Saying goodbye to Richard Nixon 45 years ago…

And, you know… this might not be such an out of whack thought…

The current Republican Party isn’t the party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. It isn’t a conservative party. It’s the party, instead, of Nixon and Gingrich. And that’s why it’s a dysfunctional mess, and a problem for the nation.

And with the typical “but… what about” on some the  tapping of Richard Nixon as the ironic “Last Liberal President”…

We can get at this a couple of ways. One is that everyone should be very careful about what “Nixon” did, as opposed to what the government did while he was president. Give Nixon the Congress and the policy environment of 1947 — or 1997 — and you get very different results.

From the left, Counterpunch, we get another dismantling of the “further to the left”, arguing it can’t even be argued against the neo-liberal Obama.

There is one thought here, with reflection of the Republican Party — and the manner of how the Primaries are working to redefine moderates as standard run of the mill conservative… we do have the sniping of Charles Goodell in favor of Chris Buckley.
… with standard phrases of demagoguery.

Key to this crypto-primary fight… Goodell had a voting record more in line with Nixon’s domestic agenda than such Conservative stalwarts as Barry Goldwater — but his deviations were to the left, and Nixon had use for a right flank but not a left flank.  Further, the main thrust of agitation against the Moderate Republicans — some opposition to foreign policy — this had to be a partisan crudgel and Goodell was ruining that score.

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