The campaign to make Richard Nixon great again
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by GP6971 (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: NBC News
Nov. 29, 2025, 7:00 AM EST
During a segment on HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher in August, activist Christopher Rufo astonished the studio audience when he said the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon was a setup from start to finish. The crowd hooted. Maher retorted that there were plenty of smoking guns showing the late presidents guilt. But Rufo insisted that there were federal agencies that had had illegal backdoor meetings and that there was a judge who was out to get Nixon. Maher muttered, Oh, geez, to which Rufo replied with a grin and a prediction: Nixon vindication by 2035.
The Watergate scandal has long been viewed as a defining moment in presidential corruption and accountability, prompting a series of government transparency reforms and influencing generations of journalists. It became a shorthand comparison for political scandal and lent the omnipresent -gate suffix to many that followed.
But those lessons are now being flipped by some of the most influential right-wing figures, including people known to have President Donald Trumps ear, who insist that Watergate was actually an underhanded scheme by the deep state and the press to take down a popular Republican president.
Watergate has often been invoked in comparison to Trumps scandals, in both his first and current term. Many people from historians to former Nixon officials argue that were Watergate to happen in todays media landscape, with the influence of conservative outlets and in particular Fox News, Nixon most likely would have survived it.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/campaign-make-richard-nixon-great-rcna240000
NBachers
(19,087 posts)
paleotn
(21,272 posts)And since you're down there. Go tell Jerry Falwell to go F himself.
lastlib
(27,268 posts)He went way BEYOND a mere crook! He's half-horse (the BACK half!), half-devil.
Well, okay, we can say he's a crook, too!
And since you're down there, DICKy, you can tell Falwell to self-fornicate for me, too. Robertson, too.
rurallib
(64,456 posts)wolfie001
(6,633 posts)When they do a tribute movie about all his "accomplishments". I mean, he helped with the ronnie rayguns movie. You know, the 'Destroyer of the Middle Class.'
[img]
[/img]
Escape
(341 posts)would definitely love and respect Nixon.
He was a liar, a crook and an evil sonofabitch. He was a Maga precursor.
Paladin
(32,112 posts)Oh yeah, before I forget: fuck Bill Maher.
travelingthrulife
(3,994 posts)over a decade.
Paladin
(32,112 posts)Feels good, doesn't it?
popsdenver
(1,190 posts)that he has now joined in to all the Republican's REVISIONIST HISTORY also.........
I can hardly wait to see the RED states rewriting the history textbooks and science books in their public schools.....
Nixon's clan were saints compared to HWBush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz etc.
When the surgeons removed Cheney's old heart for the new transplanted one, they had to have an exact match, and it took them forever to find one that was a Black one, made of pure titanium......
travelingthrulife
(3,994 posts)them even more.
J_William_Ryan
(3,197 posts)But in todays media landscape, with the influence of conservative outlets and in particular Fox News, Trump will in fact survived it.
Watergate was the triumph of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law over a criminal and corrupt Republican president.
Today a criminal and corrupt Republican president has triumphed over democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law.
popsdenver
(1,190 posts)We all should be saying....THE REPUBLICANS........because there is no way Trump would exist through out his first term and especially this term without the Republicans Support. If this had happened back when the Old Republican Party was in place, Trump wouldn't have lasted more than a few days into his first term......
It actually is the fault of the NEW Republican CABAL........and couldn't have been done with out the U.S. Republican House, the U.S Republican Senate, and of course the Republican Supreme Court Justices......
We need to start saying Republicans this Republicans that, and not Trump, Trump Trump. Otherwise, when Trump crumps, literally or figuratively, the people will think that is the end of the nightmare, when in all reality the entire Republican CABAL will still be proceeding ahead, full force, because we haven't been alerting the voters, all this time, that it was the REPUBLICAN Party that truly was behind this chaos this entire last decade......
cstanleytech
(28,082 posts)BumRushDaShow
(164,008 posts)He was a lawyer who eventually joined the Navy (despite being a Quaker), was elected to the U.S. House, then elected to the U.S. Senate, then served as VP under Eisenhower for 8 years, and finally became President for almost 2 terms.
No one could say that he didn't have "Executive Experience", which eventually became the idiotic nasty talking point hurled at Obama.
