Nixon’s Curse: A Nation Divided Against Itself

In the final chapter, we look at the impact of Nixon and Watergate on the political system, our political culture, and the politics of partisanship that developed after Watergate. We put the Nixon presidency into context by examining the other major charges of corruption against presidents (Grant, Harding, Reagan, and Clinton) to see where Nixon digressed from the behavior of other presidents thought to be corrupt. The chapter then tries to draw a line—though not always a straight line—from Nixon to Donald J. Trump. How did Nixon lead to the rise and politics of the Trump presidency? How did Nixon’s brand of political warfare, the emergence of the Southern Strategy, the method of campaigning, approach to governing, open the door that Donald Trump would walk through? We then put this into a broader comparative context by looking at the illiberal challenge to liberal democracy, and how Nixon and then Trump led us to this current crisis.