Michael Koncewicz is the Cold War collections specialist at New York University's Tamiment Library and author of the forthcoming book "They Said No to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of Power." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. View more opinions on CNN.

(CNN) If Richard Nixon were alive today, he probably would not agree that "President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader." Leading with this sentence, the anonymous "Steady State" op-ed that appeared in The New York Times this week followed that declaration with assuring, but also vague, examples of resistance inside the Trump administration that conflated concerns over some of the President's policies with his affinity for authoritarianism.

Michael Koncewicz

The piece rightfully condemned the President's demonization of the press and his "anti-democratic" leanings, but placed them next to concerns regarding his "anti-trade" impulses.

The figures who said no to President Richard Nixon, on the other hand, did so not because they worried about their policy differences with the President, but because they were concerned about his clear attacks on the nation's democratic institutions. What remains to be seen is whether or not today's acts of "resistance" are only backroom policy squabbles or something more substantive, equaling or surpassing the actions of the Republicans who stood up to Nixon.

Looking back at the history of the Nixon era, one can see not only troubling parallels to the present, but also actions taken that should serve as a standard for the anonymous author and others inside the Trump administration.

It was Republicans inside the Nixon administration who stopped the President from using the Internal Revenue Service to harass hundreds of political enemies, including numerous anti-war activists, members of the press, and Democratic Party officials.

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