The Last Liberal Republican : An Insider's Perspective on Nixon's Surprising Social Policy

The Last Liberal Republican is a memoir from one of Nixon's senior domestic policy advisors. John Roy Price—a member of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, a cofounder of the Ripon Society, and an employee on Nelson Rockefeller's campaigns—joined Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and later John D. Ehrlichman, in the Nixon White House to develop domestic policies, especially on welfare, hunger, and health. Based on those policies, and the internal White House struggles around them, Price places Nixon firmly in the liberal Republican tradition of President Theodore Roosevelt, New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, and President Eisenhower. Price makes a valuable contribution to our evolving scholarship and understanding of the Nixon presidency. Nixon himself lamented that he would be remembered only for Watergate and China. The Last Liberal Republican provides firsthand insight into key moments regarding Nixon's political and policy challenges in the domestic social policy arena. Price offers rich detail on the extent to which Nixon and his staff straddled a precarious balance between a Democratic-controlled Congress and an increasingly powerful conservative tide in Republican politics. The Last Liberal Republican provides a blow-by-blow inside view of how Nixon surprised the Democrats and shocked conservatives with his ambitious proposal for a guaranteed family income. Beyond Nixon's surprising embrace of what we today call universal basic income, the thirty-seventh president reordered and vastly expanded the patchy food stamp program he inherited and built nutrition education and children's food services into schools. Richard Nixon even almost achieved a national health insurance program: fifty years ago, with a private sector framework as part of his generous benefits insurance coverage for all, Nixon included coverage of preexisting conditions, prescription drug coverage for all, and federal subsidies for those who could not afford the premiums. The Last Liberal Republican will be a valuable resource for presidency scholars who are studying Nixon, his policies, the state of the Republican Party, and how the Nixon years relate to the rise of the modern conservative movement. "Richard Nixon is remembered today largely for his foreign policy and Watergate, as well as the way his electoral campaign and presidency coincided with the rise of a new conservative Republicanism. But behind these very public and controversial aspects of the Nixon legacy, there is the less well-known and much more liberal side to Nixon that appears in his domestic policy. John Roy Price tells the story as only he can - as someone who worked for three years in the Nixon administration, initially as Counsel to Daniel Patrick Moynihan and later succeeding Moynihan as Executive Secretary of the presidentially chaired Council for Urban Affairs, a cabinet level group. 'The Last Liberal Republican' not only tells a revisionist and insider story of the Nixon administration, but as a memoir it also tells the story of Price's own life as a moderate or liberal Republican who became part of Nixon's senior White House staff. Price recounts the struggle for the soul of the Republican Party in the disruptive decade of the 1960s, as politicians and strategists grappled with the victories of Kennedy and Johnson and looked for a way to steer the party away from the direction of Barry Goldwater. In addition to giving us an up-close-and-personal account of Moynihan, Price pulls back the curtain on the policy meetings and conversations that led to such domestic policies as the food stamp program, the Family Assistance Plan, and Nixon's health care proposals. Nixon was even the first to propose what we would now call universal basic income. Price shows in detail that Nixon's brand of Republicanism was a far cry from Ronald Reagan's mantra that "government is the problem." 'The Last Liberal Republican' presents an intimate and often surprising portrait of Nixon, an insider's perspective on Washington politics, and an insightful personal memoir - but most of all it reminds people of a path no longer taken in the Republican Party."-- Provided by publisher Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction The Path to Eisenhower and Nixon: The Struggle for the Soul of the Republican Party The Disruptive Decade: The 1960s and the Formation f the Ripon Society Partisan Strife, San Francisco’s 1964 Convention, and Electoral Calamity 1965–1968: Back to the Center? The Oval Office Has a New Occupant Organizing for Domestic Policymaking: Enter Daniel P. Moyhihan The Council for Urban Affairs: The Launch A President in an Hurry “Our Monument”: Laying the Foundation The Battle for Nixon’s Decision The Fencing Moves From Épées to Sabers The Hunger Issue and the Food Stamp Revolution “A Gamble on Human Nature”: Nixon in a Minority in His Cabinet Briefing Ronald Reagan: The Beginnings of the Conservative Rebellion The Center Does Not Hold: Nixon Folds His Hand on FAP Richard Nixon and a Health Strategy Conclusion Notes Index Presents a memoir from one of Nixon's senior domestic policy advisors. A member of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, John Roy Price’s memoir makes a valuable contribution to our evolving scholarship and understanding of the Nixon presidency.