Is Trump channeling Nixon in preparing to claim the GOP nomination?
In 1968, Richard Nixon offered leadership to a nation in turmoil at home and facing challenges abroad. Nixon’s formula: “law and order” at home and a restoration of American power and prestige abroad. The 1968 Republican nominee faced an establishment Democrat who faced a strong pull to the left. Capitalizing on widespread fear and loathing, Nixon made himself the one.
As a public service, I have abridged Nixon’s acceptance speech to the 1968 GOP convention. I have cut portions that amount to BOMFOG (platitudes about the “brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of god”) and some passages that addressed issues specific to 1968. I also added “sub-heds” at the start of different sections, to help telegraph the themes. A major theme of Nixon’s thinking (as with Trump) was a call for a restoration of American power and greatness. Nixon specifically harkened back to the glory years of the Eisenhower administration, in which Nixon happened to serve as V.P.
What follows is a large portion of Nixon’s speech, which could easily be delivered this week.
Keep this text handy Thursday night as Trump accepts the nomination:
Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida
August 8, 1968
[ABRIDGED BY CHRIS DALY, July 18, 2016]
Mr. Chairman, delegates to this convention, my fellow Americans.
We are going to win because at a time that America cries out for the unity that this Administration has destroyed, the Republican Party — after a spirited contest for its nomination, for President and for Vice President — stands united before the nation tonight.
I congratulate Governor Reagan. I congratulate Governor Rockefeller. I congratulate Governor Romney. I congratulate all those who have made the hard fight that they have for this nomination. And I know that you will all fight even harder for the great victory our party is going to win in November because we’re going to be together in that election campaign.
And a party that can unite itself will unite America.
* * *
THE MESS WE’RE IN
As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame.
We hear sirens in the night.
We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad.
We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish.
Did we come all this way for this?
Did American boys die in Normandy, and Korea, and in Valley Forge for this?
THE SILENT MAJORITY
Listen to the answer to those questions.
It is another voice. It is the quiet voice in the tumult and the shouting.
It is the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans — the non-shouters; the non-demonstrators.
They are not racists or sick; they are not guilty of the crime that plagues the land.
They are black and they are white — they’re native born and foreign born — they’re young and they’re old.
They work in America’s factories.
They run America’s businesses.
They serve in government.
They provide most of the soldiers who died to keep us free.
They give drive to the spirit of America.
They give lift to the American Dream.
They give steel to the backbone of America. They are good people, they are decent people; they work, and they save, and they pay their taxes, and they care.
Like Theodore Roosevelt, they know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in.
This I say to you tonight is the real voice of America. In this year 1968, this is the message it will broadcast to America and to the world.
Let’s never forget that despite her faults, America is a great nation.
And America is great because her people are great.
IT’S ALL THE DEMOCRATS’ FAULT
America is in trouble today not because her people have failed but because her leaders have failed.
And what America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
And this great group of Americans, the forgotten Americans, and others know that the great question Americans must answer by their votes in November is this: Whether we shall continue for four more years the policies of the last five years.
And this is their answer and this is my answer to that question.
When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war [FAR AWAY] with no end in sight;
When the richest nation in the world can’t manage its own economy;
When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness;
When a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence;
And when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration — then it’s time for new leadership for the United States of America.
ELECT A REAL LEADER
My fellow Americans, tonight I accept the challenge and the commitment to provide that new leadership for America.
And I ask you to accept it with me.
And let us accept this challenge not as a grim duty but as an exciting adventure in which we are privileged to help a great nation realize its destiny.
And let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth — to see it like it is, and tell it like it is — to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth — that’s what we will do.
We’ve had enough of big promises and little action.
The time has come for honest government in the United States of America.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
Look at our problems abroad. Do you realize that we face the stark truth that we are worse off in every area of the world tonight than we were when President Eisenhower left office eight years ago. That’s the record. And there is only one answer to such a record of failure and that is a complete housecleaning of those responsible for the failures of that record. The answer is a complete re-appraisal of America’s policies in every section of the
world.
For [MANY] years this Administration has had at its disposal the greatest military and economic advantage that one nation has ever had over another in any war in history.
For [MANY] years, America’s fighting men have set a record for courage and sacrifice unsurpassed in our history.
For [MANY] years, this Administration has had the support of the Loyal Opposition for the objective of seeking an honorable end to the struggle.
Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively.
And if after all of this time and all of this sacrifice and all of this support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership — not tied to the mistakes and the policies of the past. That is what we offer to America.
