Rethinking Nixon

The First Successful Coup?

Update: Recommended series from the comments: Hard Hat Riots https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/hard-hat-riot/

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Watergate was a pivotal moment in American history where the Deep State, Congress, and the media oligarchy took actions against the President of the United States (https://www.frontpagemag.com/destroying-a-president/ and https://warroom.film/watch-how-the-deep-state-took-down-richard-nixon/) forcing his resignation and reducing the powers of the Executive Branch.

What started it off was Republican President Nixon’s election win to a second term:
“President Richard Nixon was elected to his second term on November 7, 1972. He won a landslide victory over the Democratic candidate, George McGovern, securing 60.7% of the popular vote and carrying 49 states.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_United_States_presidential_election).

Eventually, frustration led to skepticism which led to investigations and Nixon was forced to resign over Watergate. But years later, as more documents are released, Nixon appears to have been maliciously framed for doing nothing wrong according to Geoff Shappard (https://shepardonwatergate.com/), a former Nixon staff member (https://tennesseestar.com/news/author-geoff-shepard-explains-his-role-in-the-nixon-administration-during-watergate-and-how-the-scandal-was-misinterpreted-for-40-years/khousler/2024/04/15/) Apparently, the “smoking gun” tape was completely misconstrued and taking out of context as it applied to a completely different topic: Democratic donors to his campaign.

Trump had corresponded with Nixon and learned of Nixon’s stance on the news media (as well as foreign relations). Nixon makes it clear in this mash up video where he is interviewed about his take on news media. The film leads with Chris Rufo explaining on the Bill Maher show why Nixon will be vindicated.

You can see why Trump hits the media hard as fake news.

Why does this matter? Because Nixon apparently has left an imprint on Trump on numerous issues. Hence it makes sense to understand Nixon. I had always wondered why Trump was taking the stance he did with Russia. Much of it has to do with Nixon, who warned that the fall of the Soviet Union could result in an unstable and authoritarian government (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/richard-nixons-last-crusade/). Looking at Russia’s situation now, Nixon is prophetic.

As Trump takes more actions as President, emboldening the Executive branch, I can only wonder how many Presidential powers were diluted by the impact of Watergate and only now are being resurrected.