The Right Wing v. Nixon

Disowning Richard Nixon, his right-wing former supporters carefully point out, is a decision reluctantly reached. After all, one does not toss off an old ally and champion without shedding tears for what once had been. But the moderate tone of Richard Nixon's presidency--while not liberal enough to satisfy critics in the center or on the left --has so disturbed many of his conservative backers that he appears to be in some danger of alienating a constituency he has counted as his for 25 years. Welfare reform, cutbacks in defense spending, advocacy of deficit spending and Keynesian economics were difficult enough for Nixon's conservative supporters to tolerate, but for many, rapprochement with Communist China was the final straw. In recent weeks, right-wing spokesmen have announced a formal split with the President:

P: Twelve gurus of the right, editors and officials of conservative groups headed by National Review Editor William F. Buckley Jr., expressed their "personal admiration" and "affection" for Nixon, then said: "In consideration of this record, we, who have heretofore generally supported the Nixon Administration, have resolved to suspend our support of the Administration."

P: Human Events, a Washington-based weekly that is a barometer of far-right thinking, pointed to years of backing Nixon candidacies, but added: "We fear that the President is not only advocating policies at almost total variance with conservative sentiment on the domestic front, but his 'generation of peace' diplomacy, coupled with his seeming unconcern about our rapidly deteriorating military posture, is literally endangering the survival of the American Republic." -- William Loeb, ultraconservative publisher of the Manchester, N.H.. Union Leader, reminisced about the old Nixon, then washed his hands of the new: "The publisher and Mrs. Loeb are very fond of the President and Mrs. Nixon personally, and we thoroughly enjoyed our recent dinner at the White House. We found the Nixons to be fine people. But the first consideration is not personal friendship. This newspaper considers President Nixon's proposal to visit Communist China and the change in policy toward Red China to be immoral, indecent, insane and fraught with danger for the survival of the United States."

Early Birds. The hard-core right wingers have never been well organized nationally and are generally dismissed by politicians as fringe extremists. But the voices raised against Nixon could influence a wider range of voters who stand to the right of center. The danger from the right could easily be overestimated, but Nixon for one did not ignore it. He called his older lieutenants on Capitol Hill--the "early birds" who helped him resurrect his political career for a run at the White House in 1968 --for a cocktail party last week. They included John Tower of Texas, Paul Fannin of Arizona, Robert Dole of Kansas. They met for an hour, exchanged cordial remarks and received presidential gifts. The same day, Nixon held another meeting, this one with New York Senator James Buckley. Neither would discuss the details of the meeting, but the President more than likely sought to answer affirmatively the question Brother Bill had posed about him in a recent magazine article: "Is he one of us?"

In an interview with TIME Correspondent Bonnie Angelo last week, Senator Buckley noted some pluses in Nixon's conservative ledger, especially his Supreme Court nominations. But there is disenchantment: "A rush to embrace China without counting the cost to the United States has created too high expectations here. A full-employment-budget type of thinking removes the discipline of red ink and black ink." The political alternatives open to dissident conservatives, according to Buckley: "They can stay home. They will not go out and win new votes through their enthusiasm. This is very important, because it is the conservatives who hustle up the money, who are the shock troops in campaigns. If what is now a concern gels into outright opposition, Nixon will have lost a source of support, energy, drive and money."

The sense of betrayal of conservative ideals, the feeling of abandonment by the old Nixon they backed so long runs deep. Says one conservative Republican Senator: "The conservatives nominated Dick Nixon in Miami. They didn't go trooping off to Reagan. Now there's a general feeling that he's let us down, that the President is turning his back on his old friends to make new ones." Adds one of the "early birds": "I've had to grit my teeth and swallow hard to remain a loyalist."

Says Walt Hintzen, chairman of United Republicans of California, who found Nixon's decision to visit China "obscene": "Some of the Nixon men have implied they don't care about us, that we have no place to go. There are quite a few conservatives that are going to show Nixon that they have several places they can go."

Conciliatory Stance. But where? George Wallace, who announced his presidential candidacy for 1972 last week, holds to the basic conservative tenet of evangelical antiCommunism. Wallace, however, is too much a populist on economic issues and too intransigent on racial issues to receive nationwide conservative support. The most likely candidate to lead a right-wing insurrection is California Governor Ronald Reagan. His following in conservative quarters is wide. At 60, he could conclude that next year is his last chance to run for the presidency, although he is more often mentioned for the vice presidency (see page 12). But if Reagan indeed has 1972 ambitions, he clearly feels that an open break with the President on China--or on anything else--is no way to further them. He has discouraged efforts to crank up a conservative campaign in his behalf. He also took a conciliatory stance on Administration China policy, a serious blow to the anti-Peking enthusiasts.

Nixon can still stave off criticism from the right on the strength of his earlier hard line against Communism. Notes Congressman John Schmitz, a John Bircher who represents Nixon's home district in California: "If you get a reputation for being an early riser, you can sleep till 11." Says Chicago Businessman W. Clement Stone, a large contributor to conservative campaign coffers and Nixon's biggest 1968 financial backer: "After 20 years, we'd better face life as it is. Good common sense dictates that we take a hard look at that situation and put aside our emotions."

Thus the right-wing revolt will be strictly limited and will probably center around withholding funds or organizational support. Conservative contributors could seriously hurt Nixon's campaign funding if they so choose; members of such conservative groups as Young Americans for Freedom could withhold the energetic grassroots campaigners who aided Nixon in 1968. If the President does not move further to mollify his old supporters, warns Human Events Editor Thomas Winter, "the conservatives won't contribute, work or vote."

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