SMALL, POOR COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN RIPPING US OFF
All of America’s peace-keeping institutions and all of America’s foreign commitments must be re-appraised. Over the past twenty-five years, America has provided more than one-hundred and fifty billion dollars in foreign aid to nations abroad.
In Korea and now again in Vietnam, the United States furnished most of the money, most of the arms; most of the men to help the people of those countries defend themselves against aggression.
Now we are a rich country. We are a strong nation. We are a populous nation. But there are two hundred million Americans and they’re two billion people that live in the Free World.
And I say the time has come for other nations in the Free World to bear their fair share of the burden of defending peace and freedom around this world.
What I call for is not a new isolationism. It is a new internationalism in which America enlists its allies and its friends around the world in those struggles in which their interest is as great as ours.
* * *
LOOK OUT, WORLD!
We extend the hand of friendship to all people, to the Russian people, to the Chinese people, to all people in the world.
And we shall work toward the goal of an open world — open skies, open cities, open hearts, open minds.
The next eight years, my friends, this period in which we are entering, I think we will have the greatest opportunity for world peace but also face the greatest danger of world war of any time in our history.
And as we commit to new policies for America tonight, let us make one further pledge:
For five years hardly a day has gone by when we haven’t read or heard a report of the American flag being spit on; an embassy being stoned; a library being burned; or an ambassador being insulted some place in the world. And each incident reduced respect for the United States until the ultimate insult inevitably occurred.
And I say to you tonight that when respect for the United States of America falls so low that a fourth-rate military power, like North Korea, will seize an American naval vessel on the high seas, it is time for new leadership to restore respect for the United States of America.
My friends, America is a great nation.
And it is time we started to act like a great nation around the world. . .
* * *
Today, too often, America is an example to be avoided and not followed.
A nation that can’t keep the peace at home won’t be trusted to keep the peace abroad.
A President who isn’t treated with respect at home will not be treated with respect abroad.
A nation which can’t manage its own economy can’t tell others how to manage theirs.
If we are to restore prestige and respect for America abroad, the place to begin is at home in the United States of America.
* * *
LAW AND ORDER
And tonight, it is time for some honest talk about the problem of order in the United States.
. . . the first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence, and that right must be guaranteed in this country.
And if we are to restore order and respect for law in this country there is one place we are going to begin. We are going to have a new Attorney General of the United States of America.
I pledge to you that our new Attorney General will be directed by the President of the United States to launch a war against organized crime in this country.
. . .The wave of crime is not going to be the wave of the future in the United States of America.
We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.
And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply:
Our goal is justice for every American. If we are to have respect for law in America, we must have laws that deserve respect.
Just as we cannot have progress without order, we cannot have order without progress, and so, as we commit to order tonight, let us commit to progress.
And this brings me to the clearest choice among the great issues of this campaign.
For the past five years we have been deluged by government programs for the unemployed; programs for the cities; programs for the poor. And we have reaped from these programs an ugly harvest of frustration, violence and failure across the land.
And now our opponents will be offering more of the same — more billions for government jobs, government housing, government welfare.
I say it is time to quit pouring billions of dollars into programs that have failed in the United States of America. . .
* * *
I KNOW WHAT BLACKS WANT
. . .Black Americans, no more than white Americans, they do not want more government programs which perpetuate dependency.
They don’t want to be a colony in a nation.
They want the pride, and the self-respect, and the dignity that can only come if they have an equal chance to own their own homes, to own their own businesses, to be managers and executives as well as workers, to have apiece of the action in the exciting ventures of private enterprise.
I pledge to you tonight that we shall have new programs which will provide that equal chance.
We make great history tonight. . .
* * *
WAVE THAT FLAG!
I see a day when Americans are once again proud of their flag. When once again at home and abroad, it is honored as the world’s greatest symbol of liberty and justice.
I see a day when the President of the United States is respected and his office is honored because it is worthy of respect and worthy of honor.
I see a day when every child in this land, regardless of his background, has a chance for the best education our wisdom and schools can provide, and an equal chance to go just as high as his talents will take him.
. . .
I see a day when we will again have freedom from fear in America and freedom from fear in the world.
I see a day when our nation is at peace and the world is at peace and everyone on earth — those who hope, those who aspire, those who crave liberty — will look to America as the shining example of hopes realized and dreams achieved.
* * *
My fellow Americans, the long dark night for America is about to end.
The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn — a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.”
[Citation: Richard Nixon: “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida,” August 8, 1968. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25968.]
