There's a good argument to be made he was the most evil president we ever had. Between
- prolonging the Vietnam war by five years through sabotaging the negotiations while he was still just running for president
- perfecting southern strategy campaigning and organizing all the neo-Confederates we're still dealing with as a new bloc of Republicans
- founding the DEA and kicking off the war on drugs to jail and destabilize anti-war protesters and the black panthers,
- all of the cheating he did during the 1972 campaign, which the Watergate break-in was only a part of
- Cheering on the genocide of Bengalis by Pakistani generals because "muh Cold War allies!"
the roots of a ton of our modern problems go back to this paranoid alcoholic racist piece of shit
e; had to add in the Bengali genocide
I thing Reagan and Trump are both more evil than Nixon ever was, but they never would've been elected if not for the groundwork that the Nixon administraton did.
Trump is a difficult one because he's honestly in a lot of ways a complete fucking idiot and would be flailing and failing if it wasn't for an obscene number of people in his orbit who enable him.
Trump is just a narcissist high on his own grandiose supply. I'm not sure that counts as evil moreso than "stupid."
Literally all the plans he floats are absolutely fucking idiotic shit that will send this country spinning down the toilet faster than you can say "Make America Great Again."
So while I get that Trump is a spearhead behind some of the worst things, the reality is he is just a racist who wants other people to like him, and he's figured out how to pander to racists to get what he wants. He's not a calculating supervillain, he's just an ugly rich chode who thinks he's the main character.
He's not pursuing Dictatorship because he understands it. Hell, he didn't even want to do the job of the Presidency, do you think he actually wants to be in charge and responsible for anything? During COVID he famously said "I don't take any responsibility at all."
Save it, Trump is a fucking idiot through and through who is well on his way to join Reagan in Dementia City, but he's enabled by some far more seriously dangerous people.
I think Behind the Bastards did a good job laying out why Nixon was possibly one of the worst in history in their series on Kissinger. Highly recommended if you have the time to listen to it.
Yeah, I go back and forth all the time on who's the worst, one of those three or George "I knew Iraq didn't have WMDs and I killed 100k Iraqi civilians anyway, oh and you're welcome for ICE and warrantless wiretaps and extraordinary renditions and torture and Samuel Alito" W Bush
Funny how abetting the genocide of 300K-3M people in Bangladesh doesn't even crack top 4
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blood_Telegram:_Nixon,_Kissinger,_and_a_Forgotten_Genocide
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/01/bangladesh-kissinger-henry-genocide-pakistan-east-legacy/ (probably paywalled)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/04/henry-kissinger-role-in-bengali-massacre
Oof, that does deserve a more prominent mention
Idk, both Andrew Jackson and Johnson were presidents and thought that slavery and genocide were fine at worst.
Wilson is right up there with the damage he caused as well.
I agree but also he founded the EPA which is huge positive. Too many current politicians ignore environmental policy to our detriment.
That was pretty much all Congress and a lot of great researchers and journalists throughout the 50s and 60s writing things like Silent Spring that got the general public to a place where they were demanding it. If Nixon hasn't done something to make it look like he'd dealt with the issue we would've likely ended up with something more powerful.
e; I should add though - the world did get a little bit better with Richard Nixon's EPA in it, just not as much better as it could and should have
"nixon to seek fifth term; vows to end vietnam war by 1985"
"Ronald Reagan? The actor?!"
Was "dick" not a moniker for penis back then? Did they really not know...or DID they know and really leaned into it?
Republican humor has always been the humor of children.
The term came to be associated with the penis through usage by men in the military around the 1880s.[1]
I like the "republican slogan" labels
Dick Nixon before he dicks you.
Nick Dixon before Dixon Nicks YOU!
still say they should have went with "you'll get fucked with our dick"
That would be more to the point. Dick did fuck everyone.
Dick Sucks
Ol' tricky dick nixon
