Fascinating. I've been watching all week - Johnson and the Civil Rights Act before this.

was excellent as well.

Highlighting the physical barriers he had to face: chronic pain being the worst. And his incredible courage--insisting on volunteering to join the navy when he could easily have obtained a physical deferment, then purposely volunteering for combat duty when his connections could have kept him safe behind the lines. His experience in war made him draw back from the brink when most everyone around him was urging that he escalate during the Cuban missile crisis.

In other words, the exact opposite of a chickenhawk.

I could not believe this country had put Nixon into office in the first place and that they re-elected him four years later. After that politics disgusted me so much I didn't vote again for years. I was convinced that anyone who wanted to run for office was a megalomaniac and should be prevented from any public role. Some days I still think that.

On the other hand, the Watergate hearings were a wonderful political education. We all gathered every day after class or work (some of us were students, some working to get back into school) to watch them. When word came out that Nixon was resigning, over twenty of my friends got together at one apartment and we threw a party. You could hear the celebrations up and down the street.

At least not since Nixon resigned.

But I've detested Trump since the first time I ever saw him on TV. What a total blowhard lying bastard! When his show was on I avoided the network that carried it so I didn't even have to see the ads.

When G. W. Bush was re-elected I considered moving to Belize. If Trump got in, I might look at options to live as an ex-pat - though with an elderly mother and elderly mother in law it would be hard for my husband and I to leave the country!

especially their obsession with winning. But Nixon, although dishonest to the core, was intelligent and competent, and even accomplished some positive things; and he usually managed to control himself in public. Even if Twitter had existed at the time I doubt he'd have made the kind of bizarre and irresponsible statements Trump has become infamous for. Nixon managed to avoid starting WWIII. Trump would do it just because he thought some head of state had insulted him.

and the sensational revelation that Nixon had wired the Oval Office to record all conversations was absolutely electrifying. He ended up hoisted on his own petard, which was deliciously satisfying when it happened. I really despised that bastard.

But Nixon's malevolent influence has corroded US politics for decades now. He is the progenitor of the spiteful policies embraced by Republicans ever since his resignation.

It's no wonder that they are finally destroying the party they love more than country - I just wish it had happened before it put the country at so much risk!

Kissinger is still creeping around. He's probably the worst of the bunch.

But who are still around and were active in the Bush White House: Donald Rumsfeld, Frank Carlucci, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Dick Cheney come to mind. Scooter Libby was brought into Republican politics by Wolfowitz so there is another connection.

Howard Baker and Robert Bork were still active in the Reagan years and still bad influences.