Evolving, Part II

THE IMPORTANCE OF comparing the reaction of the American people to Richard Nixon with their reaction to Donald Trump goes to the basic moral character of the American people, and their basic values. It is becoming increasingly clear that the crimes Richard Nixon committed were far less serious than those alleged to have been committed by Mr. Trump. After all, Mr. Trump allegedly conceived, organized, and orchestrated a violent attempt to overthrow the United States government, for the purpose of illegally retaining power for God only knows how long, with what popular support, and with what consequences to the country, the world, and democracy itself. Allegedly. Mr. Nixon merely maintained a gang of thugs devoted to him, willing to commit crimes to ensure the perpetuation of Mr. Nixon's power. No violent attempts to overthrow the government, or things of that nature. Fortunately, although the list of Americanpresidential corruption and failures might indeed be lengthy, there is a smaller number of American leaders who have been outright criminals.Richard Nixon never inspired the kind of blind, enduring, cult like loyalty that Donald Trump does. Nixon had no supporters who remained blindly faithful to him no matter how serious and obvious his crimes became. Donald Trump does, many of them, in fact. But thankfully the cult is showing less staying power than, say, NIxon or Hitler; within the Republican party itself, which has so blindly and fervantly supported Trump, there is a growing movement to toss Trump aside, and move on. The battle to come witin American conservadom over whether to keep supporting Trump or not is just beginning, and will become extremely interesting and entertaining. We can only hope (and pray) that Trump's enduring popularity in the face of his horrible behavior does not accurately reflect on American moral character or a decline of it. The experts; sociologists, historians, scholars of many specialitites will reach their own conclusions about that over time, as the evidence is gathered and organized. Better to think that Trumpism is nothing other than a symptom of widespread social discontent, anger, and desperation, which will, at long last, in some future wonderful time, work itself out, dissipate, and vanish.