When contributing columnist John Lindstrom speaks, people listen. And if they don’t, they ought to. In 2025, Lindstrom drew on his decades of political reporting experience to explain why Richard M. Nixon was a better president than Donald J. Trump, tackled the most boring and most important thing on the 2026 ballot, and explored in depth the state of mental health care in our state.
Why I would choose Nixon over Trump any day (and I couldn’t stand Nixon)
“In so many ways, I despised our 37th president, Richard M. Nixon.
“Yet, if I could, with a wave of my hand I would bring Nixon back as our president now.
“Nixon?!? Anyone as old as me, which is … old … might be stunned at that thought. Nixon? Back as president? Paranoid, insecure, mercurial Nixon? Nixon, who was buds with Joe McCarthy? Nixon, who expanded the Vietnam war into Cambodia and mined both Hanoi and Haiphong harbors as part of his weird idea of ending the war? Nixon, who tried to block publication of the Pentagon Papers?
“Nixon, whose acolytes hatched the Watergate scheme, with Nixon then helping engineer the coverup? I would have that Nixon — who I voted against, who I protested against — back as president?
“Nixon as president rather than Trump? Well, yes.”
Read the full column here
This is the most important measure in Michigan’s 2026 midterms
“Every federal, state or local elected or appointed official swears an oath to the constitutions of the United States, their state and their local government.
“Given the abuse federal and state politicos are currently shoveling onto constitutions, it’s a wonder the constitutions don’t swear back at them.
“Which leads to the most boring but ultimately critical question you will face in Michigan’s 2026 election: How will you vote on the ballot proposal to call a new state Constitutional Convention?”
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Familiar refrain after mass shooting: Fix the mental health care system
“I once came across a travel guide, published in the 1880s, on northern Michigan.
“Along with suggestions about which riverboats, stagecoaches and trains one could use to get around up north, the guide suggested several tourist venues, including the Traverse City Mental Hospital (initially named the Northern Asylum for the Insane), where a person could spread out a picnic on the lawn and be amused by the antics of the inmates.
“The “inmates” were fellow humans, struggling with maladies beyond their control. To most, treating their illnesses really meant just hiding them away from the rest of society.
“We like to think we have advanced from that attitude. We are testing ourselves now on that belief.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: He said he preferred Nixon to Trump | Opinion Year in Review
Reporting by Detroit Free Press Opinion Staff, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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