In Quest of a New Majority

On first appraisal, the impending victory of Richard Nixon would seem to mark the advent of a new Republican era in American politics. The President, after all, has long been known as an explicit partisan and his return to the White House by a decisive margin would appear to mean his party has come of age. At a minimum, it ought to be something more than a personal victory for the man at the top of the ticket. Yet as election day draws near, Richard Nixon ’72 increasingly resembles Dwight Eisenhower ’56—a candidate who for transient reasons can expect a smashing individual triumph, but whose party continues to languish.

Nixon himself has spoken of a “new majority,” and there is evidence that his own campaign is being powerfully aided by a constellation of forces from which a ruling majority might be fashioned. But proof of such a majority is not mere victory for a single person in the Electoral College, important as that is, but victory for many people in the Congress. This was the goal which eluded Republicans for most of the years under Eisenhower, and the party’s legislative failure prepared the way for a recrudescence of Democratic power. Now there are omens which suggest that Nixon may fail in this respect as well—that, indeed, so far as the current election is concerned, the White House isn’t even trying very hard.

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M. Stanton Evans

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On first appraisal, the impending victory of Richard Nixon would seem to mark the advent of a new Republican era in American politics. The President, after all, has long been known as an explicit partisan and his return to the White House by a decisive margin would appear to mean his party has come of age. At a minimum, it ought to be something more than a personal victory for the man at the top of the ticket. Yet as election day draws near, Richard Nixon ’72 increasingly resembles Dwight Eisenhower ’56—a candidate who for transient reasons can expect a smashing individual triumph, but whose party continues to languish.

Nixon himself has spoken of a “new majority,” and there is evidence that his own campaign is being powerfully aided by a constellation of forces from which a ruling majority might be fashioned. But proof of such a majority is not mere victory for a single person in the Electoral College, important as that is, but victory for many people in the Congress. This was the goal which eluded Republicans for most of the years under Eisenhower, and the party’s legislative failure prepared the way for a recrudescence of Democratic power. Now there are omens which suggest that Nixon may fail in this respect as well—that, indeed, so far as the current election is concerned, the White House isn’t even trying very hard.