Trump makes Richard Nixon look like a saint

 

One thing that former President Donald Trump has accomplished is to make Richard Nixon --- who resigned in disgrace over the Watergate scandal on Aug. 9, 1974 --- look like a saint in comparison.
Improving Nixon’s legacy is something that the younger me wouldn’t have thought possible.
But then Donald Trump changed all that.
Between Trump’s role in inciting an attempted coup of the government by marshaling right-wing extremist groups to invade the Capitol on Jan. 6 and to come perilously close to do bodily harm to then-Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi --- and then his decision to take hundreds of classified documents home with him in a clear violation of United States law, Nixon's place in history has improved considerably.
Sure, Nixon orchestrated the cover-up of the Watergate burglary and ensuing scandal, which eventually sent numerous members of the Nixon Administration to jail.
But Nixon didn’t attempt to overthrow the government, nor did he misappropriate national security documents, putting them at risk of falling into the hands of those dictators like the bullies running Russia and North Korea that Trump to this day admires far more than his fellow Americans or any politicians on either side of the aisle who don't back him unequivocally.
The problem with Trump --- and his coddling and enabling by most of the Republican Party establishment --- is that Trump, from the outset of his election, treated running the country like it was his personal company.
Hence, he never recognized any laws or law enforcement norms and used the government and the courts as his own personal tools to attack anyone --- and I do mean anyone --- who opposes him. He doesn't know or understand the truth, and is such a pathological liar that he genuinely accepts his lies as the only "facts" that matter.
Even a longtime conservative Republican such as Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 Committee --- who values the nation's democratic principles over loyalty to a cult-like dictator like Trump --- is targeted as an enemy by Trump and his minions.
That's why Cheney is a hero to me, a longtime unenrolled voter. She, like Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater did during Watergate, has put the nation above party interests.
Trump is far worse than Nixon ever was, because he abhors democracy and like all of the real dangerous 20^th century dictators, covets raw power --- and keeping it --- at all costs.
Mark my words: Should Trump’s cultist supporters ever elect the man again, he will get the Constitution changed so he can stay in power for life. He will not only do away with America's democracy, but he will try to use the power of the military to toss all of his opponents in jail --- or worse. (See what happened in the 1930s in Germany to see what could happen under a second Trump administration.)
Trump is nothing but an abusive and fearsome bully and dictator --- something that Nixon never was, even at his worst.