One question I am asked while on tour for my new book, “The Greatest Comeback,” on the resurrection of Richard Nixon is: Does Nixon's rise, from crushing defeats to capturing the White House and beginning a string of five victories in six presidential elections, have relevance for today's GOP? Can the “Great Silent Majority” of yesteryear be replicated?
The answer is probably not. For while there are similarities between the America of 1968 and of today, the differences are greater.
The similarities: By the late 1960s, as today, the country was pivoting away from a Democratic Party and president that seemed incapable of mastering the crises of the times in which they lived.
Then it was LBJ; today, Barack Obama.
The party of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan delivered — eventually — a successful conclusion to the Cold War that had been the unifying cause of that generation.
America is another country today.
The Cold War is over. The nation no longer is united on America's role. A majority want out of the Middle East wars into which George W. Bush led the nation.
And the GOP is itself — like the Democrats of 1968 over Vietnam — divided on Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and how to deal with the challenges of Vladimir Putin's Russia and Xi Jinping's China.
While distrust of government rarely has been greater than today, it is also true that dependence upon government has never been greater.
A Republican Party that preaches an anti-Big Government gospel or a rollback of programs is unlikely to be warmly received by the scores of millions who depend on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and a host of other social welfare benefits.
America is another country in other ways.
Nixon's Silent Majority, which encompassed much of the Greatest Generation and of the Silent Generation born in the 1930s and during World War II, is passing on. And the demography of America is markedly different today from the days of Ike and JFK.
Newborns who trace their ancestry to Asia, Africa and Latin America equal those babies born to white Americans today. And these minorities vote between 70 and 90 percent for Democrats in presidential races.
Wherein lies the Republican opportunity? It resides in a political reality that was present in 1968 as well.
Even if the country was not wildly enthusiastic about Richard Nixon that year, America knew the Johnson administration was failing, that it was devoid of ideas, that in that year of turmoil, 1968, we needed new leadership.
America is approaching a similar point now. And therein lies the Republican Party's last best chance to be entrusted with national power.
The GOP needs to offer a credible alternative to a party, a president and a political philosophy that seem everywhere to be failing the nation. Nixon did it in 1968 — to the amazement of even some of his friends.
Can the GOP replicate 1966 and 1968 in 2014 and 2016? The answer to that question will determine our future.
Pat Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.”
