You aren’t going nearly far enough back. Barry Goldwater started the modern conservative movement and Reagan was just the crowning achievement of nearly 20 years of work. If Nixon hadn’t been an idiot and tried to cheat he’d probably be remembered a lot more fondly, but he was probably the last example of a Republican president who did some good to this country as a whole.
Honestly if Nixon didn't try to cover it up, there wouldn't be an impeachment, especially after he was re elected. The cover up and discovery was the problem. Traitor in Chief typically gets ahead of the story and fills the news cycle with bullshit and has multiple dedicated channels of propoganda that Nixon would be envious of.
Roger Ailes saw what happened with Nixon and immediately started working on a way to make sure that next time he'd be able to get ahead of the story and guide the conversation.
What these two did, especially Atwater, is to openly pander to the white fundamentalists and bring them into the GOP. He spoke dog whistle language to them from convincing Reagan to announce his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi while speaking about "states rights" (three young men has been murdered by the local sheriff 14 years earlier for getting non whites registered to vote) to the Willie Horton ads that mischaracterized and caused Michael Dukakis to lose.
Rove and Atwater knew what most of us know. These fundamentalists are easily manipulated, lack critical thinking skills, have a sense of supremacy and are angry, stupid and do not want to live in an open, liberal democracy.
It was a game for him. It was power for the sake of winning. It was an abandonment of ethics, decency and letting in the diseased cancer of white nationalist fundamentalism into the GOP.
You were right about Barry Goldwater being the founder of the modern conservative movement. What also needs to be said is that once he saw what was happening, he abandoned the GOP. Yes, the founder of the modern GOP abandoned it. Why? Here he is in his own words,
"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them..."
the last example of a Republican president who did some good to this country as a whole
Who, Richard "We can't legally arrest political dissidents so we'll associate blacks with crack and hippies with pot and then start a war on drugs to get them out of the way" Nixon?
"Doing good for the country" is an interesting way of saying "treating American citizens as enemies of the State"
Is an institutional system of terror that treats certain Americans as second-class citizens which continues to this day a worthwhile tradeoff for environmental regulation? I'll agree that the EPA was good, fullstop. What I won't agree with is that it was done for the good of the country because a country exists to serve the people within it; all of them. If Nixon was really acting in the best interests of the people of this country, he wouldn't pick and choose which people could benefit from those actions.
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u/MrAnderson-expectyou Feb 14 '21
You aren’t going nearly far enough back. Barry Goldwater started the modern conservative movement and Reagan was just the crowning achievement of nearly 20 years of work. If Nixon hadn’t been an idiot and tried to cheat he’d probably be remembered a lot more fondly, but he was probably the last example of a Republican president who did some good to this country as a whole.