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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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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People forget what a dirt bag Ron was
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Reagan and this analogy. Nope. I see "witch hunt" remains a popular phrase for criminals in the
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