Every now and then you read a "think piece" that goes right down the rabbit hole. I ran across this op-ed on Politico, saying that Mitt Romney might still have a presidential shot in 2016. The guy who wrote it was a Romney staffer, so my quest for context could have ended right there. But no, I had to read it. It started off by comparing Romney to Richard Nixon...and that's when things got really crazy.
You see, I thought Emil Henry had written the piece because he was a Romney loyalist. Turns out that what he is, is a Nixon loyalist. If you want a real index of just how far the GOP has wandered, how deep the Mad Cow Disease has eaten into the party's brain, this is it. Nixon isn't a vicious ratfucker who clawed his way to power and almost destroyed this nation's core institutions; he is a "mighty warrior" who is "tenacious" and "warm, charming...even gentle."
Now let me be perfectly clear...Nixon had some impressive achievements (ending Vietnam, establishing the EPA, rapprochement with China), but he was also, most importantly, an amoral criminal. A traitor, too: In 1968, while a private citizen, he tried to persuade the South Vietnamese government to abandon President Lyndon Johnson's ceasefire negotiations with the North in order to boost his own chances as a presidential candidate.
If GOP loyalists actually believe Nixon was a good president, there's nothing left to discuss.
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