Unlike Trump, Richard Nixon was a Patriotic Commander-in-Chief who Revered our Fallen and Wounded Heroes
The following is the link to the article by Jeffrey Goldberg in Atlantic regarding Donald Trump’s characterization of our fallen and wounded war heroes as “losers” and “suckers.”
The following is the link to the article in AP News by James Laporta corroborating Goldberg’s account.
https://apnews.com/b823f2c285641a4a09a96a0b195636ed
Donald Trump has the same capacity as other demagogic authoritarian leaders to persuade their followers that damaging disclosures of their character and actions are false. The credibility of Goldberg and Laporta each is beyond challenge, and the overwhelming majority of Americas will believe them.
Trump is on course for a landslide rejection at the polls by the American public. Still, his hard-core base supporters will choose to believe him, no matter what.
This morning, there are two people who are very much on my mind: one, an uncle whom I will always venerate, and the other a political tragic figure who now looks like a person worthy of adulation as compared with Trump.
The first is my late uncle, Alter Steinberg. He was a wonderful man with a big heart and enormous physical and moral courage. Uncle Alter served in the medical corps at Omaha Beach in Normandy at D-Day, but very rarely spoke until the last few weeks of his life as to what he had witnessed on that fateful day of June 6, 1944. No, Donald Trump, Uncle Alter was not a loser or a sucker. He will always be my hero and a wonderful representative of what NBC’s Tom Brokaw labeled as the Greatest Generation.
The second was an individual of strong patriotic values but who set them aside to fulfill his boundless ambitions. I speak of America’s ultimate tragic figure, Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon was a patriotic American who could have avoided the World War II draft had he chosen to adopt conscientious objector status on account of his Quaker faith. Instead, unlike that physical and moral coward Donald “Bone Spurs” Trump, Nixon volunteered and served as an officer in the Pacific theatre in the United States Navy.
Nixon venerated the heroism of those who sacrificed life and limb in the service of the United States of America. He would not enter into a peace agreement in Vietnam until every single prisoner of war was guaranteed a safe and secure return.
The problem with Richard Nixon was a character flaw: his irrepressible ambition. His patriotism gave way to his private political agenda in two situations: 1) in the week prior to the election of 1968, when through Anna Chennault, he attempted to obstruct the peace negotiations in Vietnam initiated by our then departing president, Lyndon Johnson; and 2) during the Watergate coverup of 1972-1973, when he set aside his patriotic reverence for the rule of law in an unneeded effort to obstruct an investigation into crimes committed by others in his reelection campaign. This was a case of Richard Nixon’s patriotism falling victim to his paranoia.
In the retrospective of history, as compared with Donald Trump, Richard Nixon qualifies for sainthood. And unlike Trump, in the end, he was a patriotic enough man to resign rather than drag America through an impeachment trial.
Richard Nixon was a highly competent domestic and foreign policy maker who could have been a good, if not a great president. The fact that he was patriotic and had some measure of fundamental decency made his fall from power all the more tragic.
Donald Trump has no measure of character, no measure of decency, no measure of competency, and not even a scintilla of patriotism. He is headed for ultimate defeat in this election, but not before he tries to cheat in the campaign and refuse to leave the Oval Office when it is over. On the way out, he has committed a further crime by soliciting Americans to commit the felony of attempting to vote twice in this election.
God Bless America.
Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.
Excellent Column!
My husband and two uncles served in World War11.
Trump’s words and actions would offend them to the depths
of their honorable and patriotic beings.