The American Spectator

Spoonman| 8.10.10 @ 6:30AM

And the liberal elites are incensed that "common folk", the servants, mind you, have the ability to toss their sorry butts out the doors of Congress shortly. Obama, Pelosi, Reid all think themselves superior to the folks who are working everyday to earn a living, pay their bills and educate their childred - hoping that they will have a better life while all the time paying ruinous taxes and fees to support Obama, Peolsi and Reid's extravagant lifestyle living off the government teat! Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have tried desparately to make this a two class society - them and the rest of us. It is time to toss them out the door!

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.10.10 @ 7:44AM

This is a humorous article because it's also a Shakespearean tragedy.

Like many alleged conservatives before him and since, Nixon came to Washington and was immediately converted to collectivism by popular opinion and that presidential pen.

It's really quite frightening how many conservatives can go to Washington, promise smaller government, and use social pretext to create ever larger government.

Nixon's crowning card of collectivism was the EPA which has grown like topsy, and threatens business enterprise at every turn.

The agency was created in the decade after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a text filled with scientific half truths (Think Global Warming Lite.)

Here is a quote and synopsis from/about Nixon after the bill was signed, which also led to the first Earth Day (God Help Us.): " Speaking to both houses of Congress on January 22, the President proposed making "the 1970s a historic period when, by conscious choice, [we] transform our land into what we want it to become." He continued this activist theme on February 10, when he announced a 37-point environmental action program. The program gave special emphasis to strengthening federal programs for dealing with water and air pollution."

After reading that one might wonder, "Where's the Nixon?"

The first administrator Ruckelshaus, started pinpointing specific areas which the agency immediately created newer and larger units to deal with, thus explaining the growth and power of the EPA.

The idea for that may have come from Nixon himself as evidenced by this sentiment: "At the outset, President Nixon promised the states a chance to make "a good faith effort" to implement CAA standards, but warned that federal enforcement action against violators would be swift and sure. Alluding to a popular Clint Eastwood picture of the day, the President said that William Ruckelshaus would be "The Enforcer" in cases of air pollution."

The agency immediately began to throw it's weight around even ordering the common toilet to be redesigned (Think central economic planning.)

Ironically, Nixon may have given the Republicans a campaign slogan with which they can win, but don't expect any shrinkage inside the beltway.

The perfect campaign slogan would be, "Where's the paycheck?"

Too much growth inside the beltway is damaging the economy and there are too few souls at the national level who can speak about it with any conviction.

That leads me to ask, "Where's the bread line?"

Mo| 8.12.10 @ 10:52AM

Great response!
It's Tortoise and the Hare Collectivism. The next round of conservative politicians who supposedly love our Constitution will utterly ignore individual rights in favor of "compassionate" collectivism just as they always do. All that's left to guessing is the pace.

Eric Cartman| 8.10.10 @ 7:54AM

Tan, rested and ready - I wish Nixon were driving the GOP bus (or, better yet, Reagan). But alas, we have Michael Steele, Moe & Larry Howard, and Curly Fine. The Republicans who are "leading" the party are just as elitist as the DemocRats - but with a clownish flavor. Let's hope someone emerges who matter-of-factly explains what elitist, arrogant, scumbags the Obamaites truly are and how America must get rid of them for good - no mas, no mas!

And its easy to do - show Detroit and what the DemocRats have done to it. If that doesn't scare America straight, nothing will.

EWric Cartman| 8.10.10 @ 12:03PM

I guess I should clarify: I mean the political Nixon. The one that knew how to stick it to the DemocRats - not the one of meat ceilings, wage controls and an uber EPA. Nixon had the Government-Knows-Best attitude that sucked, but knew how to win - unlike the blithering idiots we have there now - dumbass Bush Republicans.

kelvinator| 8.10.10 @ 3:48PM

Eric,
Love your work, but as a lifelong Stooge fan, I must correct you. It was Moe and Curly Howard and Larry Fine. Nyuck Nyuck

The Newest Nixon| 8.10.10 @ 8:00AM

Nixon also invented affirmative action. He was a strange man--Loved by those close to him, but in need of enemies. Conrad Black seems to have the best read on him.

Rose| 8.10.10 @ 8:07AM

Just makes you wonder all the more how Nixon could ever make such a deal with Rockefeller and Kissinger.

RCV| 8.10.10 @ 7:03PM

Because Nixon was a wholly unprincipled man, interested only in himself. His pronouncements on communism, freedom, affirmative action, peace, etc. were pure political calculations. He was a very smart, very able scoundrel.

