Trump could buy the Watergate Hotel.
Well said.
Thanks!
I must disagree. I think Mother Jones is on to something here. Just consider:
1. Both "Richard" and "Donald" end with the same letter.
2. Trump is a real estate developer. Nixon owed real estate.
3. Trump was on a TV show. Nixon debated JFK on TV.
All coincidences? I think not. In fact, I applaud Mother Jones for connecting these two evil-doers. That's so much more important than investigating the IRS scandals, Hillary's email scandals, etc.
I would vote for Nixon.
Met some neighbors when we moved into our house 13 years ago when one asked if I was conservative, I told him I would vote for Richard Nixon again - he has not spoken 10 words to me since that day.
He does seem to have Nixon’s petty vindictive streak to him, I guess.
Nixon was a rather good president—done in my his own paranoid personality and bad advise. The Media and Anti-war movement hated him—and he paid for his sins. Trump will not make Nixons Mistakes.
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