A Nixon Story

When I was living in England in the early eighties, I had several people ask me why, after all he had done,  the seemingly minor affair of the Watergate break-in destroyed Richard Nixon's career and cost him the most powerful job on earth.  Here is the answer I came up with:

There were always two narratives about Nixon; Nixon, the great statesman and master politician, and, to be blunt, Nixon the crook.  Just enough people were induced to believe the statesman story to project Nixon into the Presidency, and keep him there four years later.

What caused Watergate to destroy him was that the incident, minor or not, was simply incompatible with the statesman narrative, but fit perfectly into the crook story.  This caused enough people to switch which tale they believed, that he lost all support, and had to go.

And this, I believe, may be the result of the current news about Trump calling American soldiers suckers and losers.  There have always been two narratives about Trump; the master businessman and world's greatest negotiator, who loves America and is dedicated to serving ordinary Americans (as ludicrous as that seems to anyone with half a brain,) and Trump the crass, self centered, deranged criminal.  Well, once again, this current story is simply not compatible with the first view of Trump, but is totally believable to anyone who accepts the second story.  For that reason, this tale, as insignificant as it may seem compared to his killing off 200,000 Americans, selling the country out to a foreign dictator and starting a depression, may well have more resonance than anything else has.

No, I don't expect Trump's popularity rating to collapse to 22% the way Nixon's did; the Republicans learned their lesson from the Nixon fiasco all too well, and have spent the half century since breeding a base which is impervious to truth and common decency.  But the way things are going this year, even a couple more points of erosion in his support, particularly among the military, could be the final nail in his coffin.  We can only hope.