Well there’s a very big difference between Leftism and Liberalism. LBJ was a gold plated American liberal, and Leftists hated him. They hated him because Johnson was an anti-Communist, as was Nixon.
Nixon wasn’t a Leftist in any conceivable sense of the term. But as President he did sign a whole load of liberal domestic legislation. He was a big government Republican, a good deal closer to Rockefeller’s Republican liberalism than to Goldwater’s Republican conservatism. Yet Goldwater was the first prominent Republican to endorse Nixon in 1968.
As far as Watergate, I don’t think Nixon did anything that Lyndon Johnson hadn’t done to an even bigger degree. And after reading Colodny and Gettlin’s ‘Silent Coup’ I don’t think Nixon even knew about the break-in beforehand, much less did he order it. That entire burglary was John Dean’s doing and he he managed to pin the blame on Nixon and save his own hide at the same time.
I occasionally hear Hannity using Nixon’s name in a fashion as if he was evil. Well Hannity was probably 5 years old when Watergate happened, and he’s no smarter now than when he was riding his Big Wheel.
I don’t disagree with your take on things. I generally use Leftist and Liberal interchangeably today. That can get me in trouble if we’re talking the pre McGovern years.
I do agree that neither Johnson or Nixon were pro Communist, so you have a valid point there.
With the onset of McGovern, I do think the die was cast and the two words began to mean pretty much the same thing.
The McGovern era introduced a vile form of the Democrat party that has gone downhill since that day. To one degree or another, they were all people who supported communism in the U. S.
One might argue that Carter wasn’t a Commie lover, but his inclination to fawn over the worlds leading Communists call that into question. I think he was very much pro Communist.
As for Hannity, I agree that his elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.