The Nixon Effect: How Richard Nixon¿s Presidency Fundamentally Changed American Politics

by Douglas E. Schoen

Overview

The Nixon Effect examines the 37th president’s political legacy in broad-ranging ways that make clear, for the first time, the breadth and duration of his influence on American political life. The book argues that Nixon is the key political figure in postwar American politics in multiple ways, some barely acknowledged until now. His legacy includes a generational shift in the ideological orientations of both the Republican and Democratic parties; the Nixon influence, both intentional and unintentional, was to push both parties further out to their ideological poles. So stark was Nixon’s influence on party identities that it shaped the hardened partisan polarization in Washington today and the evolution of what has come to be called Red and Blue America.

Stemming in part from this, and also from Nixon’s scorched-earth political warfare and eventually his Watergate scandal, we have also seen the evolution of politics as war, where adversaries and ideological opponents are seen as evil or unpatriotic. Finally, Nixon’s pioneering tactics—from the identification of the Silent Majority to the Southern Strategy, from “triangulating” between both parties and claiming the political center to launching the culture war with attacks on “elites” in media, academia, and the courts—have shaped political communications and strategy ever since.

Other books have argued for Nixon’s importance, but Douglas E. Schoen’s is the first to take into account the full range of this fascinating man’s influence. While not discounting Nixon’s many misdeeds, Schoen treats his presidency and its importance with the seriousness—and evenhandedness—that the subject deserves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594037993
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	496,669
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Douglas Schoen has been one of the most influential Democratic campaign consultants for over thirty years. A founding partner and principal strategist for Penn, Schoen & Berland, he is widely recognized as one of the co-inventors of overnight polling. His political clients include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Indiana Governor Evan Bayh, and his corporate clients include AOL Time Warner, Procter & Gamble and AT&T. Internationally, he has worked for the heads of states of over 15 countries. He is the author of multiple books and his newest, End of Authority, was published at the end of 2013. Schoen is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and various other newspaper and online publications as well as Fox News.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Walking in Nixon's Shadow 1

Section I The Nixon: Record

Chapter 1 The Domestic Policy Pragmatist 23

Chapter 2 The Foreign Policy Visionary 55

Section II The Nixon: Influence

Chapter 3 Nixonizing the Republicans; Part One: The Southern Strategy and the Silent Majority 85

Chapter 4 Nixonizing the Democrats; Part One: Stealing the Domestic Center from Liberals 117

Chapter 5 Nixonizing the Republicans; Part Two: The Conservative Revolt 145

Chapter 6 Nixonizing the Democrats; Part Two: Vietnam, McGovern, and the End of National-Security Liberalism 175

Chapter 7 Triangulation Redux: How Bill Clinton Became a Nixon Heir 205

Chapter 8 They Didn't Listen to Nixon: Foreign Policy and Polarization under Bush and Obama 235

Section III The Nixon Legacy

Chapter 9 Watergate and the End of Bipartisan Politics 267

Chapter 10 Nixon's Final Comeback: The Postpresidency 299

Afterword: Nixon in 2016 327

Notes 335

Index 371