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The Book of the Week is “Our Gang (Starring Tricky Dick and His Friends)” by Philip Roth, published in 1971.
A satire of the Nixon administration, this was also a book-long rant. Major aspects of the then-political situation are so familiar now. There was an inflammatory passage of Nixon’s dim view of wounded veterans. Trump has taken a dim view of prisoners-of-war. The author wrote what Nixon was really thinking, about various crises he either exacerbated, or brought on himself.
Of all the presidents, Nixon and Reagan were the ones from whom Trump has copied the most. The author claimed Nixon said, “We’ve had foul language, we’ve had the cynicism, we’ve had the masochism and the breast-beating– maybe a big dose of innocence is just what this country needs to be great again.”
No American leader has been innocent, but Carter came close. Nixon’s war crimes were many times more evil than the repeated financial and more-likely-than-not sex crimes Trump has committed.
Deaths directly caused by Nixon’s war criminality cannot be reversed. Trump’s breakage of the American legal system can be reversed, over the next few decades.
But the repetition of Trump’s protestations of innocence have: 1) played a part in convincing some Americans that he’s the victim of witch hunts, and 2) desensitized others into acceptance of reality– quiet desperation over his overwhelming power and influence until his name fades from public memory.
Nevertheless, the author harps on Nixon’s thoughts regarding the anti-war protesters on his enemies list. Nixon called the protesters, “Boy Scouts” (perhaps for irony) but Trump spares no expletives in his labeling of anti-ICE protesters.
The author described Nixon’s method. The president received advice from a legal coach, a highbrow coach, and a military coach– on the three major crimes allegedly committed by the Boy Scouts: inciting to riot, tampering with the morals of minors, and corrupting the youth of the nation.
Then the gang came up with a short-list of people and groups to blame for the unrest: Hanoi, The Berrigans (religious brothers who influenced others to practice pacifism), The Black Panthers, Jane Fonda, and Curt Flood (a baseball player who sued MLB for racial discrimination). Trump has also smeared and retaliated against an endless number of scapegoats in his political career.
Nixon explained how he distracted Americans from his avoidance of addressing the nation’s serious problems. “It never fails– every time they start marching on Washington, I’m the one who has to leave town. Now does that make any sense to you? I’m the President…” Trump does the same thing, and furthers his profiteering, too.
Read the book to learn much more about Nixon’s take on previous administrations, and other dirty tricks in his play book.