Posted by Ilya Somin: A Priceless Memo from Richard Nixon: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_15-2007_07_21.shtml#1184637823
[1]Bonnie Goldstein links to a [2]newly released 1970 memo by Richard Nixon to his Chief of Staff (and future Watergate jailbird) H.R. Haldeman. You just can't make up stuff this good. The subject of the memo is Nixon's concern that the public doesn't view him as a warm" human being. This, in Nixon's view was extremely unfair. For example, it ignored his kindness in calling sick people "even though they no longer mean anything to anybody." Moreover, Nixon complained that he didn't get credit for not treating his staff and cabinet members like "dirt under my feet." "No President could have done more than I have done in this respect," Nixon opined. Nixon also complained that the press was ignoring "innumerable examples of warm items -the way we have gone far beyond any previous President in this century in breaking our backs to be nicey-nice to the Cabinet, staff, the Congress, etc,, around Christmastime." It's worth noting that Nixon uses the royal "we" to refer to himself throughout most of the memo. After listing these and other "innumerable examples" of his (or rather "our") good deeds, Nixon was careful to note that "one of the great factors that should be emphasized is that the President does not brag about the good things he does for people." (emphasis in the original). However, the memo is not entirely unintentional self-parody. A few of the things Nixon said are scarily accurate. Nixon's desire to create an image of warmth to complement his reputation for "efficiency" was the result of his realization that "effeciency and competence have precious little effect in determining whether Presidents are re-elected" (pg. 1 of the memo). Presidents who want to stay in office, Nixon explained, must also create a positive "mystique" about their personality. This statement is an exaggeration, but has important elements of truth. Indeed, Nixon's own landslide reelection in 1972 despite the disastrous nature of his policies (detente, wage and price controls, losing the Vietnam War, proposing massive expansions of the welfare state) is a prime example of the principle that good policy is often not the best way to win office. And, though Nixon never quite succeeded in fooling the public into believing he was a "warm" human being, he did successfully pose as an opponent of racial preferences, while actually establishing the first large-scale affirmative action programs (which angry white voters blamed on the Democrats, as Nixon had intended), and did succeed in portraying himself as a conservative despite pursuing the most liberal policy agenda of any post-World War II president (on both of these points, see historian Joan Hoff's book [3]Nixon Reconsidered; on affirmative action see also Hugh Davis Graham's [4]excellent book. Ironically, Nixon found it easier to deceive people about the nature and consequences of his policies than about his personal "warmth." References 1. http://www.slate.com/id/2170457/nav/ais/ 2. http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/donated/120470_nixon.pdf 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=uzBPnPPcoSoC&pg=PA317&lpg=PA317&dq=nixon+considered+hoff&source=web&ots=IFKIsiAyyA&sig=8-pOQnLxGC3eUwOzl1nKzvUzIfs#PPP1,M1 4. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Rights-Era-Development-1960-1972/dp/0195045319 _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
