abelard
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Nixon is worth re-visiting, in light of recent events. He has since been 'normalized' to some extent by having been a President, but before winning, he was considered an odious red-baiting opportunist hick in establishment circles. Dean Acheson famously refused to be in the same room with him: "I will not break bread with that man." And some of the stunts he pulled - the 'Checkers' speech etc. - were legitimately tacky and crude. If something short of the indignation that Trump inspires, Nixon was at least equivalent to a Ted Cruz.
But Nixon was a very thoughtful statesman, and a true innovator in foreign policy, far more so than Kissinger, who, we now know, dismissed most of Nixon's ideas before hastening to take credit for them after they succeeded. It's to Nixon's innovations and courage that Kissinger owes his current status as wise, opaque seer/peddler of platitudes to elites seeking the comfort of familiar self-serving cliches
Nixon came to power by shrewdly, presciently responding to a very similar social chasm, arguably the same one that still divides us, but which then was provoked by far, far more serious turmoil, albeit before the amplifying and falsifying effect of social media. Nixon understood perfectly the power of resentment - it had informed and inspired his entire life's work, far more so than Trump, who is mostly just playing yet another stock-character on TV.
But resentment clouded Nixon's vision and inevitably resulted in his excesses. He simply could not transcend his rage and fear of humiliation, and, at home and abroad, he lashed out violently, impetuously, and counter-productively. As Kissinger snidely but perhaps knowingly quipped: "Just think what this man could have been if he had been loved."
This is what I worry about with Trump - character matters, especially given that someone like Nixon could only look on with envy at the power that Trump now enjoys. I suspect there is a certain amount of bureaucratic and procedural momentum that will guide and restrain the early days. But the entire world will look at this as a weakness to be tested, prodded, and exploited. How will Trump react to provocation, from China, Iran, or even ISIS, which would love nothing more than to goad the US into overreacting, as we done so reliably for the past 16 years? Having flatterred and legitimized a bunch of ex-Baath/suburban Euro virgins with a flair for the dramatic by escalating them into a global security threat to mobilize our own gullible angry men to serve domestic purposes, can the biggest, most spiteful bull of them all resist seeing red when provoked by a procession of the world's most nimble matadors? Can he afford to be clever, or patient, if it risks looking weak to a furiously emasculated base? This is man with a history of extreme, petty vengeance, after all, like Nixon, but with none of Nixon's intelligence or cunning, or, above all, positive guiding visions to counter-balance the fury.
