There are several ways that Richard Nixon left negative imprints on American life and culture. One, of course, is “Watergate,” the term that is now a reference for misdeeds in the highest office—something that President Trump is repeating and exceeding. Another is the Southern strategy, Nixon’s appeal to white voters in the South by playing to racism against African Americans.
But there is one more thing that Nixon did as part of his Southern strategy. He convinced much of America that the country could not do anything right.
I kept thinking of that successful trick as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of putting a man on the moon. Amazingly, Nixon pulled this hoax at the same time that the country was accomplishing that great feat.
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy made the brash declaration: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more exciting, or more impressive, or more important for the long-range exploration of space, and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”
At the time, I was a part of the chorus of people arguing that a better use of those billions of dollars would be to address something on earth, in this country, like a massive attack on poverty as was being advocated by Martin Luther King in his Poor People’s Campaign. However, then as now, I had to recognize the great achievement of NASA, a government agency.
With the blueprint provided by Kevin Phillips, a Republican party strategist, Nixon found a way to swing southern Democrats (Dixiecrats) to the Republican party—appealing to their grievances against the federal government which was passing civil rights legislation giving African Americans legal standing and disrupting the ways of the South.
Rather than helping whites to accept needed change, Nixon validated their complaints, which often included the idea that the federal government should stay out of the states’ affairs. Nixon found a way to do that by pushing the idea that the federal government could not do anything right. And the public—especially the South–bought it “hook, line, and sinker,” never mind World War II, the GI Bill, the growth of science, and the moon landing and return.
After he was elected, Nixon went further with his Southern strategy. He succeeded in getting Congress to go along with his “new federalism” plan. This revenue-sharing plan returned a percentage of federal tax revenues to state and local governments. With “block grants,” the state or local governments were allowed to use the funds as they chose, rather than being told how to use them by the federal government. This freedom with the funds resulted in a smaller portion of aid for the poor going to the poor.
The idea that the federal government cannot do anything right is pervasive. In 1964, three-quarters of the American public said that they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. By 2000, depending on the poll, only a quarter to a third had such trust.
To have such a small percentage of people believing the myth of government inability is dangerous. We may be suffering the effects of this belief today.
Nixon did not originate the myth that the federal government could not do anything right, but he perfected it—and the nation has suffered from the consequences.