Why is this man laughing?
This photo of Richard Nixon, rumored to have been taken when he was told he won the Republican nomination in 1960, haunts the political arena of the USA, along with the infamous quote from his interview with David Frost: "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Of course not. And the US Supreme Court made it so, officially.
How quaint past fears for the republic seem, measured against the present. Nixon. Reagan. GWB/Dick Cheney. Each scarier than what went on before. But all part of a trajectory of regression to an idealized past when white landowners made the decisions and all others put up and shut up.
I have watched this for decades through the eyes of my parents.
My Father was a lawyer. He got out of Yale Law School in 1938 and wound up working his way through several jobs in Washington, DC before finding his career at the Justice Department. One of those jobs was at the Office of Price Administration. He met Richard Nixon there. And despised him.
My Mother was a lawyer. She got out of Yale Law School in 1953 and went right into the Justice Department, where she met and married my Father.
They were part of, and great believers in, the administrative state—powered by professionals who did their jobs no matter which party was in power. Slowly over decades starting with the aftermath of the Second World War that administrative state organized the country along lines of modernization. Those lines were increasingly distasteful to many who fear and resist change. And so resistance grew—resistance, which had already existed since the New Deal.
Why is this woman glaring?
I remember Mother pointing out a sign for the John Birch Society near the Jersey shore in the ’60s and explaining to me how they wanted to roll back anything that had happened since the Civil War.
Nixon lost in 1960. But reactions to all the progress made in the ‘60s led to his resurgence in 1968. Civil rights did not please people who thought they should have the only rights. And the other flashpoint was Vietnam, a litmus test for anti-communism which was considered to equal patriotism.
Everything that has happened in American politics since 1968 is a re-litigation of those two issues, fought tooth and nail by individuals who started out then and still have a stranglehold on the nation.
My parents had left the Justice Department for private practice in Philadelphia by then but followed all the news with insider insight. In retrospect Nixon was—in some ways—shockingly progressive. He created the Environmental Protection Agency! But he sought to hold on to power by illegal acts. Which was ironic since he was going to crush the 1972 election anyway. And so Watergate happened.
October 1973 was a tipping point for the country and for my family. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. Daddy died, suddenly. Archibald Cox got fired. Oh, and there was also the Yom Kippur War! It looked like Nixon would cling to power despite mounting evidence and pressure.
Mother was bereft—and fixated on Nixon to get by. She read and watched every shred of coverage. Nixon dismissed it all as “wallowing in Watergate.” Indeed that’s what mother did, and it kept her alive! I threatened to write Dear Abby and say My mother is wallowing in Watergate, what do I do?
The upside was that responsible members of his own party convinced him to step down. The downside was that his well-meaning successor pardoned him, in the hope that the nation would heal. It would not. I well remember the moment the news hit. My uncle and aunt (and little cousins) had been visiting and were about to leave when mother heard it on the radio and started screaming. She was incensed. So were they. That pardon laid the groundwork for the most recent Supreme Court decision. Nixon should have been tried—and shown to be subject to the same laws that supposedly bind us all. But there has always been a separate more lenient law for those with the privilege to claim it.
Each Republican administration since then has been a retrenchment backwards towards “originalism.” Even as society modernized. Rights for all does not balance with religious or economic fundamentalism. And the right played a long game with great patience and skill. Each Democratic administration since then has been an adaptation towards Neo-liberal centrism, in the pursuit of sufficient votes. And none of these have aligned with the values valued by a substantial majority of the population. Not that many people are clear about what they want or understand. It’s kind of horrible watching women who oppose abortion but would get one themselves if they needed it. And self-described “Christians” who oppose anything in the Beatitudes.
Reagan was a disaster who looked marvelous. Image over substance. Mother HATED Edwin Meese, Reagan’s right-wing attorney attorney general. But even he looked mild measured against the Bush 2 administration. On the night of 9/11 we took mother to the local diner and she outlined, with cold and brutal clarity, everything that was about to happen. Only the name “Department of Homeland Security” escaped her. She saw which way the country was going. She didn’t live long enough to see Obama elected. And mercifully not long enough to see his successor. Though her ability to fixate and wallow and analyze would have been awesome to watch.
Mother understood the long game. She saw what the reactionaries were doing. And knew what progressives had to do to combat it. Which involved making progress in tiny incremental steps and not insisting on more than could be successfully voted for. So what she is glaring at is everyone who opposed Hilary. Mother knew that ultimately it was all about the Supreme Court—and who got to nominate justices. And that’s how we got to where we are. Not enough people could see that. Some could but valued their privilege higher than the common good.
So Nixon finally got what he wanted, a free pass to dictatorship, which he deeded to the current crop of fascists. Mother is still glaring. And Tricky Dick has the last laugh. Unless enough of us vote.