1. Why aren't more Republican lawmakers speaking out against Trump? In fact, why are most protecting him? Some history might help. Compare Ronald Reagan & Howard Baker during Watergate.
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4. Reagan in 1973/1974: Watergate was "lynching" & "witch hunt" comparable to KKK: "to watch the ‘night riders’ ignore the harm they are doing to our nation in these troubled times makes me a little sick.”
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5. Reagan continued to support Nixon even after White House tapes came out where Nixon said Reagan was “pretty shallow” and of “limited mental capacity.”
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6. Political analysts at the time & Reagan's own staff thought he was nuts. Why stick up for president mired in scandal. But Reagan's instincts were, in fact, right.
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7. What Reagan understood was that partisan Republicans (who he would need to win the primaries if running for president) would love his loyalty to Nixon, while less partisan voters would forget it.
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8. After Watergate, Reagan's star rose, while Howard Baker's more moderate version of Republicanism faded. Reagan had made the right bet: sticking to a sinking president makes sense in polarized, tribalist polity.
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9. Drawing on
@rickperlstein's excellent book Invisible Bridge &@MikeKoncewicz's fascinating forthcoming book They Said No to Nixon, I argue that we can't expect much GOP resistance to Trump:https://newrepublic.com/article/147558/trumps-loyalists-following-reagans-footsteps …Show this thread
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Reagan was playing the role of the good soldier. He knew that he would need the support of Nixon voters for his own campaign. Craven? Yes. But effective.
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It sounds like the "11th Commandment" thing, no?
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Two of a kind.
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took a different *tack
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