by Newt Gingrich
In 1972, President Richard Nixon, a well-known statesman, won 60.7 percent of the popular vote (an 18 million vote margin) and carried every state but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He had previously spent four years in the House, two years in the Senate, eight years as vice president, and four years as president. Within weeks of his election as the clear choice of the American people, he was under siege from the courts, the news media, the bureaucracy, leftwing activists, and the Congress.
Forty-four years later, in 2016, a newcomer to politics ran as a complete outsider. Donald Trump defeated 16 other Republicans for the nomination (including governors and senators with significant national reputations). He quickly found himself under assault by the same leftwing Washington coalition. It used lies and manufactured conspiracies to smear and defeat him. Despite all the attacks, Trump won a narrow majority. As president, he faced ongoing investigations, allegations, and impeachment efforts. As a former president and front runner for the Republican nomination, he is still subjected to unending legal assaults from Democrats in New York and Georgia state courts – and from an out-of-control federal prosecutor seeking to try him in Florida and Washington DC.
At one level, the Nixon and Trump’s stories are quite different – the old pro and the new outsider. Nixon had worked with the federal bureaucracy for his entire career, and Trump had focused on business and approached Washington with virtually no experience in leading large government systems.
Yet, the two had a shared experience. They both sought to change Washington, and Washington responded by trying to destroy them.
Read more at The American Spectator.
Author’s Note: The complex patterns that have led to the greatest crisis of constitutional government and rule of law since the Civil War are far bigger, involve far more people, and are ultimately more dangerous to American freedom than the personal dishonesty and criminality of the Biden family. This “American Despotism” series in The American Spectator will provide a clear history of the weaponization of government, which has violated the Constitution and corrupted the rule of law. While each article will be complete and stand-alone, together they will combine to fully describe the patterns that now threaten to destroy the foundation of individual freedom — the hallmark of the American system.
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