COL49 - Chap 1: Oedipa says no to drugs

[Bekah]

On May 4, 2009, at 11:19 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> Of course Goldwater was the big bogeyman (in my house, anyway), but  
> was Nixon completely off the public radar?  Chapter 2 starts out  
> with a jokey reference to a Beatles analog:  Sick Dick and the  
> Volkswagens.  I've tried to find the source of Nixon's "Tricky  
> Dick" nickname.  At least one source dated it back to the McCarthy  
> hearings.
> There's no way Pynchon could have known, at the time he was writing  
> this book, of the path Nixon's career would take, but is this  
> possibly a reference to the old Trickster?
>

Yes,  Nixon went into self-imposed retirement after the loss of  
California to Brown in 1962.   "You won't have Nixon to kick around  
anymore,"  were his departing words to the press.   He and family  
moved to Europe for awhile and then basically stayed low until  
sometime in 1967 or so when he became the Republican presidential  
candidate.   He still had a very solid reputation from the old  
Eisenhower days,  the Whitaker Chambers / Algier Hiss case, his  
travels in  Latin America and elsewhere so being low for a few years  
didn't really hurt him -  it might have helped him because it kept  
him out of trouble.

Yes,  Goldwater ran for president in 1964 - the year of COL49 but he  
lost by a total landslide only getting his home state (Arizona) and 5  
states in Dixie.    My dad, who worked for the Republican Party in  
Minnesota in those days (Al Quie) was a Rockefeller Republican  -  
very moderate and pragmatic,  not ideological.   (I don't think they  
exist today.)   Dad  hated Goldwater and wasn't too hot on Nixon.   
But he always voted the party line as far as I know.

Rockefeller Republicans supported Civil Rights,  some welfare,   
etc.   Otoh, Goldwater Republicans were like the John Birch Society,   
far right conservatives.   Tom Dewey kind of represented the liberal  
side of the Republicans.    In 1964  Goldwater ran against  
Rockefeller in the California primary.  Goldwater won but in the long  
run he set the party way back for awhile.  That advertisement with  
the nuclear bomb going off was horrible - it did him no good at all.   
Most people were not Goldwater Republicans (as can be seen by the  
election results).

So anyway,  for Oedipa to claim she's Republican has a pretty wide  
definition  - in 1964 (or '66) Republicans didn't equal conservative  
right wing as we know it today.    The polarization we see today  
started with the dove/hawk Vietnam War positions - probably 1967.  (?)


Bekah