Much less polarized political environment. GOP had many dyed-in-the-wool liberals (even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act) and the Dems still had many conservatives. The GOP still had to appeal to a broad cross-section of the country; they couldn't just go all-in on a Nixon personality cult - ThreadSky

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decmusicology.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Much less polarized political environment. GOP had many dyed-in-the-wool liberals (even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act) and the Dems still had many conservatives. The GOP still had to appeal to a broad cross-section of the country; they couldn't just go all-in on a Nixon personality cult

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3dogdad.bsky.social•2 days ago

Nixon launched the Southern Strategy, but it didn't fully come to fruition until Reagan. Nixon said there are more racist voters than black voters, so he wanted to appeal to the racists.

decmusicology.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yeah, Rick Perlstein's Nixonland is great on how Nixon had to thread the needle between wooing Southern Goldwater racists and not alienating too many northern GOP liberals

The result was a weird amalgam: a barely concealed racist who launched the EPA and flirted with an early version of UBI

decmusicology.bsky.social•2 days ago

As I understand it, Nixon didn't even care too much about domestic policy, where he was quite happy to say or do or implement whatever would allow him to engage in great power diplomacy on the world stage

So he had a "law and order" rhetoric that seemed out of sync with his fiscal liberalism

3dogdad.bsky.social•1 day ago

Weird how massive programs like the EPA and Medicare/Medicaid passed with some opposition, but generally a normal Schoolhouse Rock process. It was the civil rights legislation and ERA that really drew the scorched earth opposition.

3dogdad.bsky.social•2 days ago

Nixon, much like Trump, was concerned above all else with staying in power. He could support or oppose just about any position if it helped him personally. Unlike Trump, he had much higher favorability so didn't need to constantly work to keep his coalition together.

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