Bill Clinton - the Richard Nixon of liberalism.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.

ACADEMICS can be addicted to historical analogies that often run the danger of oversimplification. They can provide insights, which is as much as anyone really can bring to the study of politics. For example, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon make for an intriguing analogy. Although different in style and temperament, they share an approach to politics and the presidency. In his lack of ideological principles and casual regard for the welfare of his Congressional party, Bill Clinton is to American Liberalism and the Democratic Party what Richard Nixon was to American Conservatism and the Republican Party. At first glance, this may constitute a moral indictment of both men. The reality is more complex. Serving during periods of political uncertainty and without the benefit of a majority consensus, they are reflections of their time.

Nixon owed much to the conservative wing of his party. During the 1968 Republican convention, Senators Barry Goldwater and Strom Thurmond kept conservative delegates in line for him against a fledgling Ronald Reagan candidacy. Nixon paid his debts to them with rhetoric, not policy. Throughout his presidency, he consistently betrayed conservative principles by opening relations with Communist China, negotiating arms control treaties with the Soviets, imposing wage and price controls, instituting affirmative action, expanding the regulatory state, and reducing defense spending. Despite these disappointments, conservatives fell in line during his re-election campaign. Just as liberals during the 1996 presidential election, conservatives swallowed their principles in 1972 to have a somewhat sympathetic figure in the White House.

The liberals could learn a lesson from this. The conservative core of the Republican Party gained little from the Nixon presidency, during which time the Democrats retained control of Congress and the Republican message remained vague. As Nixon ruminated from political exile in the mid 1970s, the Republicans suffered repudiation at the polls and struggled to recover their political soul. His foreign policy initiatives aside, Nixon provided no agenda for his party's future. On domestic affairs, he bent with the Democratic Congress and the political mood, not placing an indelible mark on either.

Clinton has showed the same suppleness. His concept of the political center has been nothing more than a "kinder, gentler" version of Republicanism. He has conducted a rear-guard action against the recent...