Jeremiah| 8.10.10 @ 11:38PM

No, RCV, not really. Nixon was one of the most complex and contradictory men ever to sit in the White House. He combined a certain low cunning with absolute brilliance. He was both supremely self-absorbed and selfless at the same time. The more one studies him, the more the mystery - and tragedy around him grow.

He clearly was bitter because he wanted to be part of the elite, but like the clumsy, awkward kid at a sandlot baseball game he was always going to be picked last. Oh how it ate at him! But he was also contemptuous of them because his geopolitical intellect was among the all-time greats and they were pygmies next to him.

It is easy to misread him because of the oily quality that always attached to him. Domestically, he was a disaster, constantly trying to pander to to the left that both hated him and was hated by him. There is little doubt that Nixon laid the groundwork for the severe economic dislocations that came to a head under the fumbling Carter. (Make no mistake - I am not exonerating Carter by any means, just noting that Nixonian policies had already made the house rickety. When a blundering, clumsy idiot like Carter came along, it was bound to come tumbling down.)

But Nixon is also the unsung hero in the fall of the Soviet Union. Yes, Reagan, JPII, and Thatcher were the troika that had the vision, diplomatic skill and will to pull it off. But Nixon had laid the foundation. Think I'm exagerating his prowess? Go take a look at most any of his post-presidential books. First, look at the publication date. He was a clear-eyed prophet on world affairs and how they would play out. Kissinger was a foil to make things palatable to the Eastern establishment. It was Nixon who was the modern-day Talleyrand or Metternich.

I remember reading both Gerald Ford's and Richard Nixon's memoirs back-to-back. I was taken by how decent Ford seemed, but as dumb as a box of rocks. Both the oiliness and the brilliance of Nixon showed through every page, though. I had not been a Nixon fan, but the experience fascinated me - and I came to appreciate both the magnitude of what he did accomplish while being simultaneously appalled at his failures and lack of judgment. He was Dickensian: both the best of presidents and the worst of presidents.

RCV| 8.13.10 @ 12:56AM

Thanks for the thoughtful, nuanced analysis of Nixon, most everything of which I agree with. Nixon's foreign policy, guided by Kissinger, was brilliant. My basic point was Nixon's core lack of ideology; he was driven, always, by what his decisions would do for him -- how he would be judged by those he thought of as his betters.

Margie| 8.11.10 @ 6:33PM

RCV,

A man does what in his heart. You can't be unprincipled and take a strong stand on Communism. An unprincipled man would bow to such.

RCV | 8.13.10 @ 1:03AM

You can indeed be unprincipled and take a strong stand on communism. Nixon rode that issue in the late 40s and early fifties because it was his road to national prominence. In the 1968 campaign, he ran on a "secret plan to end the Vietnam War" because it was the best way to beat Humphrey. He was quick to abandon his former close friends in Nationalist China when it was expedient to do so, became an ardent environmentalist when it suited him, and a Roosevelt-style proponent of wage and price controls when expedient.

Ken (Old Texican) | 8.10.10 @ 8:34AM

Mr. Lord,
I only have one gripe. Please reverse the terms.

The true barbarians run the fort with gates now.

We are the calvary on the way to take the fort back for civilization.
I'll go with Bill Buckley: "Get out the Boston phone book."

Derek Leaberry| 8.10.10 @ 8:37AM

Unfortunately, 1946 was one of the last gasps of the pre-FDR order. Two years later was the Democratic romp of 1948 where they gained 70 seats in the House. The Korean War blowback and the Eisenhower interlude gained a tentative Republican parity for a while but the 1958 Democratic landslide ushered in a twenty year period of liberal dominance. Interestingly, this dominance corresponded with the coming of age of the "Greatest Generation", a very liberal generation on the whole.

Ryan| 8.10.10 @ 10:07AM

I think that's judging the Greatest Generation by modern standards. The parties were drastically different at that point, and several ideas drove Southern politics in particular - racism and memories of reconstruction.

Vitriol against Republicans in that era was widespread, and everyone was practically a democrat in the South - there was no point otherwise politically.

coal carrier| 8.10.10 @ 8:41AM

Any politician that believes he or she can manipulate the economy from the oval office, is not a conservative. Nixon was not a conservative, one example – wage and price controls. He was another progressive.

R Martin| 8.10.10 @ 9:03AM

True, although he had two (at least) sides. Nixon was strongly anti-communist and anti-socialist, but he was also a Keynesian and that accounts for his big government, progressive views.

Ryan| 8.10.10 @ 10:09AM

"Not a conservative" doesn't necessarily equate to "progressive." Nixon was more concerned about staying in power than anything else, I think, that he often sacrificed principle for votes.

