2. During Watergate, many Republicans distinguished themselves by standing up to Nixon. Senator Howard Baker famously asked, "what did the President know and when did he know it?"
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3. Reagan took a different task. Interestingly, prior to Watergate, Reagan had been quite critical of Nixon (for going to China & other liberal measures). But once Nixon was emerged as lawless president, Reagan loved him.
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4. Reagan in 1973/1974: Watergate was "lynching" & "witch hunt" comparable to KKK: "to watch the ‘night riders’ ignore the harm they are doing to our nation in these troubled times makes me a little sick.”
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5. Reagan continued to support Nixon even after White House tapes came out where Nixon said Reagan was “pretty shallow” and of “limited mental capacity.”
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6. Political analysts at the time & Reagan's own staff thought he was nuts. Why stick up for president mired in scandal. But Reagan's instincts were, in fact, right.
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7. What Reagan understood was that partisan Republicans (who he would need to win the primaries if running for president) would love his loyalty to Nixon, while less partisan voters would forget it.
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8. After Watergate, Reagan's star rose, while Howard Baker's more moderate version of Republicanism faded. Reagan had made the right bet: sticking to a sinking president makes sense in polarized, tribalist polity.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
All right, so number one I don't think Reagan made a big play of supporting Nixon. If he was asked he stayed in line, using the words you have quoted. Number two, his entire agenda in 76 and 80 was a total repudiation of Nixon, on détente, economics and the environment.
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Replying to @vb2b
That's just false. Reagan's own aides told him not to talk about Watergate but he kept doing it. Also Reagan's stance in 1976 were different from 1973-1974 (when he praised Nixon's leadership on issues like detente). Read Perlstein.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
So you are saying that Nixon partisans backed Reagan when he ran because he had been loyal to their man but didn't notice or care that he was advocating totally different policies? (or that he was running against Nixon's own hand-picked VP in 1976.) Ahem.
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They weren't Nixon partisans, they were Republican partisans who supported whatever GOP standard bearer does. Just like GOP partisans now have shifted on trade, NFL & Russia because Trump is GOP president.
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