Everyone at least twenty-one years old upon reading this has the distinction of being alive during the impeachments of two United States Presidents - Bill Clinton in 1998, and last week, Donald Trump. In 1998, one would have had to look back one hundred-thirty years for the most recent, and first ever, impeachment of a President, when Andrew Johnson was given the dubious distinction in 1868.
We should probably address that word "impeach" - we shouldn't have to, but there are legions of politically vocal people who still don't understand what it means to be impeached. Impeachment is the act of bringing formal charges against an official; it does not mean removal from office. The Senate can vote to acquit or convict, and in the case of conviction, removal from office is the result. Neither Johnson's nor Clinton's case resulted in their removal.
President Richard Nixon was not impeached - he resigned from office in 1974, before articles of impeachment could be formally brought against him (though they were certainly far in the works). Again, this shouldn't have to be explained, but the internet's abundance of politically passionate people who know talking points but not history make it necessary before I express my thoughts on another impeachment.
Speaking of Nixon and history, in hindsight we know that behind the scenes he was cracking under pressure. Those closest to him at the time say he was drinking more, behaving erratically, was paranoid, and losing his composure. Nixon was not the most socially comfortable of individuals, but even for an awkward loner like him, his behavior in the White House was disconcerting for the likes of Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger. The oft-parodied moment in which Nixon asked Kissinger to get on his knees and pray with him in the Oval Office is where I see the difference between Nixon and Trump - desperation.
Though it's easy for a showman like Trump, who was a television and media veteran long before he entered the White House, to put on a show of total confidence, I don't believe his arrogant defiance of the charges against him, and those who drafted them, is a mask. Trump is a natural celebrity, whereas Nixon, for all the power and publicity of his political career, never adjusted to the spotlight. Trump relishes it.
Nixon made grandiose excuses for his actions, and for his obstruction - "national security," "political containment," "executive privilege," etc. He was also strategic enough to let his aides and speechwriters do most of the PR. Trump however has taken to Twitter, because of course he has, and other outlets to lash out at his opponents. Granted, there was no Twitter in the 1970s, but more camera-ready Presidents had taken to television in moments of controversy - John F. Kennedy addressing and defending the admittance of two black students to the University of Alabama, and even the less charming Lyndon Johnson was almost a TV staple during the Vietnam War. If Donald Trump had been President during the Nixon era, he would have been in every American's living room via television (and in an age where there were three channels, all of which were taken up when the President had a speech to make).
Americans would have missed every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show thanks to Trump's plethora of TV interruptions.
You may be asking yourself why I'm comparing Nixon and Trump when the former wasn't even impeached. The reason is because Nixon's scandal was perhaps the most detrimental to the American public and its government until 2019. Bill Clinton's affair with an intern and subsequent perjury were heavy matters, but somehow it was business as usual outside of the scandal. Issues within and without the United States were handled with as much vigor as if there had been no trouble at home. For all the seriousness of Clinton's perjury, the sexual overtones and the jokes of it made by endless comedians almost made it feel like a TMZ farce. Which is a shame, given the severity of that situation, but it's not the only political scandal whose implications were unfortunately reduced to comedy (re: the rash of "Epstein didn't kill himself" memes).
In this case, it's not necessarily President Trump's actions involving Ukraine that have consumed the nation, but rather the man himself. He's been on every thinking American's mind at least twice a day from the moment he announced his candidacy and the endless array of controversies and scandals that followed, even before he was elected. Trump is a scandal in himself; everything he does, says, touches, immediately receives notoriety or infamy, like a morbid version of King Midas. Even if one adores him, they can't deny that he is the single most controversial person in the world today, and has been so for over five years. Donald Trump the man is the biggest Presidential scandal since Watergate, overshadowing even Reagan's Contra affair in the 1980s.
The biggest, and most important difference, I see between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon had a moral compass. He didn't seem to use it much, but he had one, and much like having a conscience but not using it, doing wrong while knowing it's wrong can eventually get to a person. Nixon's crumbling and downfall showed this. He would even later admit, albeit not to the degree disappointed Americans wanted, that he made mistakes and misled the nation.
Nixon's resignation was another act of cracking under pressure. In order for him to do so, his psyche had to be manipulated by the closest members of his staff and inner circle so that he would believe the resignation was his decision - as if to say, "you didn't break up with me - I broke up with you." Such was the state of Nixon's mind at the time, he had to be cajoled into believing it wasn't really the Senate that was taking him out of office, it was him and him alone.
