Obama is more conservative than the founder of modern conservatism

Obama is more conservative than the founder of modern conservatism.

Nixon is the true founder of modern conservatism. He took the conservative mantle from the discredited McCarthy and Goldwater, crafted the southern strategy by way of exploiting the fears of whites, and spent two decades warning that the Democrats couldn’t be trusted on national security, or anything else. Nixon, rather than Reagan, would have confirmed his place in history as the founder of the New Right if he hadn’t flamed out in Watergate. Reagan simply built on Nixon’s work.

So all you wingnuts who are screeching that Obama is practically a Marxist, try to remember that Obama is actually to the right of the founder of the conservative movement, Richard Nixon.


You think Obama is all about Big Gummint? Nixon proposed Medicare for all, which is much more liberal than the Obama plan. Nixon increased Social Security, Medicare, food aid and public assistance. He set up the EPA, OSHA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Council on Environmental Quality, allowing Big Gummint to get uppity with corporations on unsafe air, water and consumer products. He imposed wage and price controls. He presented a pretty big budget and proclaimed “Now I am a Keynesian”.

You think Obama isn’t as gutsy as Bush on foreign policy? Nixon gave away Vietnam to the Communists, made peace agreements with our most dangerous allies in Russia and China, and ended the draft.

You think Obama is a social liberal? Nixon supported the pro-choice movement and the ERA for women; he played a huge role in desegregating schools, signed Title IX, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and the Comprehensive Child Development Act.

And…he launched the first federal affirmative action plan. Skeery brown folks are taking our jobs! That was Nixon who launched that.


So what have we learned here?

First, Obama is actually to the right of Nixon, so all the teabag protests that Obama is to the left of Mao are just plain absurd.

Second, Nixon would never survive in today’s Republican party. The racist wing of the GOP – which he helped create 40 years ago – would destroy him if he ran today. Today’s GOP is so hate-filled that even one of their most famous hate-mongers, Nixon, would no longer be welcome.