Now I do know what you’re thinking: Liberal? Wasn’t Nixon a conservative Republican? And, ya know, kind of disgraced in the Watergate scandal? Are we talking about the same Richard Nixon? Dear reader, that illustrates just how far the standards have moved in the last 50 years.
Nixon wanted to be a uniting force in the United States. Hmm, sounds like a big tent Democrat kind of idea.
Sure, he expanded the Vietnam War. He also got us out of Vietnam and made attempts to bring POWs home. And when he was done with that he ended the draft. Hmm, sounds like a weak Democrat kind of idea. Oh yeah, and then he opened relations with China.
During his entire presidency he issued 364 executive orders. Heck, the current president is on track to do that before Memorial Day. Slacker.
He signed the EPA into law. Hmm, a liberal tree-hugger.
And get a load of this list of liberal policies Nixon either enacted or tried to enact:
Despite expectations from some observers that Nixon would be a “do-nothing” president, his administration undertook a number of important reforms in welfare policy, civil rights, law enforcement, the environment, and other areas. Nixon’s proposed Family Assistance Program (FAP), intended to replace the service-oriented Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), would have provided working and nonworking poor families with a guaranteed annual income—though Nixon preferred to call it a “negative income tax.” Although the measure was defeated in the Senate, its failure helped to generate support for incremental legislation incorporating similar ideas—such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which provided a guaranteed income to the elderly, the blind, and the disabled; and automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security recipients—and it also prompted the expansion and improvement of existing programs, such as food stamps and health insurance for low-income families. In the area of civil rights, Nixon’s administration instituted so-called “set aside” policies to reserve a certain percentage of jobs for minorities on federally funded construction projects—the first “affirmative action” program. Although Nixon opposed school busing and delayed taking action on desegregation until federal court orders forced his hand, his administration drastically reduced the percentage of African American students attending all-black schools. In addition, funding for many federal civil rights agencies, in particular the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), was substantially increased while Nixon was in office. In response to pressure from consumer and environmental groups, Nixon proposed legislation that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His revenue-sharing program, called “New Federalism,” provided state and local governments with billions of federal tax dollars.
Expanding Social Security and Welfare?? Worker safety initiatives?? Desegretation and gasp Affirmative Action??? This little list does omit various healthcare initiatives such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, an attempt at true universal health care, creating HMOs, and Medicare coverage for dialysis as well as kidney transplant. Typical “tax and spend liberal” ideals!
And to top it all off, he had the temerity to only have one wife — and be faithful to her!
So yes. We have moved so far to the right that conservative Richard Nixon is — by modern standards — more liberal than Barack Obama.