Trump, meanwhile, doesn't need to be manipulated. He truly seems to believe he's done no wrong, and further, doesn't seem to be able to comprehend why he's in trouble in the first place. Whether it's demagoguery or just an inflated ego I'm not sure. But actions speak louder than even the most mealy mouthed of Tweets, and Trump either doesn't comprehend intellectually why he's in this situation, or he genuinely believes he is above the law. To him, the impeachment is a witch hunt, a conspiracy, the act of desperate losers to spite with pettiness what he has literally called "the most successful Presidency" of all time.
Nixon made his accusations, too - Watergate was a witch hunt, and in his increasing paranoia, a huge conspiracy calculated solely against him. But his actions showed that he understood the gravity of his actions. Whereas Trump simply doesn't appear to comprehend them.
Since his election, I'd always surmised that if Donald Trump were to ever face impeachment, were to actually be impeached, or simply land in a situation he couldn't get out of, he would resign from office. I wasn't alone in expecting him to immediately, or inevitably, land in trouble. The reason I expected him to resign and bolt was the memory of how his once-hit reality show The Apprentice reached its end - the same day NBC announced it was canceling the show, Trump announced he was leaving the show. Again a case of "you didn't break up with me - I broke up with you." But unlike Nixon, Trump probably didn't need to be manipulated into thinking it. He seemed to truly believe it.
If revelations of using campaign funds as hush money to a porn star mistress didn't budge Trump, neither will this impeachment, or the circumstances that caused it. I should have known from the Stormy Daniels affair, or from the recordings of Trump boasting that he'd sexually assaulted women, that nothing seems to affect this man's outlook, nor that of his more dogmatic supporters. Granted, I don't know the man. Not that that matters, as I certainly never knew Nixon, Clinton, or Andrew Johnson; but in those cases, we have the lessons and evidence of history to give us a glimpse into their minds during their respective troubles.
With Trump, all I can do is analyze what I see, and what the man himself says. And I see and hear a man devoid of both the ability to see himself in any negative light, and of the wherewithal to understand he's breached serious protocol. To Trump, the protocol either doesn't exist - "a sham" - or it simply doesn't apply to him. Other politicians in hot water may have stated such ridiculous things in their own crises, but inside, they knew better. President Trump does not.
In the legal battle that follows, that mindset will either be his downfall, or it will somehow rescue him.
"Last night,
I saw the fire spreading to the palace door
The silent majority
Weren't keeping quiet anymore."
-John Fogerty
We should probably address that word "impeach" - we shouldn't have to, but there are legions of politically vocal people who still don't understand what it means to be impeached. Impeachment is the act of bringing formal charges against an official; it does not mean removal from office. The Senate can vote to acquit or convict, and in the case of conviction, removal from office is the result. Neither Johnson's nor Clinton's case resulted in their removal.
President Richard Nixon was not impeached - he resigned from office in 1974, before articles of impeachment could be formally brought against him (though they were certainly far in the works). Again, this shouldn't have to be explained, but the internet's abundance of politically passionate people who know talking points but not history make it necessary before I express my thoughts on another impeachment.
Speaking of Nixon and history, in hindsight we know that behind the scenes he was cracking under pressure. Those closest to him at the time say he was drinking more, behaving erratically, was paranoid, and losing his composure. Nixon was not the most socially comfortable of individuals, but even for an awkward loner like him, his behavior in the White House was disconcerting for the likes of Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger. The oft-parodied moment in which Nixon asked Kissinger to get on his knees and pray with him in the Oval Office is where I see the difference between Nixon and Trump - desperation.
Though it's easy for a showman like Trump, who was a television and media veteran long before he entered the White House, to put on a show of total confidence, I don't believe his arrogant defiance of the charges against him, and those who drafted them, is a mask. Trump is a natural celebrity, whereas Nixon, for all the power and publicity of his political career, never adjusted to the spotlight. Trump relishes it.
