Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSlate on 2 different losers - "Trump Isn't Nixon"
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/04/trump_isn_t_nixon.htmlNixon read books, for one thing.
By Isaac Chotiner
The ghost of Richard Nixon seems to be hovering over our political moment, with paranoia once again gripping the West Wing and talk of wiretapping commanding column inches. But for all the comparisons between Nixon and Donald Trumpa fondness for ranting about perceived enemies, a distaste for norms and niceties, a collection of morally grotesque top advisersNixon and Trump are also different in crucial ways. In his new book on the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon: The Life, John A. Farrell tells Nixons life story in a single volume. The book is full of harsh assessments ofand fresh reporting onNixons dirty tricks. But Farrell also does his best to humanize Nixon for readers and explain the origins of the former presidents inner demons.
I spoke by phone with Farrell, who has also written books about Clarence Darrow and Tip ONeill. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed the two warring sides of Nixon, his strange relationship with JFK, and the similarities between the Nixon tapes and a certain persons late-night tweets.
Isaac Chotiner: What did you find most surprising about spending so much time with Richard Nixon, so to speak?
John A. Farrell: I think I was surprised at how much empathy I developed for him along the way. I think biographers grow sympathetic for all their characters. Nixon was somebody that I knew more than as a caricature, but I didnt know thoroughly well. I knew about the Checkers speech. I had some thoughts about his upbringing. But I didnt really know until I got into the weeds about what a tortured, driven guy he was and how sometimes hed try to do well, and yet this self-destructive flaw always undermined him in the end. I guess there are some people like Hitler and Mussolini that you couldnt write a book about with empathy. I included everything tough about Nixon in the book, and yet I also tried to show him as a tortured human being.
One paradox of your book is that Nixon is simultaneously extremely dishonest and extremely sincere.
Im not a psychologist, but I was struck by the fact that the two sides of him seemed to mirror the two sides of his parents. His father was really an unlikable person. He was a blowhard. He worked his family to the bone. He used to hire Dicks cousins to help out in the family stores, and then he would leave dimes on the windowsill so that when they were cleaning, they would come across the dimes, and he would test them to make sure they werent cheating him. Thats the kind of guy he was. He once refused to carry groceries for an eight-month-pregnant woman who lived across the street because he was feuding with them over something. Just a real rough guy and a crude sort of populist as well.
His mother came from progressive Republicans who admired Teddy Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, Woodrow Wilson. The western Quakers were different from the eastern Quakers but still had that Quaker tradition of pacifism and brotherhood. But she was a little bit weird in her own way, in that she was something like JFKs mother, a religious zealot who would retreat into her closet to pray. The most famous remark that Nixon ever said about her was, My mother never told me that she loved me, nor did she have to because I knew. And that was typical Nixon to always add the qualifier that undermined the first part of the sentence.
So I think that you had these two warring sides in him, and his own personality had equal parts of this dreamy Quaker vision to do something great and look great in the eyes of his mom, and at the same time, the lessons that he had learned from his father. There was a great anecdote that I didnt put in the book of Nixon campaigning in 68, and a Secret Service guy walking down the aisle of the airplane, and there is Nixon pounding his hand into the armrest of his chair saying, Got to be tougher. Got to be tougher. Got to be tougher. So thats my armchair psychology.
Armrest psychology.
Right.
______snip___________ - much more. Worthwhile read.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
0 replies, 2159 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (8)
ReplyReply to this post