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What does “Nixonian” mean?

November 11, 2009 by Anne Walker | Filed Under Richard Nixon 

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It seems to me that we are hearing the term “Nixonian” used more often these days. Most recently when TV pundits were talking about the Obama Administrations criticism of Fox News. They talked a great deal about the Obama folks having an enemies list and how they were acting very “Nixonian.” I know they weren’t being complimentary when they said it.

I asked our in-house expert about this, the wonderful and wise Frank Gannon, and he had some interesting historic facts about the “enemies list.” It was originally a September 9, 1971 memo to John Dean, from Chuck Colson. It contained only 20 names. Mostly the reason they were on the list is because they were very, vocally, anti-Nixon. Dean took that original list and expanded it to over 200 names, mostly made up of people who were against the Vietnam war. He, Dean, has said publicly that he didn’t think President Nixon knew about the list. Then it surfaced during the “Watergate” hearings. Today, we are lead to believe the President wrote it himself. That is unfair and wrong.

I have often referred to myself as a “Nixonian Republican” and I never considered that I was being unkind to myself when I used that description. My parents were life-long Republicans and my mother was proud to describe herself as a “Civil Righter.” Then, President Nixon’s leadership also shaped me and how I think. I AM a more moderate Republican than many of our party members today and using the term just meant exactly that. My more conservative friends don’t seem to hold it against me. There should be room for both mind-sets in our party. Wise counsel told us that we should agree to disagree agreeably!

I went on Wikipedia to see what their description of “Nixonian” might be. What I read was very interesting. First of all, “one never self-identifies as a Nixonian.”

Oh my, what about me? I even have a button that my daughter Marja made for me that says, “Proud Nixonian Republican.” I must admit that when I wore it at the 1988 RNC convention, certain folks looked at me like I had a communicable disease!

The description goes on to say, “The term is most frequently used by Republicans to attack self-described moderates; when used by Democrats it is more apt to be used in the context of the Watergate scandal and the suggestion of Republican corruption.“

OK, we already knew about that and live with it everyday here at the Richard Nixon Presidential Foundation.

More from Wikipedia: “This moniker is based upon the administration of Richard Nixon, who ran in 1968 and 1972 as a conservative, only to enact unprecedented amounts of new regulations and government agencies, and expand federally provided social services. Among those were the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, implementation of price and wage controls to try to reduce inflation, and an unsuccessful attempt to provide a guaranteed minimum income to taxpayers.”

Hey! Isn’t this the Legacy we want everyone to know about? Now that’s NIXONIAN, and it’s a good thing.

I’ve been spending some time as a volunteer in the Museum Shop at the Library. It is fun and a great opportunity to chat with visitors and find out why they chose to visit. Their reasons are overwhelmingly positive and that’s heartwarming to hear. Last week I looked up from the cash register to see John and Marilyn Wilbur walking toward me. We were classmates at the University of Arizona and Marilyn and I were Delta Gamma Pledge sisters in the spring of 1956. What could be more fun than that? After they toured the Library, they said they “had forgotten what a great President he was.” So, it seems, have a heck of a lot of other people. That’s the mission ahead as I see it: remind the people and focus on the Legacy of the 37th President of the United States.

Tell me what you think. How should we work to take back the Nixonian label? Maybe the RN Foundation web-site could have a “Nixonian Moment,” or “Nixonianisms of Note” posted now and then. I for one would love to see it become a description to be proud of again.

Cross Posted from GramAnne



Comments

9 Responses to “What does “Nixonian” mean?”

  1. Raymond Schultz on November 11th, 2009 6:15 pm

    The term “Nixonian” could of been coined: Nixonism or Nixonology. Wikipedia is a poor source for objective well rounded observations on the impact and legacy of President Nixon. Taking a cheap shot is an easy shot.

    When RN said “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore”, he could not have imagined the instant electronic text posting by bias writers today who never knew him or the times he helped form.

    The silent minority, who want to give President Nixon an accurate and positive legacy, must get louder without being rude.

