POLITICS IS CHARACTER

A tricky legacy for Republicans (Eric Rauchway, June 10 2003, Financial Times)

Considering a black electorate that reliably voted for Democrats, he told his staffers about civil rights: "Don't expect any credit for what you do, or any real public relations gains, just do what is right and forget about it." Personally - as the tapes proved - he held unenlightened views of blacks. Politically, he believed he had little to gain in wooing them. But he rose above personal prejudice and political gain to do something approaching what was right. Unlike future presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, he supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964; as president he put $60m towards encouraging minority-owned businesses; and more schools were desegregated during his presidency than under any previous administration.

Though conservative businessmen paid for his campaigns, he viewed his presidential role as Keynesian and spent on deficit to relieve unemployment. In a time of economic crisis he cut taxes - 6m people paid no tax under his policy. And, his connections to industrial conglomerates notwithstanding, he created the Environmental Protection Agency and restricted offshore drilling for oil.

Nixon fancied himself as a conservative steward of the nation, like Benjamin Disraeli or Theodore Roosevelt. And, like them, he knew there was political advantage in solicitude towards the citizenry. By implementing moderate policies he won support at the margins of his constituency.

But Watergate killed these stirrings of Republican stewardship. The tapes shifted attention from Nixon's policies to his character. His subsequent downfall taught Republican analysts that competent government does not pay: instead, they counselled, court only the faithful and win others over by showing good character. Nixon's idea that a conservative president could gain votes by doing what was prudent for general welfare became a notion as quaint as hoop skirts.

Consequently, Mr Reagan radiated avuncularity while composing budgets that shovelled cash to the rich and made the US the world's biggest debtor. And genial George W. Bush is carrying this fiscal revolution further. No one believes his tax policy is an effective jobs bill, or that it benefits anyone as much as the well-off, although Mr Bush says otherwise. Wise heads may find this insistence insulting to Americans' intelligence; but without a revelation on the scale of Watergate, a people bewitched by apparent strength of character may not feel the injury until it is too late.

There is an alternative here that Mr. Rauchway, for obvious reasons, ignores, which is that one's politics is an expression of one's character. Thus Nixon expressed his contempt for his fellow men both by his despicable personal behavior and by his belief that his government should run their lives for them. Presidents Reagan and Bush, on the other hand, treat people with respect both in their personal interactions with them and in their political philosophy, which holds that folks are capable of taking responsibility for themselves. Mr. Rauchway's problem is not with the only "apparent strength of character" of Mr. Bush but that his own character is opposite. His is the philosophy of "stewardship", of contempt for his fellow citizens. No wonder he, like so many on the Left, is nostalgic for Richard Nixon, the quintessential liberal. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2003 11:00 AM