Nixon agonistes: the crisis of the self-made man

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Richard Nixon

Notes

Dedication

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Contents

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Epigraph

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Preface, 2017

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The tapes are the real man— mean, vindictive, panicky, striking first in anticipation of being struck, trying to lift his own friable self-esteem by shoving others down.

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Nixon’s real tragedy is that he never had the stature to be a tragic hero. He is the stuff of sad (almost heartbreaking) comedy.

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Introduction to the 2002 Mariner Edition

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Preface

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Liberalism clearly was—covertly (I shall argue) still is—the philosophy of the marketplace, and America is distinguished by a “market” mode of thought in all its public (and even private) life, a mode that is Nixon’s through and through.

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I. The Moral Market (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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1. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

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That gaucheness of a man lingering on when he is no longer wanted becomes, at a certain point, the crazy proof of his importance. He survived.

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The president of the university, Lee Sherman Dreyfus, is a swinger, proud of the fact that his initials are L.S.D.

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during this speech, he works on the students: “In the last third of the century, great advances will be made in fields like automation and cybernetics (on which you know far more than I do)

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Is there, then, a new new-Nixon—Nixon-Seven, nearing the cat’s allotment of lives?

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Nixon’s physical reflexes are not very good; he was a clumsy second-string player on the Whittier College football team. Some of his poor focus is probably nothing but poor reflexes.

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He shies—as Lincoln did not—from the portentous statement. Yet this personal characteristic does not express personality. It gives his words a stiff matter-of-factness, a disjointedness despite the speech’s careful structure. One feels it could break off at any moment, there is no long climb up to a concluding height. The speech does not “swing.” It has no rhythm. Its reflexes are faulty. At this point, I was in danger, once again, of thinking in terms of a beauty contest.

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one does not like to feel embarrassed by a candidate. That must explain a good deal of the popular antipathy to Nixon. One is embarrassed to keep meeting the dog one kicked yesterday.

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Out in the light, he had splintered into shadows. Here in shadow he solidified,

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Nixon would like to carry on all his dealings away from the public—he does like darkness; he can only be personal where “personality” is not an issue.

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Eleanor Roosevelt was saying that communists should not be allowed to teach in American schools—but that she would fear for the health of a campus that had no communist students. A schizophrenia was developing toward our World War II allies.

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The two young congressmen trudged from embassy to embassy of the Iron Curtain lands, asking whether there was a free press, or free speech, in each country.

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2. The Center Cannot Hold

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3. The Politics of Resentment

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4. The Denigrative Method

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5. Checkers

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6. The Hero

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7. The Common Man

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8. Whittier: First Day

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9. Whittier: Second Day

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II. The Economic Market (Adam Smith)

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1. Miami, 1968

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2. Political Philanthropy

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3. Republican Camelot

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4. They, the People

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5. The Goldwater Party

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6. Southern Strategy

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7. The Succeeder

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8. The Non-Succeeders

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9. Making It

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III. The Intellectual Market (John Stuart Mill)

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1. Chicago, 1968

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2. Liberals

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3. Radicals

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4. The Establishment

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5. The War on War

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6. Plastic Man

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IV. The Political Market (Woodrow Wilson)

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1. “Self-Determination”

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2. A Good Election

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3. The Covenant

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4. Universalism

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5. Our Country!

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V. The Future of Liberalism

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1. Saving the System

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2. Refiguring the Calculus

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3. “Left” and “Right” in America

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4. “Beyond Left and Right”

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5. Nixon Triumphans: The Self-Made Man

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6. Nixon Agonistes: The Last Liberal?

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Index to Proper Names

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About the Author

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Copyright Page

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