It's also what led to Watergate.

Deborah D| 8.10.10 @ 9:13AM

I think Americans as a whole are craving a truth-teller, or as Chris Christie says ... people want to be treated like adults. If Republicans want to win in November and thereafter, they need to lay it all out on the table ala Christie. Stop treating Americans like children who need to be taken care of and instead tell us what future our children will have if we continue along this "progressive" path. Then, what Republicans will do to not just slow it down, but to shut it down. Only problem with that is that requires courage of convictions...are there any politicians with that kind of courage (Paul Ryan is one, anyone else?)

Mike Rogers| 8.10.10 @ 9:31AM

Fabulous article, and I will go an find a copy of "Six Crises" ASAP!
My beef with Nixon is none of the stuff which drove liberals crazy, but when Nixon himself became an elitist and Keynsian - he imposed wage and price controls and began the process that Carter turned into "Stagflation".

Purple Lips| 8.10.10 @ 9:45AM

Theodore White spent a long time witnessing Tricky Dick in action. And depsite White's somewhat condensending attitude towards anyone who wasn't a New Englans elite, he was pretty fair in his assessment.

One of the things White discovered about Nixon, was his throughly modern approach to politics. Nixon's campaign managers in both 1946 and 1950 engineered the first attempts at modern politcal polling and focus group research. It was from this data that Nixon was able to really "focus" his message. And like Karl Rove in the 2000 and 2004 elections, Nixon's staff would concentrate on those voting districts that really mattered; in short, they "got out the vote". Vorhis and Douglas didn't stand a chance. And and East Coast Libs never forgave him. Senator Douglas' loss was an especially bitter pill.

Nixon always hired the best campaign talent. Names that would later become infamous worldwide (Halderman, Erlichman, Dean, and Mitchell), were in fact either marketing experts, or campaign finance gurus(Mitchell).

jomo2009| 8.10.10 @ 4:19PM

Also Murray Chotiner. Who was Nixon's hachetman on occasions.

Clinton nee Publius| 8.10.10 @ 9:49AM

I think the liberalists have underestimated the anger of America and the coming election cycle is going to be a lot bigger bloodbath than they think. The results in Missouri (i.e.: a landslide against Obamacare of unprecedented proportions) speak to an electorate that is going to be gunning for blood.

In 1994, the Republicans took over and blew their chances by becoming just as corrupt as the Democrats and failing to dismantle the ruling class lock on spending. In 2000, the Republicans became completely enamored of being part of the ruling class and the differences are now one of degrees and not philosophy. I think the Tea Parties are missing a golden opportunity to completely dismantle the liberal-progressive movement and end the ruling class' opportunity to continue to live off our backs and we will all live to rue it. In the meantime, Democratic members of Congress are going to rue it the most. Next spring, some are going to be made to rue it in front of a grand jury.

Ryan| 8.10.10 @ 10:12AM

Would that they could. We'll always have the left with us.

The Tea Partiers are a large force, but by no means a clear majority. We'll probably get the house, but the Senate is a long shot.

gypsy| 8.10.10 @ 10:22AM

Spot on my friend! I too believe that the ObamaNazis are going to be crushed far more heavily than anyone now imagines. But the biggest difference between now and '94 is that this is truly an uprising of "we the people"; its not being led by GOP strategists like Newt Gingrich. I also believe that we the people should take you up on that scenario of grand juries indicting the "progressive" scum. Our republic will not be secure if these vicious snakes in human disguise can come slithering back from an electoral defeat as lobbyists or consultants. Our liberties will never be safe until ALL the ObamaNazi scum are in prison, in the ground, or in exile

Bob in Western NY| 8.10.10 @ 10:06AM

One person comments on Nixon leaving us the statist EPA. While the author of that post is correct in that the EPA has become just another agency of Washington to impose itself on Americans, its original purpose was most useful. I well remember the polluted waterways and air. What all these agencies require is a sunset provision instead of perpetual life.

As well, Nixon was as responsible for the lost decade of the 1970's as Ford, Johnson, or Carter. Having lived through his wage and price controlls as a purchasing manager for a small manufacturer, I know full well the menace that government planning can bring.

There are real lessons here. I'm all in favor of the peoples' representatitive actually representing the people instead of telling them to eat cake. So, the TEA Party is my party in 2010. But, I have no illusions that some of that new group who will go to Washington will become the next Tom DeLay or the next Charlie Rangel.