Nixon made grandiose excuses for his actions, and for his obstruction - "national security," "political containment," "executive privilege," etc. He was also strategic enough to let his aides and speechwriters do most of the PR. Trump however has taken to Twitter, because of course he has, and other outlets to lash out at his opponents. Granted, there was no Twitter in the 1970s, but more camera-ready Presidents had taken to television in moments of controversy - John F. Kennedy addressing and defending the admittance of two black students to the University of Alabama, and even the less charming Lyndon Johnson was almost a TV staple during the Vietnam War. If Donald Trump had been President during the Nixon era, he would have been in every American's living room via television (and in an age where there were three channels, all of which were taken up when the President had a speech to make).
Americans would have missed every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show thanks to Trump's plethora of TV interruptions.
You may be asking yourself why I'm comparing Nixon and Trump when the former wasn't even impeached. The reason is because Nixon's scandal was perhaps the most detrimental to the American public and its government until 2019. Bill Clinton's affair with an intern and subsequent perjury were heavy matters, but somehow it was business as usual outside of the scandal. Issues within and without the United States were handled with as much vigor as if there had been no trouble at home. For all the seriousness of Clinton's perjury, the sexual overtones and the jokes of it made by endless comedians almost made it feel like a TMZ farce. Which is a shame, given the severity of that situation, but it's not the only political scandal whose implications were unfortunately reduced to comedy (re: the rash of "Epstein didn't kill himself" memes).
In this case, it's not necessarily President Trump's actions involving Ukraine that have consumed the nation, but rather the man himself. He's been on every thinking American's mind at least twice a day from the moment he announced his candidacy and the endless array of controversies and scandals that followed, even before he was elected. Trump is a scandal in himself; everything he does, says, touches, immediately receives notoriety or infamy, like a morbid version of King Midas. Even if one adores him, they can't deny that he is the single most controversial person in the world today, and has been so for over five years. Donald Trump the man is the biggest Presidential scandal since Watergate, overshadowing even Reagan's Contra affair in the 1980s.
The biggest, and most important difference, I see between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon had a moral compass. He didn't seem to use it much, but he had one, and much like having a conscience but not using it, doing wrong while knowing it's wrong can eventually get to a person. Nixon's crumbling and downfall showed this. He would even later admit, albeit not to the degree disappointed Americans wanted, that he made mistakes and misled the nation.
Nixon's resignation was another act of cracking under pressure. In order for him to do so, his psyche had to be manipulated by the closest members of his staff and inner circle so that he would believe the resignation was his decision - as if to say, "you didn't break up with me - I broke up with you." Such was the state of Nixon's mind at the time, he had to be cajoled into believing it wasn't really the Senate that was taking him out of office, it was him and him alone.
Nixon made his accusations, too - Watergate was a witch hunt, and in his increasing paranoia, a huge conspiracy calculated solely against him. But his actions showed that he understood the gravity of his actions. Whereas Trump simply doesn't appear to comprehend them.
Since his election, I'd always surmised that if Donald Trump were to ever face impeachment, were to actually be impeached, or simply land in a situation he couldn't get out of, he would resign from office. I wasn't alone in expecting him to immediately, or inevitably, land in trouble. The reason I expected him to resign and bolt was the memory of how his once-hit reality show The Apprentice reached its end - the same day NBC announced it was canceling the show, Trump announced he was leaving the show. Again a case of "you didn't break up with me - I broke up with you." But unlike Nixon, Trump probably didn't need to be manipulated into thinking it. He seemed to truly believe it.
If revelations of using campaign funds as hush money to a porn star mistress didn't budge Trump, neither will this impeachment, or the circumstances that caused it. I should have known from the Stormy Daniels affair, or from the recordings of Trump boasting that he'd sexually assaulted women, that nothing seems to affect this man's outlook, nor that of his more dogmatic supporters. Granted, I don't know the man. Not that that matters, as I certainly never knew Nixon, Clinton, or Andrew Johnson; but in those cases, we have the lessons and evidence of history to give us a glimpse into their minds during their respective troubles.
With Trump, all I can do is analyze what I see, and what the man himself says. And I see and hear a man devoid of both the ability to see himself in any negative light, and of the wherewithal to understand he's breached serious protocol. To Trump, the protocol either doesn't exist - "a sham" - or it simply doesn't apply to him. Other politicians in hot water may have stated such ridiculous things in their own crises, but inside, they knew better. President Trump does not.
In the legal battle that follows, that mindset will either be his downfall, or it will somehow rescue him.
"Last night,
I saw the fire spreading to the palace door
The silent majority
Weren't keeping quiet anymore."
-John Fogerty
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