44th Aniversary of Nixon’s Resignation

From a historian’s standpoint–I find Nixon fascinating. He is someone who was a passionate student of presidential history and he enjoyed ranking previous presidents. He made the claim Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ were the three smartest presidential politicians of the previous century. I agree. All three were shrewd pols. Although TR’s run on the Bull Moose ticket was regretful.

My five greatest presidents go in this order… 1 Lincoln, 2 FDR, 3 Teddy Roosevelt, 4 Washington, and 5 maybe Eisenhower. Whereas I would have been keenly entertained talking over this list with Nixon-I would be completely bored doing it with Trump. He’s just not that deep. He’s not a thinker, he’s a grifter. If I were with Trump I’d ask him to rank his five greatest porn stars or pro wrestlers. That might be interesting coming from him. You know…keeping it in his wheelhouse of expertise.

Today is the 44th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. He was never indicted in that Gerald Ford pardoned him before he could be indicted.

We’ll never know for sure what turns history would have given us if Nixon had served two full terms.

Would Ronald Reagan have emerged as the leader of the conservative movement? Would Jimmy Carter have beaten Teddy Kennedy in 1980 as the Dems nominee? History is funny in that way.

As we enter the second half of the most corrupt presidential administration in the U.S. modern presidential era with Donald Trump–it at times is hard not to compare the two presidents. But again, Nixon was interesting while Trump is a predictable self absorbed bore who panders nonsense to people who don’t read and who view the world only from one prism.. namely their own economic standing or the belief anything he is doing will eventually trickle down to them.

In honor of Nixon’s resignation here’s Pat Buchanan interviewing Nixon in 1982. I love the part where he’s cursing Robert Cairo’s biography of LBJ as only Nixon could. Whereas…since Trump doesn’t read, Buchanan would have to ask him if he preferred Ric Flair Nature Boy, Hulk Hogan, or Rowdy Roddy Piper as his favorite pro wrestler of all-time.

Should LeBron and Other Athletes Even Bother Responding to Trump?

At this point I’m not sure. At some point you risk being perceived as being as brain dead as Donald Trump and his ‘followers’ if you do so.

I’m probably more in the Aaron Rodgers school of thought where you should just ignore Trump like any other petulant fourth grader who needs constant attention. Responding to Trump while probably somewhat gratifying gets you nowhere except in his twitter universe. It’s plays into his game of perpetual trolling.

It has gotten General John Kelly and General Bulldog Mattis nowhere. Where it has gotten these decorated generals is the perception they’ve ruined their legacies by even being part of Donald Trump’s team. If two American heroes like Kelly and Mattis can’t even handle Trump’s random yet constant stupidity—where do you think athletes are going to end up playing this game?

This is where we’re at…in a current poll…43% of Republicans who ‘still’ support Donald Trump believe he should have the constitutional authority to do away with parts of the media who aren’t in his corner. Consider what I just wrote. Consider the implications of living in an America which has become this stupid.

Especially stupid is a segment of white America which I guess thinks the answer to all of America’s problems is reverting to Dwight Eisenhower’s first term in 1952.

Even Richard Nixon in 1960 when he lost to JFK by a razor thin margin after some dubious election returns from Chicago would never have behaved like this. He went on. Nixon actually thought a recount in 1960 would be bad for the country. Can you imagine in 2016 that Trump and ‘followers’ would have ever done something like this?

I wonder what Ike would say? I wonder what fellow WWII general and creator of the Marshall Plan…General George Marshall would think?

I wonder if these 43% which Mitt Romney accidently missed on with his 47% comment know who Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall are? I wonder if they know of Nixon’s grace in 1960?

Maybe Mattis and Kelly could explain some of this to the 43% who two of our greatest generals were and Richard Nixon’s finest moment were.

Good luck with that…Generals.

2+2=5 in Trump World.

So…here’s what I’m saying here. Stop responding to Donald Trump. This is the oxygen a petulant fourth grader like Trump and his fans feeds off of.

Ignore Trump and continue doing wonderful things to help children in this country.

Don’t dirty yourself.

Be above it.