Freedom is only one generation away from extinction.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.10.10 @ 5:50PM

"While the author of that post is correct in that the EPA has become just another agency of Washington to impose itself on Americans, its original purpose was most useful. "

To which I respond, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Steve| 8.10.10 @ 10:10AM

Nixon hated commies and he hated elitists. Other than that he was a fairly routine, though gifted, politico. America needs a hell of a lot more than a reprise of Nixon to turn this bus around. We need to not only hate commies and elitists, but to systematically deconstruct their power bases (unions and the education industrial complex, for starters). Failure to do this, at this very late hour, means the long, twilight march to the gulags will commence.

Peace, my fellow serfs.

gypsy| 8.10.10 @ 10:24AM

we don't need to deconstruct them: we need to annihilate them. This rats nest needs to be smoked out and crushed, down to the very last vermin. America will never be safe until all the ObamaNazi "progressives" are in prison,in the ground or in exile.

Mimi| 8.10.10 @ 9:00PM

Heh Gypsy...I hear their looking for gutsy, articulate, spined, honest,... no b.s. dark- horses to run in 2012....You just might be the kind of material on their mind....you GAME????

Purple Lips| 8.10.10 @ 3:33PM

RM Nixon was a man of his times. He grew up dirt poor, and watched both his beloved mother and younger brother die of TB. He excelled at both his tiny high school and liberal arts college in Whittier. He was awarded a scholarship to Duke Law. It was there that he got his first taste of the East Coast Elites. I can just imagine the young Tricky Dicky, so poor that he could barely afford writing materials harboring his resentment at the wealthy preppies who took so much for granted. Nixon still did well at law school. After graduation, he married and went off to the Navy.

Nixon didn't possess any remarkable political ideologies early on. His connection to childhood mentors made him a natural Republican, as that part of Southern California was heavily GOP. The Red Scare played on his worst instincts - resentment of the effette East Coast intellectual elites (who were big time New Dealers and Communist sympathizers), and a kind of kitsch patriotism. The mixture of these 2 indgredients would eventually do him in.

Otherwise, Nixon was under the spell of the kind of Progressivism that even the GOP in California and Arizonia fell prey to (Earl Warren and a young Ronald Reagan, Sandra Day O'Conner, and Barry Goldwater all were progressives in some shape or another). The EPA, Clean Air Act, Detente, CETA, and other Progressive ideas had many GOP followers -still do today.

Margie| 8.10.10 @ 10:20AM

In the early 90's I happened to catch Monica Crowley on Book T.V. (C-Span). She had written a book about her relationship with Richard Nixon while working for him. Before that I had never heard of her, and the only thing I thought I knew about Nixon was what I had heard repeatedly from my Democrat family members~ that he was "a crook," and just a horrible man.

Well needless to say listening to Monica talk about the real man and what he stood for in REALITY, changed my mind about him completely and I started paying more attention to what others would say about politicians~ especially Democrats. They're usually lying. She got me interested and then I started listening to Rush and the rest is history.

The biggest lesson: Know that if the Left hates you, you must be doing something~just about everything~ right.

Mimi| 8.10.10 @ 8:53PM

Hi Margie: Yeah, I came from a democratic family...In fact I defended FDR in high-school...I was the only "D" in a class of 39. When they went Pro-Abortion...They lost me for life. As a young mother I also had some GOOD conservative friends. In all my life I have never seen this country in such peril. We must do well in Nov... the "D"s must be desecrated, and destoyed beyond any repair!!!

Margie| 8.11.10 @ 6:30PM

Mimi~ what's that old saying? "If you're not a Liberal when you're young you have no heart but if you're not a conservative when you're older you have no brain." ~Something like that.

I think it's human nature to be Liberal. We're born without knowledge but then once we learn the truth we make our choice. Contrary to all of the clouding of that truth by some, there is still a huge difference between the 2 parties. I know where my vote's going, and it won't be to the anti-American party of the Destroyer and his minions!

You're a great American, Mimi!

Petronius| 8.10.10 @ 10:56AM

A Republican Congress will change nothing because they don't want to govern. They want to be in the clique which is controlled by our enemies.
The changes required for working and middle class Americans to climb the food chain and prosper must happen in the streets. Take out the trash elements of this society. Eliminate the predators. And banish the perverts and parasites who's behavior is detrimental to the quality of the lives of all honest and virtuous people in this country who are over taxed to pay for the results of that behavior.
Mr. Steele: Your ignorance of this is our death warrant. If we cannot summon the courage to spank the dependent class and tell them "No" just once, this country is finished.

Joe Oliva| 8.10.10 @ 11:19AM

Too bad Nixon was only a minor diversion on the way to the socialism of the elites he says he despised. His victory did very little to change the direction of the nation, and as others have pointed out, he became one of them. Like GWB, Nixon was no conservative.

