In general, good people have bad press and bad people have good press. Richard Nixon and his crew--especially John Mitchell and Spiro Agnew--are exceptions to that rule.
Death does not diminish RN's status as a worthy pinata and I do not want to bash him for old time sake. What I would like to do is criticize him for conceding a stolen election in 1960.
Kennedy stole the presidential election from Nixon in 1960. To be more precise, Joe Kennedy, the patriarch, and his Mafia friends stole the election. Richard Nixon, the rightful president, chose to forego the noble fight on behalf of his supporters. His decision would foreshadow an eventual presidency that would be marred by calculated appeasements.
We have all heard the Republican apologists who have stated that Tricky Dick did the right thing in 1960 and he sacrificed his personal ambition for the good of the country. In reality, it was an act of inert cowardice. Richard Nixon placed his imprimatur on systemic corruption, an institution he deeply respected. Years later, Nixon's attorney general would accept cash payment for the presidential pardon of a gangster named Jimmy Hoffa.
President Eisenhower, a historic figure whose legacy seems to quietly grow like a massive oak, wanted Nixon to fight on. Ike believed in right and wrong. His morals were more arithmetic than calculus. Had Nixon donned the white knight's armor in 1960, systemic corruption might not have flourished and elections might not have been so easily stolen decades later. Of course, that would have meant that Nixon would not have been able to stuff his own pockets after he politely waited his turn.
One sees a lot of Nixon in Bernie Sanders. Publicly, they were this and that, but privately they were both carpetbaggers. When Sanders told Hillary Clinton that we were tired of "hearing about your damn emails," he excused multiple acts of espionage against the United States as well as brazen exercises in influence peddling.
It would be revealed that Sanders was cheated by the Dems in 2016 and again in 2020. No tears from the socialist. He would buy a $675,000 "camp" after dropping out in 2016 and his wife would bring home millions as his campaign's designated media buyer in 2020. As with Richard Nixon, Sanders never concerned himself with doing the right thing. Like Nixon, Sanders will die a wealthy man enriched by their loyalty to the gods of institutional corruption.
Donald Trump is more Eisenhower than he is Sanders or Nixon. To all those moralists who say or suggest that they have to hold their noses or look beyond DJT's character, let me ask you this: Are your moral decisions life-threatening? Can your decisions result in fabricated criminal accusations, lawfare harassment, expropriation, and possibly even mortal imperilment if you choose to do the right thing? Donald Trump confronts horrors innumerable and in the face of danger, he chooses to do chart the course of maximum resistance.
Donald Trump, unlike Nixon and Sanders and every other money-grubbing whore, is fighting for the people who supported him. Concede? Never!
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