NIXON

An Englishman confronts the North Cascades

Dr. Peter Dagley, University of Liverpool

Book review:  Nixon.  The making of a politician. By Stephan Ambrose.

This blog (“Frivolities”) perhaps is deceptively named.  I enjoy writing, and sitting at this keyboard, resting my joints while the pills kick in lets me imagine that my time is not being totally squandered.  I have one active blog devoted to cancer research (”Myrl’sBlog”).  Everything else goes here.  So, as difficult as it is to imagine Richard Nixon as a frivolity, maybe compared to cancer, he is.

In the Facebook frenzy following our late election I have seen Nixon equated with Donald Trump.  A greater misconception is difficult to imagine.  Nixon was a peculiar man, disliked by many, but he was extraordinarily intelligent, hard-working, and totally dedicated to political causes that – in his view – worked to the betterment of America.  His great defect, it seems to me, was that he regarded people on the other side of his issues as not only wrong, but dangerous – perhaps, at times, even a little  evil.  He was an “ends justify the means” sort of guy.  He was the quintessential politician.

Trump, in contrast, is the quintessential loose cannon.  Whereas Nixon thought deeply about issues, Trump, it seems, just goes with his gut.  Nixon had a well-thought-out political philosophy which he could defend; Trump seems to be guided solely by consideration of momentary expedience – and the aforesaid gut.  With Nixon you could predict what he would do, faced with various events; with Trump you don’t even want to guess.

Oh, yes – the book.  You don’t want to read it.  It is very well written and to me, a child of the 50s, darned interesting.  I enjoyed revisiting the events of that bygone age – lost in the midst of time, you might say.  But it is 670 pages long.  If you have never heard of Checkers or a good Republican cloth coat – give this one a pass.