Nixon resigned when he knew the jig was up.
He didn't try to bluster his way through Watergate, he didn't try to steal an election, he didn't sic a mob on the Capitol, he didn't steal classified documents, he didn't make absolute personal fealty a requirement of all Republicans.
Before winning the '68 election, Nixon ran a close race against JFK in '60. He could have demanded a recount. He could have fought it. He instead judged that fighting it out for his own personal gain would have cost our democracy too much, and he conceded.
All of that, strange as it is to say, makes Nixon more of a patriot than the current leader of the Republican Party.