Sarah Palin is the New Nixon

Richard Nixon has been reborn -- in heels, with a pregnant unmarried daughter.

Despite the media's near-erotic obsession with Sarah Palin, conspicuously absent from the commentariat has been any chatter about the many parallels between her, and the original culture warrior Richard M. Nixon.

Yes, there are differences. So let me start with those to silence the objections in advance:

Nixon was a national figure when Eisenhower chose him, after the young anti-Communist crusader national prominence with the Alger Hiss case.

Nixon was really, really smart. He won scholarships to Harvard and Yale, but couldn't afford to go. He ended up at Duke Law School, where he was third in his class.

Nonetheless, the two of them have a creepy amount in common -- and not just because Nixon was a vice-presidential candidate on the ticket with one war hero, and Palin is filling the same attack dog role for another.

Nixon almost single-handedly created the political landscape that Palin romps in; a painfully polarized America defined by O'Reilly vs. Olbermann, your bumper sticker vs. mine, Nascar vs. NPR, arugula vs. Applebee's. It's an argument sizzlingly realized by Rick Perlstein in his recent book Nixonland.

Like Nixon, Palin draws stark lines: her paeans to the good people grown in small towns, to the pro-America part of America, is just a reiteration of Nixon's famous "silent majority."

And for both of them, the enemy of this Rockwellian American goodness is the chattering East coast elite. (Nixon's loathing goes deep; unable to attend the Ivy League, he always felt like the little boy with his face pressed against the sweet shop window the rest of his life.)

In his tapes, Nixon railed against the urban elite, with a special corner of rage reserved in his wounded heart for Jews and blacks. (The Palin tapes haven't been released yet.)

Indeed, Palin's attacks on the liberal media and those opposed to the war are eerily reminiscent of both Nixon's, and his own Vice President's. Spiro Agnew famously called them "an effete corps of impudent snobs" and "ideological eunuchs." (Well, actually it was William Safire who called them that; Agnew just delivered it.)

Like Nixon, Palin gleefully taps into fear, and is an expert demonizer. His anger boiled to the surface; hers does too, but is modulated by her everyday mom-ness. Both attract less-educated white males who share their hostility at the privileged elite.

They also have a parallel history. Nixon's first election was against Congressman Jerry Voorhis, whom he accused of being soft on communism. He next ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas for the Senate, and continued his red rantings, accusing her of being "pink right down to her underwear."

Palin's accusation that Senator Obama "pals around with terrorists" is the post-9/11 version of the Cold War charge of coddling Commies. Ayers is her Alger Hiss.

And Governor Palin also has her own equivalent of the Voorhis/Dougas smears. As Salon reported:

"Even though Palin knew that Stein is a Protestant Christian, from a Pennsylvania Dutch background, her campaign began circulating the word that she would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor. Some of Stein's supporters interpreted this as an attempt to portray Stein as Jewish in the heavily evangelical community."

Salon goes on to provide another dirty tricks example:

"The Palin campaign also started another vicious whisper campaign, spreading the word that Stein and his wife -- who had chosen to keep her own last name when they were married -- were not legally wed. Again, Palin knew the truth, Stein said, but chose to muddy the waters. 'We actually had to produce our marriage certificate," recalled Stein, whose wife died of breast cancer in 2005 without ever reconciling with Palin."

Reports out of Alaska -- including the investigation into abuses of power regarding the firing of her brother-in-law Trooper Mike Wooten -- more than suggest a Nixonian cast to her personality: grudge-holding, a casual disregard for limits to power, seeing oneself as a victim of political persecution.

Lastly, there is the matter of a wardrobe controversy. In 1952, Nixon was dangerously close to getting tossed off the vice-presidential ticket for financial shenanigans. He saved his campaign by getting on TV and giving his famous Checkers speech, in which he celebrated his humble virtues and his wife Pat's "respectable Republican cloth coat." Governor Palin has today's equivalent: the issue of her far-from-humble $150,000 designer garb.

If Sarah Palin loses, though, I doubt if there'll be a "You Won't Have Palin to Kick Around Anymore" speech. Like Nixon, she is likely to have many political lives. And besides, the prospect of a Palin Enemies List is just too appealing. To her, and to us.

Comments

[jesther]

Please correct me if necessary, but did not: Nixon release his medical records?

[nowalnuts]

I saw someone wearing a pin the other day that said, "I never thought I'd miss Nixon." It's actually a huge compliment to Sarah to compare her to him and not one I think she deserves. It's hard to give the Checkers speech when you're the kind of Pit Bull that slaughters any animal that comes near you or your plane.

[bluedogintheoc]

Sarah had a dream
To be seen in big bright lights;
Running rampant over reason
Science and women's rights.

She think we can not see
Past the pretty face;
But brains we have and vote we shall,
And put her in her place

word to your mutha VOTE!

[suhud]

I want to see her upper lip sweat...

[feo]

The differences seem obvious. Where one could agree or disagree with Nixon, one can rarely comprehend what Palin is blathering about. That's because Nixon knew what he was talking about even when trying to be deceptive, where Palin has no idea of what she's saying outside of linking a few buzzwords together.

