Richard J. Cross III: Rethinking Richard Nixon
[Richard J. Cross III was press secretary and speechwriter for former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich.]
In February, America celebrated the bicentennial of its most revered president, Abraham Lincoln. Its most controversial president - Richard M. Nixon - resigned 35 years ago today.
Richard Nixon fascinates me. This began when his old nemesis Alger Hiss visited one of my classes at the Johns Hopkins University, and grew when I worked for former Rep. Helen Bentley, once an official in the Nixon administration. Along the way, I devoured every Nixon biography I could find.
Sharing this news typically elicits offers of intervention from concerned friends. Eventually, people ask me why.
First, Mr. Nixon led an epic life. He ascended from freshman congressman to vice president in just six years. He is one of only two Americans to run on a national ticket five times. He dodged multiple attempts by a hostile establishment to write his political obituary. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that there are no second acts in American lives. I count four in Mr. Nixon's: his rise, his triumph, his fall and his resurrection.
Second, Mr. Nixon was always a step ahead in gauging voters' attitudes. The "Silent Majority" coalition he built helped the GOP win seven of 11 presidential elections between 1968 and 2008. Conservatives distrusted Mr. Nixon, but without him there would never have been a President Ronald Reagan.
Third, Mr. Nixon was tough. During the winter of 1935, a maintenance man found an impoverished law student squatting in a tiny unheated tool shed, the walls insulated by cardboard. "I'll manage all right if you don't run me out," Mr. Nixon assured him. For better or worse, that fortitude was evident throughout his life.
Fourth, Mr. Nixon achieved. He launched the war on cancer, created the Environmental Protection Agency, opened the door to China, signed an arms control agreement with the Soviets, desegregated schools (68 percent of black children in the South attended all-black schools in 1968; 8 percent did by the end of 1972) and brought innovative approaches to domestic and foreign policy. He also presided over a GOP not yet skewed toward social conservatism.
Obviously, not all aspects of Mr. Nixon's career are as admirable. But where Nixon haters see Darth Vader, I see Wile E. Coyote...
Read entire article at Baltimore Sun
In February, America celebrated the bicentennial of its most revered president, Abraham Lincoln. Its most controversial president - Richard M. Nixon - resigned 35 years ago today.
Richard Nixon fascinates me. This began when his old nemesis Alger Hiss visited one of my classes at the Johns Hopkins University, and grew when I worked for former Rep. Helen Bentley, once an official in the Nixon administration. Along the way, I devoured every Nixon biography I could find.
Sharing this news typically elicits offers of intervention from concerned friends. Eventually, people ask me why.
First, Mr. Nixon led an epic life. He ascended from freshman congressman to vice president in just six years. He is one of only two Americans to run on a national ticket five times. He dodged multiple attempts by a hostile establishment to write his political obituary. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that there are no second acts in American lives. I count four in Mr. Nixon's: his rise, his triumph, his fall and his resurrection.
Second, Mr. Nixon was always a step ahead in gauging voters' attitudes. The "Silent Majority" coalition he built helped the GOP win seven of 11 presidential elections between 1968 and 2008. Conservatives distrusted Mr. Nixon, but without him there would never have been a President Ronald Reagan.
Third, Mr. Nixon was tough. During the winter of 1935, a maintenance man found an impoverished law student squatting in a tiny unheated tool shed, the walls insulated by cardboard. "I'll manage all right if you don't run me out," Mr. Nixon assured him. For better or worse, that fortitude was evident throughout his life.
Fourth, Mr. Nixon achieved. He launched the war on cancer, created the Environmental Protection Agency, opened the door to China, signed an arms control agreement with the Soviets, desegregated schools (68 percent of black children in the South attended all-black schools in 1968; 8 percent did by the end of 1972) and brought innovative approaches to domestic and foreign policy. He also presided over a GOP not yet skewed toward social conservatism.
Obviously, not all aspects of Mr. Nixon's career are as admirable. But where Nixon haters see Darth Vader, I see Wile E. Coyote...