• @RapidcreekOP
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    4 days ago

    If I remember right, history says the flags were at half staff during Nixon’s inauguration, due to the death of Truman. Nixon didn’t make a fuss about it.

    Edit for all those responding below: Of course, Nixon was a WWII veteran, serving in the Navy in the Pacific. Known as the fleet’s best poker player, but that’s another story. As such, he also served under Truman who ended the war by dropping the bomb. Conjecture is that the troops appreciated Truman’s decision. In the end, Nixon respected Truman. Trump respects no one.

    • @gibmiser
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      494 days ago

      10 bucks says during inauguration he brings up this specific fact and makes a big deal about how he’s not going to make a fuss, with no sense of irony.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 days ago

      Nixon didn’t make a fuss about it.

      Nixon was a normal politician. He too had an overinflated ego, because all politicians do by nature. But he was also capable of showing restraint.

      Trump is in a leage of his own however. His ego would barely be contained in a high-pressure vessel, and he’s so crooked he makes Nixon look straight.

    • HubertManne
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      114 days ago

      yeah but back then saying something as petty as that publically was political suicide. People had some standards for who they voted for back then.

      • @orclev
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        74 days ago

        That’s because Nixon is the one who came up with the culture war strategy that Republicans have been running with ever since. Also the one responsible for the creation of Fox “News” and the 24/7 propaganda that’s resulted from it. Nixon was one pillar of the shit hurricane that our modern government has turned into. The other two pillars being the economic policies of Reagan and the non-stop shit flinging and scandal of Trump. If Nixon or Reagan never happened we’d probably be in a much better position today than we currently are, Trump likely would never have happened.

        • @cabron_offsets
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          4 days ago

          Don’t forget Newt Gingrich. And that cunt Grover Norquist. Fuck, I’d even include Rush Limbaugh.

          • @orclev
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            14 days ago

            All of them contributed (particularly Rush Limbaugh), but they weren’t pivotal the way Nixon and Reagan were. Nixon (well, his advisors technically) was the first one to really put forwards demonizing some minority group as an actual campaign strategy (in his case it was hippies and black people). It can’t be understated how much that concept has shaped the modern Republican party to the point where that’s almost the entirety of their modern strategy.

            In many ways though, Reagan was the far more insidious of the two of them though. His long debunked trickle down economics that advocated for reducing taxes on the rich and corporations and eliminating regulations and oversight of businesses as a silver bullet to all economic issues not only set the economic policies of the Republicans, it even spread to the Democrats resulting in the useless “liberal” party we have today. The massive wealth inequality we see in America today is a direct result of Reagan, his policies, and his propaganda.

            Those certainly aren’t the only causes of our current problems of course. You’ve got the people you mentioned as well as people like Rupert Murdoch, and things like the Citizens United decision as well as even older and more fundamental issues like our first past the post voting system, but Nixon and Reagan were significant turning points.

        • HubertManne
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          54 days ago

          Yeah. Its so effed up. nixon seemed to be the start but they could not really do the stuff yet then reagan broke through to get things going then like every one just added to it. bush junior showed them how effective voter disenfranchisement was for them and trump that you can get a rabid base to pretty much accept anything as long as its done by your tribe.

      • Bizzle
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        34 days ago

        Even Ronald Reagan, who I believe was the literal devil, is at least 1.5x the man Trump is