Fifty-six years ago in August 1968, Richard Nixon achieved what The New York Times called “the greatest reversal of fortune in American political history.” Times columnist James Reston went further, calling it “the greatest comeback since Lazarus.” This is from a newspaper, along with The Washington Post, that hated Nixon, as they now hate Donald Trump.
How did they do it and can they assume Republican presidential candidate and former president Trump learned anything from Nixon’s apparent transformation?
At first, the parallels between Nixon and Trump seem good. Nixon, like Trump, believed America was in dire straits. In 1968, crime, the war in Vietnam and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy have shocked and depressed the country. The Democratic National Convention will follow the GOP convention in late August. It featured street riots that shocked voters watching on TV. Many argue the riots helped Nixon win the presidency. Some of these problems, especially crime and social unrest, still exist today. Nixon has been a national figure for longer than Donald Trump, but Nixon appears to be aloof, uncomfortable with others, and has a personality that suggests awkwardness and insincerity.
The “New Nixon” is no longer scowled, his hair has grown back (can nod to the hippie era) and smiles more than in the sweaty 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy.
In his acceptance speech in Miami, Nixon alternated between what the Times called “notes of genuine grace and darker rumblings…
Trump is like that.
In the first debate scheduled with President Biden on June 27, Trump should consider presenting the “New Trump.” Critics might say that’s like asking a leopard to change places and that Trump can’t handle his narcissistic personality.
If they can, how can they? Trump needs to stop referring to Biden as a “crook.” Stick to the issues people care about – open borders and what’s happening, inflation (he can compare prices when he was president and now), war, school choice, defunding universities that allow antisemitic demonstrations on campus, revising the tax code to make it fairer and flatter so everyone has skin in the game, and how the $34 trillion national debt is unsustainable.
On this last point, Trump is vulnerable because he has added $8.4 trillion in debt. Trump should promise to create a bipartisan commission that will recommend to Congress ways to reduce the debt. Yes, that would include reforming Social Security and Medicare so they don’t break even, which everyone with an honest mind knows needs to be done.
Biden has few policy accomplishments, so he will be left to personally attack the “threat to democracy” posed by Trump. If Trump occasionally presents a soft response, he can soften Biden’s punches and confuse the often confused president. Remember Ronald Reagan’s line to President Jimmy Carter during the October 28, 1980 debate: “There’s more.”
Trump had some great lines in his speech to the people of The Bronx last week. They talk about reducing crime, cleaning up the subways, lowering taxes, and creating more jobs, but without detailing how some of these promises will be paid for, or fulfilled. If the words “we can’t go on like this”, it means everything now.
Short of changing religion or otherwise, I’m not sure Trump can make it back in time to make a difference, if at all. He seems comfortable as the “old Trump.” The political landscape is changing rapidly and may be even more rapidly following the results of the current and upcoming Trump trials. Like Reagan, Trump has experience in television and the medium allows for new, albeit unoriginal, views. That’s the purpose of make up.
“The New Nixon” was a cover for the old, real Nixon. Can Trump turn himself into the “new Trump” and mean it, or is it just fake? Either way, they can disrupt the political dynamics and expectations between now, debates and elections.
Readers can email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” ​​(HumanixBooks).
