Richard Nixon is not one of our most well respected presidents. He earned his badge of dishonor. But when recognizing the low points of the Nixon Presidency one must also concede the high points as well – and there were high points.
But first a more personal account. When Hurricane Camille devastated the Mississippi coast, Nixon wasted no time in getting his butt to our state. I don’t recall exact words or statements, just that when he left, my fellow Mississippians felt hope. He provided hope for a region of the country that had long lagged behind the other states.
Richard Nixon would not be labeled as a conservative using today’s standards. Rather, his policy was almost “progressive.” Some examples are in order.
Nixon tackled five areas of domestic policy in his first term: welfare, civil rights (including desegregation, voting rights, additional rights for women), and reorganization of the federal bureaucracy.
The following occurred during the Nixon reign:
· an end to the Vietnam War;
· beginning of the Food Stamp program;
· creation of the Environmental Protection Agency;
· passage of the Freedom of Information Act;
· decriminalization of abortion;
· creation of Earned Income Tax Credits;
· a formal ban on biological weapons; and,
· passage of the Clean Water Act.
It’s fair to say that Liberals did not give Nixon a fair shot with his policy, because his policy threatened to co-opt their own policy. In truth, Nixon originated in the progressive wing of the Republican Party.
Nixon did give us William H Rehnquist, but he also have us Harry Blackmun. Nixon declared war on Cancer, Illegal Drugs and Hunger, and ensured that his programs were funded – not like Bush’s “No Child Left Behind.”
Nixon supported the Clean Air Act of 1970, which remains the most controversial and far-reaching effort to control air pollution.
Nixon effectively ended the policy of forced termination of tribal status and turned over more decisions about Indian policies to the elected tribal governments, and appeared to have lived up to earlier praise from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), which said in the fall of 1970 that Nixon was "the first U.S. President since George Washington to pledge that the government will honor obligations to the Indian tribes."
Congress approved Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in 1972. Nixon signed the bill into law.
From the first to the last budget for which the Nixon administration was responsible; that is, from 1970 through 1975, spending on all human resource programs exceeded spending for defense for the first time since the Second World War. Think about that for a moment.
President Lyndon Johnson is often cited for his considerable contribution to domestic programs, but Nixon also deserves to sit at that table. Funding for social welfare services under Nixon grew from $55 billion in 1970 to almost $132 billion in 1975.
When the nutrition programs under the Older Americans Act were created in 1972, authorizing special food programs for the elderly, it was Richard Nixon who pushed for more funding. It was Ronald Reagan who cut that funding.
Watergate has understandably dimmed many of our memories of the Nixon Presidency, and I’ll not minimize the impact that Watergate had on our country. But I would like the facts to speak for themselves. When we speak of Presidents that reached out their hand to the poor and under-served, Richard Nixon’s name should be on that short list.
Even less remembered than the accomplishments of the Nixon Presidency are the accomplishments of the Nixon Vice-Presidency. In the 1950’s, Nixon was a strong advocate of civil rights; perhaps an even stronger advocate than Eisenhower, Kennedy or Johnson. When he presided over the Senate his rulings consistently favored those who opposed the use of filibusters to block civil rights legislation and he chaired a committee on government contracts that oversaw enforcement of nondiscrimination provisions of government contracts, recommending in his final report the establishment of "a positive policy of nondiscrimination" by employers, which he later supported as president. I would consider that impressive. How about you? And would you be surprised to find out that Governor Ronald Reagan of California opposed almost everything Nixon supported?
Nixon remains the only modern president whose personality, rhetoric, and image can be used with impunity to dismiss or ignore his concrete achievements, especially in the area of expanding civil rights enforcement in particular, and domestic reform in general. Every president that followed … Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr. have all been more conservative on domestic reform than Richard Nixon.
This will no doubt confound many of you and, in turn, ensure many heads are scratched. And that’s all right. Life is all about re-examining issues and educating ourselves on the facts.
I’m interested in your thoughts and look forward to reading them
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