Richard Nixon, who never stopped trying to rehabilitate his reputation, would be delighted to know his defenders have had some posthumous success in his behalf.
asserted
defenders → stop → behalf
The Justice Department is looking into whether the special prosecutor who investigated Nixon for Watergate was guilty of misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reported last week — part of a Nixon revival among elements of the New Right.
asserted
Journal → look → Right
For populists, RN has appeal as an exemplar of a right-of-center politics not beholden to conservative policy commitments; as a counter-cultural rebuke to the left’s radicalism; as a fierce, not to say scruple-less, partisan fighter; and as a hate-figure for the Northeastern establishment and liberal press.
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RN → have → establishment
There’s no doubt that Nixon deserves better than the simplistic dismissal of him based on his ignominious exit from the White House.
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Nixon → ’ → House
He was a canny and sophisticated political survivor who loomed incredibly large on the mid-20th century national scene.
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who → loom → scene
In electoral terms, he won more than he lost, including a massive re-election victory in 1972 based on the Silent Majority, despite his lack of charisma or charm.
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he → win → charisma
He was deeply knowledgeable about foreign affairs and crafted a supple foreign policy with Henry Kissinger, his immensely talented secretary of state.
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He → craft → state
If you could choose one high-level politician from the last 60 years to help you figure out how to think and maneuver your way out of a political fix, Nixon just might be your guy.
uncertain
Nixon → choose → fix
All that said, his record is checkered at best — especially from a conservative perspective.
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record → say → perspective
His economic stewardship was a disaster: He inherited a turbulent situation, with the breakdown of the Bretton-Woods system and elevated inflation, but he bears his share of blame for the stagflation of the 1970s.
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he → inherit → 1970s
They artificially suppressed prices for a time, but created shortages — and when they were lifted, inflation came back with a vengeance.
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inflation → suppress → vengeance
Nixon, in effect, ran the opposite of DOGE, layering on major new bureaucracies on top of an already-growing executive branch.
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Nixon → run → branch
The Nixon administration gave us the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, among other expansions of the administrative state.
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administration → give → state
He increased regulation, pursued an unduly expansive monetary policy, did little to reduce high tax rates and imposed new tariffs.
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He → increase → tariffs
The reforms that would put the economy on a sounder footing, creating the predicate for the low-inflation growth of the 1980s and 1990s, had to await Jimmy Carter and then, far more so, Ronald Reagan.
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that → put → Carter
If Nixon was a cultural warrior, especially on issues of law and order, his expansion of affirmative action was a further step toward what we now call DEI.
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we → call → what
Despite his tough-minded anti-communism early in his career, his policy of peace with honor in Vietnam produced neither.
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policy → produce → neither
Nixon wanted détente with the Soviet Union, an accommodationist approach that Reagan reversed to great effect.
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Reagan → want → effect
His opening to China was a clever Cold War stratagem, although China’s full entry into the international system would have deleterious consequences decades later.
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entry → have → consequences
As for Watergate, it’s certainly true that Nixon had enemies — but so did Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump in his first term.
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Reagan → ’ → term
That Nixon was the only one blown out of office is a testament to his culpability and his grotesque mishandling of his predicament.
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was → blow → predicament
It has to weigh heavily against him that his scandal and resignation handed over power in Washington to large, inflamed Democratic congressional majorities that would do extensive damage — and that his vice president, Gerald Ford, would lose a national election in part because he felt compelled to pardon Nixon.
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he → have → Nixon
So by all means let’s be fair to Richard Nixon, a flawed but accomplished American who was an expert practitioner of mid-20th century American politics.
Yet he shouldn’t be a role model for the right — unless the right is planning to make grievous policy mistakes in the course of losing to the other side in the most spectacular fashion imaginable.
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right → let → fashion
The Aporia
