Oct 28, 2026 · 30 min
Young conservatives turn Nixon into a blueprint for MAGA
The future of MAGA is... Nixon?
The debate over Nixon reveals whether Trumpism will remain a personality-driven movement or become a durable governing ideology.
- 1Nixon’s enemies-first politics and aggressive executive power attract conservatives seeking a model beyond Reagan’s limited-government tradition.
- 2Watergate remains central to Nixon’s rehabilitation, recast by some conservatives as proof that liberal institutions destroyed a political martyr.
- 3Nixonism could institutionalize Trumpism through J.D. Vance while deepening the Republican Party’s struggle over conservatism’s future.
Don't miss
Jonah Goldberg’s contrast between Nixon’s expansive, protectionist politics and Reagan’s limited-government model clarifies the right’s ideological divide.
The brief
Richard Nixon is returning to the MAGA imagination as younger conservatives search for a successor ideology to Trumpism and a model for wielding power against liberal institutions.
Historian Michael Conswix explains how Watergate, including the Plumbers, the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, and the cover-up, shaped Nixon’s legacy.
The rehabilitation focuses less on Nixon’s downfall than on his willingness to confront liberal institutions, a legacy associated with figures including Chris Rufo and J.D. Vance.
Jonah Goldberg contrasts Nixon’s expansive government, industrial policy, protectionism, and hostility toward enemies with Ronald Reagan’s limited-government conservatism.
The central question is whether Nixon’s image can help preserve MAGA after Donald Trump by embedding Trump-era practices and presidential power in law and government.
Goldberg describes a continuing Republican struggle between Trump-aligned politics and Reaganism, with the possibility that the future of conservatism becomes even more extreme.
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