Contrast with 45 who had ZERO government experience, neither civilian nor military - in ANY level or type of government... and didn't care, and the media shrugged.
paleotn
(21,272 posts)WestMichRad
(2,834 posts)cstanleytech
(28,082 posts)ChicagoTeamster
(264 posts)BattleRow
(2,062 posts)paleotn
(21,272 posts)Mblaze
(898 posts)Usually don't quit and run away from the verdict.
patphil
(8,548 posts)It was vintage Tricky Dick; totally consistent with his everyday actions.
Rufo is full of shit.
All part of the white washing of history.
erronis
(22,130 posts)thought crime
(1,049 posts)cstanleytech
(28,082 posts)Zorro
(18,239 posts)He doesn't know what he is talking about, but what he has is an agenda to convince those who weren't around then that Nixon was railroaded.
Those of us who were around remember what a rotten bastard Nixon was; he is the progenitor of what the Republican Party has devolved into these days.
And Rufo is also someone who DeSantis appointed to New College's Board of Directors.
BumRushDaShow
(164,008 posts)Most of these idiotic RWer "influencers" weren't even born until well after that whole episode of history went down. He was called "Tricky Dick", only because "polite society" couldn't say "out loud" what they really wanted to call him.
And then 45 took Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre", pumped it up with steroids, and then in a psychotic rage, is literally still massacring people in the federal government going on 11 months straight now.
patphil
(8,548 posts)He's the one who brought us Spiro Agnew; the "effete snob" who projected that onto his enemies.
After Agnew's downfall, Gerald Ford was appointed by Nixon to be VP, and when Nixon resigned, Ford became the first and only president who was never elected to either the Presidency or Vice-Presidency.
Isn't it amazing how the shadow government fixed things to insure Agnew wouldn't replace Nixon?
lastlib
(27,268 posts)should be "Christopher MOfo"!
Eff this shit. Nixon was a F*CKing CRIMINAL, period, END of discussion.
WestMichRad
(2,834 posts)Disgusting revisionists!
BumRushDaShow
(164,008 posts)because he knew how to wheel and deal and handle bribes.
WestMichRad
(2,834 posts)Im not sure office delivery of bags stuffed with cash is up to todays level of crypto grifting!
BumRushDaShow
(164,008 posts)former NJ Senator Bob Menendez, made "tangible loot", popular again!
Turbineguy
(39,689 posts)he'll be the best there ever was.
LudwigPastorius
(13,889 posts)True.
It is little known that, using a George Soros-funded time machine, Peter Strozk went back to 1974 and replaced the perfectly innocent Oval Office tapes with ones that used an AI generated Nixon voice making incriminating statements.
WestMichRad
(2,834 posts)BumRushDaShow
(164,008 posts)the 4-year old Peter Strzok who snuck in and ripped the shiny tape out of the cartridge!!!11!!!11!
DJ Synikus Makisimus
(1,163 posts)"Nixon liberals," mostly from the northeast and west coast, were a thing amongst Republicans until the Powell Memorandum* begat the Federalist Society, who primaried the Nixonians out of the GOP. That led directly to Trump. The last prominent Nixon liberal I can think of was Arlen Specter, who ultimately defected to the Democrats in 2009. He wasn't the only one to do so. Nixon liberals found a home in the Democratic Party, where they're known as "moderates," beginning with Jimmy Carter's move to the right. Their position was cemented by Bill Clinton and his people (James Carville, in particular, continues this ideology), and they now pretty much comprise the entirety of the party's establishment.
Nixon liberals tended not to be down with Nixon's authoritarian tendencies, but were very much in line with his promotion and protection of the wealthy, privileged and powerful and their corporations (particularly multi-nationals). They tended to do very well by their capitalist backers (donors), too, amassing comfortable wealth while being largely exempted from insider trading rules or scrutiny. The "revolving door" between government and corporations was solidified into practice by these folks.
So you might wanna be careful about criticizing Nixon, or people might start thinking you're a progressive or, shudder, a DSAer.
=====================================
*https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-courts-secrecy-lobbyist/powell-memo.pdf; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.
Martin68
(26,739 posts)Martin68
(26,739 posts)GP6971
(37,370 posts)Please feel free to repost in GD or E&OA.