Is Trump the New Nixon?

nymag ^ | 05/31/2023 | Ed Kilgore

[ChicagoConservative27]

Among both his friends and his enemies, there is a tendency to think of Donald Trump as sui generis: a political figure, and certainly a president, unlike any other. In some respects, including his incessant mendacity and his tendency to publicly insult everyone who doesn’t bow down to him, he may truly be without equal in U.S. history and more comparable to foreign political strongmen from Juan Perón to Viktor Orban.

But at the New York Times, Ross Barkan suggests that as Trump pursues a comeback after his 2020 defeat (which, of course, he will not acknowledge), he may actually resemble a highly controversial 20th-century predecessor: Richard Nixon. The 37th president, like the 45th, survived periodic dismissal as a loser (Nixon narrowly lost the 1960 presidential contest to John F. Kennedy and then was upset two years later in a bid for the California governorship). And when Nixon made his comeback in 1968, he faced intraparty competition from both the left and the right, as well as from large-state governors just as formidable as today’s Trump rival Ron DeSantis. Barkan writes:

[EQAndyBuzz]

Biden is the new Nixon only because Obama is out of office.

[cowboyusa]

I would have voted Scmidtz in 1972.

[stanne]

My mag wishes.

[cowboyusa]

By policy Jfk was to the RIGHT of Nixon and probably to the Right of Trump!

[nickcarraway]

Not comparable to Roosevelt.

[dfwgator]

Question is though, would JFK have ‘evolved’ over time. Would he have been much different than the Swimmer turned out?

[cowboyusa]

Well, he wouldn’t have been in power by then.

[ProgressingAmerica]

"Trump is far more comparable to Teddy Roosevelt than Nixon - but I understand you want to go for the cheap shots."

Roosevelt?! The guy who gave us the Income Tax, the death tax, out of control presidential executive orders, started the deep state via the FBI, FDA, and many other unconstitutional bureaucracies, and initiated America’s destruction by getting us into bed with the biased media?!

That's a pretty low blow there.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I forgot about this for a second in my above post. Teddy also was the first president in U.S. history to implement price controls.

Trump has precious little in common with someone that has so many left wing policies.

[rlmorel]

I feel the same way.

[nickcarraway]

Maybe he is like Trump.

[Verginius Rufus]

I remember my father calling Nixon a Communist once. My parents voted for the conservative candidate in the 1962 gubernatorial primary in California, not for Nixon.

[DesertRhino]

https://www.prageru.com/video/why-did-the-democratic-south-become-republican

No, Nixon did not create “the Southern Strategy”. You are buying into the communist party myth of the “great party switch”.

[frank ballenger]

I have a question, too.

Is New York Magazine the new wet garbage wrap? Formerly the bottom liner for bird cages.

[Gay State Conservative]

Is Biden the new Fredo Corleone?

[Gay State Conservative]

Not *Ron* Vibbentrop,eh?

[dfwgator]

“No not head of Gestapo at all, I make joke!”

[rlmorel]

I will say-I know TR did un-conservative things, but I have found it is hard not to admire him.

He did back up his outsized ego with enthusiastic and aggressive action, much the same as Trump does, and he believed in a strong America, or at least the appearance of it. He was, in many ways, quintessentially American.

Once I realized how anti-capitalist he frequently was (or appeared to want to look) it did take the shine off him a bit for me.

I had a much worse outlook on Truman as well, as I delved deeper into his war on McCarthy.

[AustinBill]

I think you’re confusing Teddy with his cousin FDR. The 16th, 17th Amendments, along with the Federal Reserve Act all happened in 1913 under Wilson, long after Teddy had departed the scene.

Having served out McKinley’s term and then been reelected in 1904, in 1908 he passed the baton to Taft, his hand-picked successor, and then changed his mind in 1912. When he didn’t get the Republican nod he formed his “Bull Moose” party that split the R vote allowing Wilson to take over.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I am certainly not confusing Theodore for his cousin Franklin.

The income tax was a dead letter(killed by SCOTUS) until Teddy started going around whining about it in 1906 in some of his major speeches. Then he sent out his henchman Taft to finish the job with a major speech to congress in 1909. By the time of the 1913 election, somewhere around 30 states have already ratified the 16th amendment. At best you might be able to blame 3 or so states on Wilson.

Wilson was devastating as president, however we shouldn't foolishly misstate the clear record on a plain to see calendar. The 16th amendment is all Bull Moose progressivism. There is nobody else to blame.