Nixon Deja Vu?

[belpejic]

Wondering if anyone who was teenaged or adult in the late 60s/early 70s might be interested in commenting about what the mood was like then versus now. I'm thinking in particular about the 1970 shooting at Kent State. Did things then seem as if they were getting out of control, and that the authoritarian hand was closing on political opponents of the president? Because that's how I feel now, and I'm interested to know how people coped with life then.

[MineralMan]

1. What I remember was working with a bunch of others to

go into every classroom at the California University I attended, explain what happened, and ask students to come outdoors to protest the Kent State incident. I got zero pushback from professors and instructors, who all simply waved the students out.

It was an amazing thing to see. I think it was the very first almost universal protest on that campus ever.

[OLDMDDEM]

2. I'm a boomer. I'm 77 and remember the Kent State shooting but saw more news about Vietnam.

I protested the war and remember the pictures of the students at Kent State in Life Magazine. But that was all. There were only three networks back then with no internet, no cable tv or cell phones. So what you knew was limited to what you saw on the news shows. My heart went out to those students but we were overrun with Vietnam news on the networks. Because there was a draft back then, it did seem authoritarian but nothing like today. That was scary, today is horrifying.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. The Nixon presidency was called imperialist

The term applied at home as well. Nixon played his control of the State well, but there was not this universal disregard for all that went before, or to overturn the system of law. Nixon obeyed court orders. People protested the war, the corporations, Agent Orange, and pollution especially. Nixon responded with the EPA, and calls to patriotism. And it was a strong echo of WWII patriotism. The State had foreign policy, it was the President's duty to carry it out, he was doing it for America. It may have been the America he believed in more than the one you did, but he was on firm ground.

From what little I remember, people just carried on. There were protests, there was Woodstock, some burned their draft cards, there was a more edgy rock 'n roll. The Silent Majority went to work and held their jobs. Nixon was convincing in his TV appearances, his speeches, prior to Watergate. Nixon was using the law, the enforcement of law, to run the country, to quell dissent if he could. He was not trying to stretch the law, or for the most part, ignore the law. From what I recall anyway.

[edhopper]

4. One of the main differences

was we didn't have a Press who normalized his criminality and were afraid to go after him.

[DFW]

10. I think this is THE fundamental difference

CBS news with Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite was the MSNBC of the time, and there was no Fox Noise. By the way, even then, a younger Roger Ailes was in the Nixon White House, advocating an administration-run version of Fox “News” a quarter century before it became reality in the private sector.

The Washington Post and the New York Times were vanguard print papers with active, engaged, independent investigative departments, and owned by entities completely unbeholden to Republican interests.

The Fourth Estate (or lack of one) makes not only a significant difference. It makes ALL the difference.

[Silent Type]

5. Remember history professor pulling Senior college students aside and telling us that he could get us to Canada if needed

I do remember Kent State and one of the greatest protest songs of all times:

[Thunderbeast]

6. Nixon was NOWHERE near as scary as Trump.

Yes... He used the power of the Justice Department and the IRS to fix the 1972 election.
Yes... He bombed Vietnam and Cambodia illegally killing many thousands.
Yes... He conspired with Ho Chi Min to kill Johnson's peace talks.

In the end, however, he did not overtly attempt to overthrow an election by force.
He did not suspend habeous corpus to forward his racist agenda.
He did not take billions of dollars personally in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
When he lost his final legal battle in the Supreme Court, he refused to destroy the evidence that prompted the impeachment trial.

Perhaps the major difference was an independent Republican congressional minority that fought for constitutional principles and forced his resignation. It was Barry Goldwater that faced Nixon down and informed him that and impeachment conviction was inevitable. His caucus would not save him.

Nixon did terrible corrupt things, but he also gave us the EPA, 18 year-old sufferage, and other positive milestones. He fought for Universal Health Care and the prohibition of privately owned handguns. I see no such silver linings in the current regeim.

[question everything]

7. Neither Nixon nor Reagan would be accepted in today MAGA party (formerly Republicans.)

[thought crime]

11. A line between Nixon and Reagan

Today, in some way, Nixon could almost fit into the Democratic mainstream. He didn’t really try to dismantle the New Deal. His policy toward Vietnam was horrible, but so was LBJ's. He did not deny environmental threats. He was a pretty bad character but he did draw a line somewhere.

Reagan brought a right wing anti-government faction into power. He challenged the role of government itself - especially its right and obligation to tax the rich. He also pushed economic fantasies that were widely known to be nonsense. I doubt he would like MAGA but he helped to spawn it.

[question everything]

12. Thank you, well said

[DET]

8. Second This

I was still a little too young and naive back then to appreciate Nixon’s full depravity, but he was nowhere near as degenerate and evil as Trump. Nixon tried to hide his illegal and immoral acts; Trump flaunts them. And there were guardrails back then, starting with the Republican Party, who had the courage to confront Nixon. I am still stunned that Republican politicians have proven to be such total cowards. They are willing to allow Trump and his acolytes to drag us into fascism and authoritarianism rather than stand up for truth, decency, and democracy. That was completely unthinkable back then. I always thought that the Supreme Court was the epitome of integrity and justice. Little did we know - or even suspect. There really is no other time in the history of our country that compares to this period of absolute corruption and betrayal.

[Self Esteem]

9. According to Gallup, most Americans blamed the students for the Kent State shooting.

I wasn't alive then but Nixon's strong arming was very popular.

A Gallup poll the following week revealed nearly 60 percent placed total blame on the students, while only 10 percent blamed the guardsmen (30 percent had no opinion)

https://www.historynet.com/two-new-perspectives-kent-state-shootings/?f