Jonathan RoseGuest
Andrew WilsonGuestDestinyGuestThe Nixon revival is a bit surprising because for the past several decades, the iconic conservative figure was Reagan.
These are my dates for the Reagan era, and Trump has dominated from 2015 to now.
Other figures, Eisenhower, uh, Nixon, Ford, the two Bushes, have been consigned to the shadows, to the hazy background of history.
They don't identify with Reagan's sunny optimism, his big sky conservatism, and so they've picked Nixon as a sort of anti-Reagan.
They picked the guy the left hated the most, the president they've tried to stomp on for fifty years, and that guy is now their new hero.
Now, I'm not a Nixon maxer, but I think the reappraisal of Nixon is both welcome and overdue.
J.D. Vance recently said nice things about Nixon at the Nixon Library, comparing Nixon to Trump.
I'd like to give my own take on Nixon, which comes not from a millennial or Gen Z, but from someone who came to America as a teenager in the aftermath of the Nixon era.
Nixon had been out of office for four years, and Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976.
Nixon's failure, I have to say, gave Democrats not only the presidency, but large majorities in the House and the Senate.
Yes, Nixon won forty-nine states in 1972, but he still never had the sweeping control of the government that his removal and disgrace gave the Democrats.
Jimmy Carter almost destroyed the country until the American people came to their senses and elected Reagan.
Both served two terms, and both won with big majorities, but Reagan had a revolution, and Nixon didn't.
Reagan brought the top marginal tax rate down from seventy percent to twenty-eight percent.
Reagan won the Cold War, helped to liberate Eastern Europe, and brought down Soviet communism itself.
Now, what does Nixon have to compare to that? Well, Nixon went to China, and he played an important role in breaking a potential Soviet-Chinese alliance.
Nixon's bold move did contain Soviet expansion, but it opened a pathway to closer ties with China.
The Nixon revival is a bit surprising because for the past several decades, the iconic conservative figure was Reagan.
These are my dates for the Reagan era, and Trump has dominated from 2015 to now.
Other figures, Eisenhower, uh, Nixon, Ford, the two Bushes, have been consigned to the shadows, to the hazy background of history.
They don't identify with Reagan's sunny optimism, his big sky conservatism, and so they've picked Nixon as a sort of anti-Reagan.
They picked the guy the left hated the most, the president they've tried to stomp on for fifty years, and that guy is now their new hero.
Now, I'm not a Nixon maxer, but I think the reappraisal of Nixon is both welcome and overdue.
J.D. Vance recently said nice things about Nixon at the Nixon Library, comparing Nixon to Trump.
I'd like to give my own take on Nixon, which comes not from a millennial or Gen Z, but from someone who came to America as a teenager in the aftermath of the Nixon era.
Nixon had been out of office for four years, and Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976.
Nixon's failure, I have to say, gave Democrats not only the presidency, but large majorities in the House and the Senate.
Yes, Nixon won forty-nine states in 1972, but he still never had the sweeping control of the government that his removal and disgrace gave the Democrats.
Jimmy Carter almost destroyed the country until the American people came to their senses and elected Reagan.
Both served two terms, and both won with big majorities, but Reagan had a revolution, and Nixon didn't.
Reagan brought the top marginal tax rate down from seventy percent to twenty-eight percent.
Reagan won the Cold War, helped to liberate Eastern Europe, and brought down Soviet communism itself.
Now, what does Nixon have to compare to that? Well, Nixon went to China, and he played an important role in breaking a potential Soviet-Chinese alliance.
Nixon's bold move did contain Soviet expansion, but it opened a pathway to closer ties with China.
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