These days, the mainstream media is replete with articles examining the Make America Great Movement (MAGA). Most of these articles paint former President Donald Trump, and other MAGA politicians and their supporters,as “far-right extremists”, “hard right”, or as a “far-right movement.”
These articles are, simply put, just plain wrong.
MAGA is nothing more than a movement that embodies the resurrection of an old-style Republican faction that wasorganized around former President Richard Nixon. In other words, they are nothing more than updated Nixon Republicans, and as such, they are actually more moderate than are members of the Reagan Republican faction. And in some ways, they are also more moderate(especially on trade, social security reform, and social issues) than were members of the (Bush) GOP establishment faction.
Richard Nixon first became known in the 1940s, when he was first considered a “right-wing” candidate. Nixon was considered a right-winger because he was a hard charging, anti-communist warrior, who bashed Democrats. In 1952, he was chosen by the more moderate Republican Presidential nominee, Dwight Eisenhower, to balance the ticket, based on ideology, age, and state of origin. And in 1960, after eight years as Vice President, it was Nixon’s turn, and he was nominated for President, narrowly losing (?) the Presidency.
However, in 1964, Senator Barry Goldwater was nominated for President, and forever changed the definition of what was a Republican “conservative”. He was strongly in favor of smaller government, reducing entitlements, less taxes and regulations, and a proponent of social conservatism on abortion, guns, gay rights, and other matters. Goldwater lost that race, but his changes tothe Republican party became permanent.
So, in 1968, Richard Nixon ran again for the Presidencyduring the GOP convention. Nixon deliberately ran to the left of the Goldwater heir apparent, Governor Ronald Reagan of California, but to the right of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who was the candidate of the more liberal GOP establishment. And because Nixon was well-known nationally, had a “moderate” reputation, and had been almost alone among prominent non-Goldwater faction leaders to endorse Goldwater, he was able to win some support from both factions, and the GOP nomination.
In the 1968 general election, Richard Nixon faced Democrat Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ran this year, and later in 1972, as the candidate of the American middle class’s “silent majority”, the people who he said were not extremists on the right or left, and simply wanted the U.S. to prosper, and to behave competently and rationally, but also moderately. Nixon called out the Democrats for their weakness in Vietnam, and demanded a “fair and equitable settlement” of the war. Nixon’s position was not as hawkish as outgoing President Lyndon Johnon’s position had been, but it was far more hawkish than the other Democrats were becoming. Nixon also attacked Democrats for being too weak and naive in general when it came to our foreign enemies, such as theSoviets. He painted Democrats as in favor of far-left social issues – in 1972, the Democrats were lambasted for their support of “acid, abortion, and amnesty” (for fleeing the Vietnam draft). He attacked the Democrats for their “soft on crime attitude”, and called for “law and order” to stop the chaos it was causing on city streets. Especially in 1972, Nixon made a push to snag the support of Big Labor and the votes of ordinary labor union members, which largely succeeded.
Now, let’s fast forward to 2024. Former President Donald Trump is currently facing a primary campaign against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and UN Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (and some others). In this race, Trump is acting like Nixon did in 1968, triangulating between a more right-wing DeSantis of the Reaganite faction and the more left-wing Haley of the Bush/Rockefeller/GOP establishment faction. In this race, Trump has come out with a more liberal position on abortion than DeSantis. He has hit DeSantis on Social Security and Medicare reform. While President, Trump overall had a good record on gun rights, but he has clearly positioned himself to the left of DeSantis there as well. The same with his record on crime. And he was one of the first prominent Republicans to support gay marriage.
Meanwhile, Trump has attacked Nikki Haley and GOP establishment Republicans from the right, labeling them as subservient to corporations, and complaining that they:favor internationalism rather than America First policies,and endorse the importation of vast numbers of low skilled illegal immigrants into the U.S. to take menial jobs.
At the same time that the primary campaign is playing out, we can also see what is happening in the general election campaign against Joe Biden. Donald Trump is obviously continuing his campaign to represent Nixon’s “silent majority.” Trump has attacked Biden and Democrats, for being weak on crime, and for not promoting “law and order”. He has routinely disparaged Biden for being weak and appeasing towards our nation’s enemies. Trump is making a play to appeal to union members and Big Labor. And he has even condemned Biden and the Democrats for their “woke” policies, the modern day version of “acid, abortion and amnesty.”
The fact that Donald Trump is revisiting and reusing Richard Nixon’s political playbook should not be that much of a surprise to objective observers. Donald Trump actually carried on an extensive correspondence with Richard Nixon in the 1980’s, in which the future Presidentfrequently and effusively praised the former President. And they share a political consultant - Roger Stone*, a former Nixon protégé, who began to work for Trump (also)in the 80’s. Roger Stone is such a big fan of Richard Nixon that he went to the radical extreme of tattooing a picture of the 37th President on his back.
In his book on the 2016 campaign, Roger Stone explicitlycompares and praises Trump and Nixon for being “more pragmatic, interested in what will work, as opposed to what is philosophically pure” than Ronald Reagan, whom Stone also worked for. He is just acknowledging the obvious – the mainstream media is wrong, and Trump is following in the more moderate footsteps of Richard Nixon. He, and his MAGA supporters, are not “hard-right” in any sense of the term. Not that I expect any of this to change the mainstream media’s talking point on this.
*Full disclosure – I worked on the 2003-2004 campaign for (then) Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter. Roger Stone was Specter’s chief consultant. Specter, btw, was often compared to Richard Nixon, as they had similar ideological profiles and, as the staff often joked, had almost identical voices.