Even Richard Nixon has got soul
By 
I’m not sure J.D. Vance knows who he is entering “communion” with, but he speaks the truth here, although the moral of this story is pretty much the opposite of what he thinks it is:
Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon would have been a blip in today’s news cycle, and he drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump — arguing that both were targeted by “deep state” forces.
Vance described his admiration for Nixon during a conversation at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. Widely expected to be a presidential contender in 2028, Vance spoke at the library while promoting his new book, “Communion.”
After talking about the book and his faith journey, Vance shifted to Nixon, saying the legacy of the 37th president is “enjoying a bit of a renaissance.”
“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said.
It’s quite true in a quite literal, as opposed to what my wife calls “Kim Kardashian literal,” (meaning not literal) way that the Trump presidency features about one Watergate per week, except with this critical difference: Richard Nixon thought he had to keep things like enemies lists and criminal bombing campaigns secret, while Donald Trump announces them on social media. This makes it hard to be Woodward and Bernstein, given that breaking the story requires nothing more than reading Truth Social.
Back to the author of my chemical Appalachian romance:
He went on: “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.
Note that the “deep state” means an independent legal system and independent journalism: two things that wouldn’t exist in Vance’s projected integralist paradise.
Vance then noted his own similarities with Nixon.
“Young senator, vice president, [Ed.: Nixon and Vance were both 40 when they became VP] writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,” he said. “It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”
Everybody needs a hero.