The Moderation of Nixon

Key Insights:

* We may well face a generation of right-wing culture war-fueled minority rule in this country.

* American Progressives have proven bad at making alliances with moderate conservatives—and at giving conservative voters reasons to vote for moderates.

* Worry most about American national decline—which is happening anyway.

* American exceptionalism and America as a “city upon a hill” for the world—that is gone. We are no longer a model to emulate, but a horrible warning of a society gone wrong.

* The things that are real to progressives are fake: democracy is not going to be destroyed by the failure to pass the John Lewis voting rights act, but by state legislature-level nullification

* The thngs that are real to Republicans are fake: what is being taught to students is not “critical race theory” but simply “history”, vaccines are not a plot to control us, and the 2020 election was not stolen.

* The Republican b******t is more egregious, but progressive b******t is still b******t. The saying both sides have b******t does not mean they are equivalent.

* The best we can hope for is simple exhaustion on both sides.

* But every time we try to get out, they pull us back in.

* Hexapodia!

References:

* Geoffrey Kabaservice: Rule & Ruin: the Downfall of Moderation & the destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party <https://archive.org/details/ruleruindownfall0000kaba>

* Geoffrey Kabaservice: The Forever Grievance <https://www.niskanencenter.org/op-ed-the-forever-grievance/>

* Geoffrey Kabaservice: Vital Center Podcast <https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-vital-center-podcast/>

* Steve Levitzky & Dan Ziblatt: How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future <https://archive.org/details/HowDemocraciesDieStevenLevitsky>

* William F. Buckley: God & Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom <https://archive.org/details/godmanatyale0000unse>

* William F. Buckley & L. Brent Bozell: McCarthy & His Enemies: The Record & Its Meaning <https://archive.org/details/mccarthyhisenemi00buck>

* Rick Perlstein: Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater & the Unmaking of the American Consensus <https://archive.org/details/beforestormbarry0000perl_k0s0>

* Dwight D. Eisenhower: 1954 Letter to Edgar N. Eisenhower <https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/07/dwight-d-eisenhower-1954-letter-to-edgar-newton-eisenhower-weekend-reading.html>

+, of course:

* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://books.google.com/books?id=fCCWWgZ7d6UC>