[jusion]

"Palin has no idea of what she's saying outside of linking a few buzzwords together."

As opposed to Obama's "Hope and Change", "Uniter, not a Divider", and other similar nonsense.

[jusion]

There are, in fact, two Americas --- one believes in American exceptionalism and the other doesn't. For most of our history, American exceptionalism has run in the veins of both parties, with the Democratic presidents of the first two-thirds of the 20th century being among its most noted proponents, vigorously asserting American power in the name of transcendent ideals.
But after Vietnam, something broke in the Democrats, who came to believe that power was dangerous, that assertion was folly, and that patriotic displays were signs of a slavish obedience, simplistic thinking, unwarranted arrogance, and extremely bad taste. Hubert Humphrey, a Cold War liberal who ran and lost narrowly in the 1968 presidential contest, was perhaps the last nominee of his party to be wholly at home with the World War II language of righteousness and victory.

The pollster Scott Rasmussen in the course of the 2004 election discovered a deep partisan divide on the issue of American exceptionalism. "Bush voters agree, by an 83-to-7 percent margin, that America is generally fair and decent," Michael Barone summarized Rasmussen's findings. "Kerry voters also agree but only by 46 to 37 percent. Fully 81 percent of Bush voters believe that the world would be a better place if other countries were more like the United States. Only 48 percent of Kerry voters agree. Almost all Republican voters believe in American exceptionalism. Only about half of Democratic voters do."

[Rapid Ray]

I had her pegged more like Spiro Agnew.

Agnew wrote a fictional novel called "The Canfield Decision" after resigning as Vice President in 1973 about the destruction of a promising political career.

Some excerpts...

"They need the saints and devils, the people-lovers and people-haters, the honey and the venom which are the raw materials of titillating stories."

"the country is under attack by professional critics with an unlimited supply of ink and microphones."

Looks like Palin's role of the distracting and divisive pit bull is not so unique after all. Like Agnew, she has no reservations in voicing her condemnation of the news media.

Much like Agnew's Canfield character, arrogance and pride cause moral blind spots that turn the rising politician's career into a downfall.

[mergina]

Palin will NEVER be back on the National Scene.

[thepalinator]

The divisiveness of Sarah Palin is why I really can't imagine McCain/Palin winning next week. Although I remain terrified of the prospect. How can someone who clearly means to go to Washington only for those who populate HER real America win? How can someone who obviously dislikes nine tenths of the America population win?

[DeputyDawg]

My apologies to the author because I just can't reconcile the disparity in intellect when comparing Nixon to Palin.

Unlike Palin, Nixon could hold his own and intellectually dominate any conversation. That ability was the reason for his longevity and resilience. Palin will never gain the support of the conservative elite, she is merely flavor of the month.

As Martin Sheen so aptly put it, "there's so much less to her than meets the eye."

[SocialistScare]

The key difference between the two is that Nixon was a dangerous Socialist...if the Palin/McCain argument against Obama raising the top tax rate is to be believed.

Obama proposes to return the top rate to 39.6% in his plan (someone correct me if that is not the exact number); which makes him a terrifying danger to the Republic.

What does that say about Nixon then, when the top tax rate during his entire tenure as president was...70%; as it was under Johnson, Ford, and Carter. They all must have been worse than Marx given the thunder of the McCain warning over the 39.6% number.

But those presidents pale in comparison to their Marxist forebears like Eisenhower and Kennedy who presided over top tax rates of...choke...91%.

And how about Reagan? During the first 5 years of his presidency, the top rate was 50%. Commie bastard!

Obama's socialist leanings tie him to lesser, still well known socialists who taxed the top at the same rate he proposes; radicals like Bush 1 (who raised the top rate to the same 39.6% as proposed by Obama) and Bill Clinton.

Who is Barack Obama indeed?

[IsupportedMcCainIn2000]

Nixon was a divisive force in our history, but I think he was fundamentally different from Palin in at least 5 ways:

(1) He was a patriot. His vision of what was best for America might have been repugnant to me, but I never doubted that he was driven by that vision and not by narrower self-interest.
(2) Despite Checkers, he didn't do bribes -- no contractors renovated his house for free.
(3) He had a stronger reputation for personal loyalty and inspired deep loyalty in others.
(4) He was not deeply religious and was certainly not anti-scientific
(5) He studied hard and developed a deep understanding of the economy and of international affairs. Many people considered Nixon despicable but I don't know of anyone who considered him clueless

[DavidBlackburn]

Yeah, and Sarah Palin only loves a part of America - Republicans. Does she really believe she could reform Washington when she can't even say 'no' to how Republicans dress her?

[mstew99]

I hope you're right, but I'm worried that she is more likely Huey Long in a dress.

[Mover]

I find it humorous that you use a Democrat (Huey Long) as your example.

Now that's funny. I don't care who you are.

[DCato]

More like J Edgar Hoover in a dress - oh, wait a minute, that was J Edgar Hoover.

[wendynyc]

Good - if she's around I don't think we'll have dull campaigns or elections. As long as she loses!!