Democrats Have the Memory of an Elephant When It Comes to Nixon

The pomp and celebration of the Nixon library opening may be engulfing Orange County this week, but for folks like Jane Gerber it’s all a big pain in the craw.

A lifelong Democrat, Gerber voted against Nixon in his tumultuous Senate election battle against Helen Gahagan Douglas back in 1950. She voted against him when he ran for governor in 1962, and in every presidential race before and after.

So it’s hardly surprising that the Westminster woman finds it particularly galling to see a $21-million library opening for the politician she loved to loath.

“I am just appalled at how quickly people can forget the bad things that happened--Watergate, the Vietnam War, all of it,” said Gerber, 72. “I just don’t understand how we can build a shrine to that type of thing.”

She is not alone. Nixon supporters of all stripes may see Thursday’s grand opening as the resurrection of a defrocked President, but for the Nixon haters of the nation, the event represents a flash point igniting memories of political shenanigans past.

Even in conservative Orange County, the feelings run deep among Democrats and liberals who consider Nixon more of a crook than elder statesman. They grumble and groan, they roll their eyes. Most plan to try and ignore the hoopla, hoping that it all will just go away.

“The library dedication is an embarrassment,” said Marion Pack, executive director of the Alliance for Survival in Orange County, an activist group. “I would liken it to a boil on the skin. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to it.”

But others welcome the celebration, which will feature all four living Republican Presidents, as a perfect opportunity for a little demonstration.

A cavalcade of protesters from across the Southland--among them peace activists, gay rights advocates and environmentalists--are expected to picket the ceremonies to mark the library opening. Upward of 300 may show, organizers say.

Many people say they will attend in an effort to make an impression on the current resident of the Oval Office, George Bush, not to blast a President who resigned nearly two decades ago under a cloud of scandal.

But Richard M. Nixon has always inspired the passion of protesters, and that old magic hasn’t waned, even as a civilian.

“My motivation to be there is to protest Nixon,” said Tim Carpenter, co-founder of Peace Politics, an Orange County-based band of activists. “The library is embarrassing. Orange County is being saddled with another conservative icon. . . . We need to show people that not all is quiet on the western front, that even behind the Orange Curtain there are people in opposition.”

Meanwhile, many Democratic politicians admit to feeling an uneasy sense of irritation as the day draws near for the library opening.

“I still feel the man is a shyster and a crook,” said Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) who crossed swords with Nixon on numerous occasions during the Vietnam War. “But American history will take care of that in due course.”

Brown said the library opening is “a commentary on the nature of American politics,” demonstrating the nation’s unerring ability to forgive even the gravest political sins.

“Nixon probably helped to degrade the quality of American politics more than any other American politician,” Brown said. “If I thought about it a long time I’d probably get nauseated, but I’m not going to think about it.”

Some local Democrats contend it is less the library and more the imperial celebration surrounding its opening that has proved vexing of late.

“A little more humility by everyone involved would be nice, instead of all this pandering and looking at Nixon as a great President, which is ludicrous,” said John Hanna, an attorney and former chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party in the late 1980s. “You’ve got to give credit where credit is due, but certainly in any examination of the Nixon presidency the overwhelming thing one has to come away with is the fact that he’s the only President in our history who resigned in disgrace under the threat of impeachment.”

As for the library itself, Hanna figures it will fit the Orange County landscape like Cinderella’s slipper, establishing a spot on the tourist maps as a Disneyland for political junkies.

“I live here in a Republican sea as it is,” Hanna noted. “It seems to fit that Nixon’s library is here in this fantasy land, where most of our partisan officials seem to think we live in a different century.”

Richard O’Neil, a prominent Orange County developer and former state and county Democratic Party chairman, said that in the hearts and minds of conservative Orange County voters, Nixon has never really left.

“He never really was out of it here,” O’Neil said. “This isn’t a resurrection for him really. It’s just the same old thing. They see him as kind of a hometown person. There’s no doubt he had an awful lot of friends here in Orange County.”

And a lot of enemies.

“Richard Nixon reminds me of one of those blowup punching bags that has sand in the bottom--you give it a whop and it keeps coming back,” said Sherry Meddick, president of a group trying to ease the effects of development in Orange County. “We all lived through the Nixon years. I can’t see any reason to go back and do it again at the library. I’m quite sure I won’t go visit it.”