A 'surge of interest in Nixon' is fighting to 'rehabilitate' the disgraced president’s tarnished image

15 December 2023

Donald Trump has often been compared unfavorably to President Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace in August 1974. But some prominent figures from the Watergate era — including Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks, Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein Bob Woodward, and veteran television Dan Rather — have stressed that Trump, as president, crossed dangerous lines that even Nixon wouldn't have dared to cross.

Moreover, some of Nixon's positions would have been deal breakers with the Republican Party of 2023. Nixon favored universal health care via the private sector, expanded Medicare, and supported the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — positions that would result in being labeled a RINO (Republican In Name Only) by 2023's MAGA Republicans.

Yet some MAGA Republicans, despite policy differences, regard Nixon as a symbol of strength. In a think piece published on December 15, Politico's Ian Ward examines efforts to "rehabilitate" Nixon on the right.

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Ward notes that GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, during a recent speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, described Nixon as "by and away the most underappreciated president of our modern history in this country — probably in all of American history."

"Among a small but influential group of young conservative activists and intellectuals," Ward explains, "'Tricky Dick' is making a quiet — but notable — comeback. Long condemned by both Democrats and Republicans as the 'crook' that he infamously swore not to be, Nixon is reemerging in some conservative circles as a paragon of populist power — a noble warrior who was unjustly consigned to the black list of American history."

Ward continues, "Across the right-of-center media sphere, examples of Nixonmania abound. Online, popular conservative activists are studying the history of Nixon's presidency as a 'blueprint for counter-revolution' in the 21st Century. In the pages of small conservative magazines, readers can meet the 'New Nixonians' who are studying up on Nixon's foreign policy prowess."

According to Ward, examples of this right-wing "surge of interest in Nixon" range from Ramaswamy to journalist Curt Mills and activist Christoper F. Rufo (who defended Nixon in an article for City Journal).

Rufo told Politico, "If we can rehabilitate Richard Nixon in a balanced and fair manner — or even if we can just create questions in the public discourse about Nixon and about Nixon's presidency — then I think, by way of analogy, it will provoke similar questions about Donald Trump…. Especially (among) the younger members of the right, you're seeing a reappraisal of figures like Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy in light of what's happened since the rise of Donald Trump."

Read Ian Ward's full article for Politico at this link.

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