Nixon: 1st Communist President?

[Stan Upchurch]

When Reagan was in college and just starting acting he believed that the Communist party was what was best for this country. by the time he was elected the head of the actors guild he had changed his mind. The McArthur years caused many young actors to change. Later in life he said he had just been interested in a girl, who was a member, but he paid dues and carried a card.

 

[Old Fart]

Hence the term Reagan Republicans.

 

[Wheel Gun]

Nixon is hard to categorize, since those were just very different times for the Republican party. Congress was hard left and all powerful. The GOP was basically an intermural team next to the Dem's varsity. And, the GOP really was, back then, sort of the country club party.

Many people call Nixon a progressive and I think that can be defended. The truth is that domestic policy just wasn't very important to him. He was okay with taking positions to the left because he just didn't care that much. He just saw that as political stuff. So, he had a far left Congress, a moderate-to-left GOP and a good dose of disinerest. His interests were the Cold War, Vietnam and China.

It's just hard to peg him into a category by today's standards.

 

[Hobbes]

Maybe.

If you go strictly by his actions and policies you have to conclude he was a hardcore trotskyite communist.
At least the way we define commies these days.