  2. Beth K. on November 11th, 2009 6:52 pm

    What a wonderful piece. I to consider myself a Nixonian Republican. I believe this means we attempt to listen to all sides of an agrument, we do the best for the people of America even if it does not agree with the party; health care reform, EPA, desegregation of schools, supporting the Marshall Plan, just to name a few. Most importantly with all the highs and lows in his career Richard Nixon always wanted what was best for America and its citizens. He truly showed this my stepping down from the highest office in the land, one he had fought so hard to attain, for the good of the American people during Watergate.

  3. Mike Jacobs on November 25th, 2009 5:31 pm

    Thank you Mrs. Walker for your positive and insightful article. So many people are of the same belief as you and passionately support the 37th President and the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. I feel strongly as well that people should be reminded of President Nixon’s legacy and focus on the many accomplishments he was responsible for, it’s just unfortunate that so many, especially those in leadership positions, prefer to view the glass as half empty…. I hope the near future brings about a change in wind direction, and the public can continue to enjoy such a beautiful place, free of political distraction….

  4. RuxX Bensan on December 27th, 2009 9:35 am

    What it means is: The only man, with Greald Ford, who implemented the Fast Track before it was done for just the second time under Clinton; The creator of the DEA and the War on Drugs. These alone are shameful. Everything he did should be looked at in detail. He was a nasty man, as everyone knows.

    RuxX

  5. johan berger on January 9th, 2010 11:27 am

    Again we see that people with closed minds, i.e. Nixon haters, are wont to to stick to these ‘closures/closings’.. Those of us who HAVE read Nixon’s memoirs, newspaper reports, (some) analytical literature on foreign policy of the United States ca. 1945-80 and so on, should manage to see for themselves the impressive progress made during his five-thousand-day Presidency.. See e.g. Monica Crowley for a run-down on more than a dozen bills accepted in RN’s Congress(www.monicacrowley.com around early August 2009!)
    Nixon was hounded from office because he was better at domestic AND foreign policy than nearly all others at the game, and his decision to resign before being impeached only proves how magnanimous he was and so how he played by the rules..while his adversaries ultimately ruled via players(the Establishment in the media et al..!)

  6. DAVID PHILLIPS on March 19th, 2010 9:05 am

    ANNE =

    This is a somewhat ‘delayed response’, albeit keyed by your involvements with the “EVENT” during July – throughout Orange County and several cooperating & surrounding venues for The Richard Nixon FOUNDATION.

    Your comments – if I might observe – are absolutely “SPOT ON”! ;-)

    Well done, indeed!

  7. Meg Lark on May 9th, 2010 11:08 am

    Wow, all these years I thought I was the only Nixonian around. How heartening to find that that is untrue.

    Johan Berger wrote: “…his decision to resign before being impeached only proves how magnanimous he was…” I couldn’t help thinking of President Nixon in the days after the 2000 Presidential election, when the Gore-Lieberman ticket demanded a recount. So could the Nixon-Lodge ticket have done, in 1960, with considerably more reason; but Mr. Nixon chose not to contest that election, as he wrote, “for the good of the country.” THAT is a Statesman. No wonder, as Mr. Berger further comments, “Nixon was hounded from office because he was better at domestic AND foreign policy than nearly all others at the game…” Obviously it’s anathema to have anybody with, gasp, EXPERIENCE

  8. Meg Lark on May 9th, 2010 11:11 am

    Hit “send” before I was done. I did want to note that no one else has mentioned what to me was one of President Nixon’s crowning achievements: OSHA. That was a law that was doing *real* good, till Jimmy Carter got his hands on it.

    With his working-class background, his hard-scrabble drive to put himself through college, and his real-life war experiences, President Nixon proved the idiocy of the fallacy that “the Republican Party is the party of the rich man.” He was, is, and always will be one of my great heroes.

  9. Keith Westre on June 6th, 2011 1:42 am

    I Can’t belive people are still talking. Read Nixon’s book THE REAL WAR. He said spend the Soviets into oblivion. Who gets credit for ending the cold war?????? He said “stay out of the Middle East. 15 0f 23 muslim nations in the 10 years befofe he wrote that book were overthrown. Same as today. I know a little about Arabs. They won’t work. All the laborers doing construction or working in the oilfields are Packistni’s or Filipino’s. What is going to happen when the Sand Niggers in Saudi Arabia start jumping up and down?? YOUR GAS TANK WILL BE EMPTY. SNIFF!!!!

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