Miami '72, or, Groundhog Day

From Rick Perlstein's Nixonland, sweet, sweet memories of campaigns past:

He arrived for his acceptance speech. The hall reverberated with Republican jubilation. Some wore buttons or carried signs reading NIXON IS LOVE and NIXON CARES and HAPPINESS IS NIXON. Others held on to their gold pennies with Nixon's face instead of Lincoln's, and souvenir "McGovern boxes" with a phony $1,000 bill and a white flag of surrender inside.

Then, to 30 million Americans, Richard Nixon, the peacenik they could trust, introduced the Checkers of 1972: little Tanya, a young Russian girl.

"Speaking on behalf of the American people, I was proud to be able to say in my television address to the Russian people in May, 'We covet no one else's territory. We seek no dominion over any other nation. We seek peace not only for ourselves, but for all the people of the world.'... [sic]

"On your television scree last night, you saw the cemetery in Leningrad I visited on my trip to the Soviet Union -- where three hundred thousand people died in the siege of that city during World War II."

(You want civilian casualties? I'll tell you about real civilian casualties.)

"At the cemetary I saw the picture of a twelve-year-old girl. She was a beautiful child.

"Her name" -- his voice broke -- "was Tanya.

"I read her diary. It tells the terrible story of war. In the simple words of a child she wrote of the deaths of themembers of her family. 'Zhenya in December. Grannie in January. Then Leka. Then Uncle Vasya. Then Uncle Lyosha. Then Mama in May.' And finally -- these are the last words in her diary: 'All are dead. Only Tanya is left.'"

Pause

"Let us think of Tanya and the other Tanyas and their brothers and sisters everywhere" -- Nixon's voice caught -- "in Russia, in China, in America, as we proudly meet our responsibilities for leadership in the world in a way worthy of a great people.

"I ask you, my fellow Americans, to join our new majority not just in the cause of winning an election, but in achieving a hope that mankind has had since the beginning of civilization. Let us builllllld a peace that our children -- and all the children of the world! -- can enjoy for generations to come."

At 1 a.m. police stood in formation, rhythmically beating their riot clubs. Their liberal police chief finally unleashed them to make arrests. With brutal dispatch, they collared two hundred miscreants, cheered on by martini-sipping yahtsmen moored at the marina. Though one was disappointed. He had heard the Yuppies were going to firebomb the boats and he was hoping for the insurance money.

Ch. 33, In Which Playboy Bunnies, and Barbarella, and Tanya Inspire Theoretical Considerations upon the Nature of Democracy

What's scary, beyond Perlstein's main thesis that Nixon was both a vessel for and a provocateur of white Middle Class resentment, is that the script hasn't changed all that much. The growing number of Watergate stories "following the money" or covering the trials always needed to balanced in the newspapers (almost exclusively The Post, and I wonder if the editorial staff were like Fred Hiatt's today, undercutting the very reporting appearing in other sections of the paper) by stories of McGovern malfeasance, however technical and minor. A public that reasonably responds, "they're all crooked." McGovern promised a civil campaign and yet "went negative," running ads about...Vietnam or Watergate. Washington columnists appalled that he would impugn the president's character ("bringing viscious slander to a presidential campaign") CBS, under pressure, pulling the rug out from under Walter Cronkite when America's Uncle dared to spend 15 minutes explaining Watergate's direct ties to the White House. Newsweek swallowing every pronouncement that the brilliant team of Nixon and Kissinger would end the war in a fortnight. GOP ads that shoveled lies that the party gleefully continued to run even after they'd been fact-checked and proven to be bullshit (the American people don't read The Times, they watch Bonanza). The campaign press, used as both prop and foil by a Republican who can plead victimhood even as he uses them to maintain the narrative his campaign has concocted.

And a Democratic Party that knows that it just has to win. Voter registration drives! Huge rally crowds. It would be unthinkable for the American voters to elect such an evil crook, a fascistic simpleton, a megalomaniacal liar, or a lightweight crank.

It all sounds familiar. The methodology is still in use today.

Believe me, if you live in Minnesota and you're having trouble finding salad greens in the grocery store later this month, it will be because the Republican Party has bought up the supply to hand out at the convention in Minneapolis so conventioners can wave the leaves and shout "Obama's arugula. Obama's elite." The TV cameras will soak it up.