The only President who could truly be called conservative was Reagan, and even he didn't have enough political power to beat back the beast of big government.

The end of freedom began with the 17th Amendment which in effect, moved power away from the states and to the two corrupt parties. Once that happened, even our House Representatives, who were supposed to be for the local people, began to give more and more of their alliegance to the party.

Is there a future for freedom? I hope so, but I don't see it in either party. All that this 2010 election will be is a massive lesser of two evils vote because even the socialist lite GOP is better than the full blown Euro-Socialist Democrats.

What a mess we have made and are passing on to our kids and grandkids.

Howard| 8.10.10 @ 2:44PM

Nixon was a tactician when it came to politics. In his first term he needed the Democrats somewhat on his side; to buy time for his Vietnam strategies to work. Hence, he created the EPA, wage/price controls, Affirmative Action, etc. When he won reelection in 1972 he was starting to move to the right. However, Watergate put him in a defensive position for the remainder of his Presidency. So, we never saw a more conservative side to his Administration. Only the 1974 Watergate class of Waxman and his ilk. Sad to say.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.10.10 @ 2:52PM

Here's a gift that keeps on giving. After making a speech defending his corrupt practices on the floor of the House, Charles Rangel was applauded by hundreds of Democrats. The Republicans ought to get that footage and play it over and over again while the charges roll over on the screen.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-.....2#comments

Mimi| 8.10.10 @ 8:37PM

Charles Rangel...= 80 years old...20 elections...40 years...Time to go!!!....With all the rest.

Yosemeti Sam| 8.11.10 @ 12:11AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201.....gel_ethics

A few chosen words from Rangel per the AP piece:

"Don't leave me swinging in the wind until November," he demanded.

Interesting choice of metaphor.

Just a plain old harmless - pregnant metaphor!

Hmmmmmmm.

David| 8.10.10 @ 3:02PM

Eric, I was about to pop off at you, and then noticed your explanation of the Nixon comment. Thanks for clearing-up that.

Bill, it is flippin' unbelieveable to me. The democrats do that type of sh_t a lot, like giving Mexican Prez Calderon a standing ovation after he lectured us about our immigration policies. It seems like that disgraceful act is already forgotten. Where in the world are the gutless republicans. Everyone one of those reps in the House are up for re-election. Every repub ought to have at least one ad of their opponent cheering Calderon after playing some of Calderon's most damning comments. The repubs need to grow a pair and go on the flippin' attack.

Lois C| 8.10.10 @ 3:54PM

"I don't give a damn what the facts are!" Awesome quote. This is the basic character flaw of the left they have no relationship with reality whatsoever choosing instead to live in their own fantasy world. They don't have to concern themselves with putting food on the table so they don't care what the consequences of their 'social policy' and monstrous tax burdens are on the rest of America. It's time we outlaw socialism and marxism, put the lefties in the assylum or ship them to the Soviet Union and let America regain her rightful place as top dog in the world.

ChefSchnauzer| 8.10.10 @ 5:12PM

Just before I switched majors at Boston University (from history to Budweiser) I realized that Nixon's good books (most of them) and the good books about Nixon are going to suffer the same fate of say the McGuffey Readers, the works of Chesterton or Mencken... they would be pushed aside and ignored. The influential liberal elite grubbed the money from Nixon's best selling efforts but actually read Six Crises, Memoirs, The Real War and so on.... never.

Martin Owens| 8.10.10 @ 5:24PM

" We Are All Barbarians Now"
( eat yer heart out, Newsweek...)

J.C.Eaton| 8.10.10 @ 8:58PM

Someone on Firing Line remarked to Bill Buckley that Nixon was a "third rate politician". Buckley corrected him:"No, he was a first-rate politician...a third-rate man."

RCV| 8.13.10 @ 1:06AM

Exactly right.

STEVE| 8.15.10 @ 9:54PM

RICHARD NIXON WAS A COMMUNIST!!!! CHECK OUT HIS EXCUTIVE ORDER IN 1972!! HE REGIONALIZED THE U.S. INTO 10 FEDERAL REGIONS. RIGIONAL GOVT. WAS BORN. IT IS A CONTROLLING FORCE STRIPPING US OF OUR RIGHTS EVERY DAY. THE FEDERAL GOVT. NAMED IT PLANNING COMMISSIONS. YOU HAVE ONE IN YOUR TOWN OR COUNTY OR CLOSE BY. WAKE UP FOLKS, WE ARE BEING HAD.