General Discussion

Nixon had a duality.

As others noted, he handled himself with grace while the cameras were on or in public. And, he actually had some decent domestic policies.

But, underneath it all, he was a very insecure and angry person. He was in office at at time when there was still some sense of honor in our politics and again with the duality, he was shady and pushed and crossed over the limits when he could get away with it, but in the end ceded to the norms of society at the time.

Reagan was a hateful ideologue who put his acting experience to great benefit with the gee, golly good guy act. He was truly masterful as an orator and public figure and just had a presence that related to a lot of people at the time. As opposed to Nixon fighting with liberal democracy, he cut it out at the knees making it normal to question government while also helping to lead republicans in learning how to normalize and deliver hate speech in a way that they could wink at those who it appealed to while seeming to be innocuous (ex. welfare queen).

It ground my gears that W was a mostly feckless arrogant lightweight son of privilege. But, compared to what came both before and after him, he was not a hateful person. He meant well, but bought into the right wing bullshit and let the usual suspects he brought in do the dirt on the sly.

DT ... No words needed.