Charles J. Holden - Republican Populist: Spiro Agnew and the Origins of Donald Trump’s America

Charles J. Holden, Zach Messitte, and Jerald Podair

University of Virginia Press

CHARLOTTESVILLE AND LONDON

University of Virginia Press

2019 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

All rights reserved

First published 2019

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Holden, Charles J., author. | Messitte, Zach P., author. | Podair, Jerald, author.

Title: Republican populist : Spiro Agnew and the origins of Donald Trumps America / Charles J. Holden, Zach Messitte, and Jerald Podair.

Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2019006956 (print) | LCCN 2019010741 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813943275 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813943268 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Agnew, Spiro T., 19181996. | Vice-PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. | PopulismUnited StatesHistory20th century. | ConservatismUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Political cultureUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Right and left (Political science)United StatesHistory20th century. | Republican Party (U.S. : 1854 )History20th century. | United StatesPolitics and government19691974.

Classification: LCC E840.8.A34 (ebook) | LCC E840.8.A34 H65 2019 (print) | DDC 973.924092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006956

Cover art: Agnew, drawing by Edmund S. Valtman, 1970. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The germination of this book began on November 11, 2005. That evening two of us, Chuck Holden and Zach Messitte, spent a couple of hours with the late Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and syndicated columnist Richard Cohen at Bradlees home, Porto Bello, on the banks of the St. Marys River in southern Maryland. Cohen, who had been the Annapolis correspondent for the Post at the time of Agnews downfall in 1973, described a golden age of corruption in Maryland politics to us; later that same night he delivered the fourth Ben Bradlee Lecture in Journalism at St. Marys College of Maryland. We realized immediately that there was a larger story that had not yet been told. There was more to Spiro Agnew than just his alliterative speeches and his resignation. Then in 2014 we had the great fortune of befriending Jerry Podair, and our writing team was in place.

Over the course of the past few years, as the Republican Party continued to shift toward its so-called silent majority supporters, and as the Donald Trump campaign emerged, Agnews political trajectory took on even greater significance. We continued our discussionsduring baseball games at Miller Park in Milwaukee, on summer days by Green Lake in Wisconsin, and over lunches and dinners at Lawrence University and Ripon Collegeuntil the three of us had mapped out the book you have in your hands now.

As with any research project of this size and scope, many people and institutions deserve our thanks and appreciation.

The staff at the University of Marylands Hornbake Library, which houses Agnews papers, was unfailingly helpful and well organized. Special thanks go to Eric Stoykovich and Elizabeth Novara for helping us navigate the huge Agnew collection.

The University of Virginia Press, and in particular Dick Holway, the senior executive editor for history and the social sciences, saw the relevance early on of Agnews political story and his relationship to the modern Republican Party.

We also owe a special debt of gratitude to our former and current colleagues and friends at St. Marys College of Maryland, Lawrence University, the University of Oklahoma, and Ripon College who have encouraged our work and served as sounding boards as we progressed with the project. Our wonderful and smart student researchers over many years helped us track down details large and small. Our thanks goes to Alexa Beck, Tori Braun, Holly Chase, Reshma McHale, Ceren Oney, Natalie Reese, Joseph Rieu, Emma Saiz, and Megan Root.

The hard work and care of several administrative assistants allowed us to focus on the book even as we continued with our teaching, service, and other research roles: Erin Berry, Valerie Carlow, Donna Cline, Danielle Ficek, Claudia Leistikow, Lori Rose, and Abby Meatyard Thompson.

We would also like to add a few individual acknowledgments:

Zach Messitte: I am thankful as always for the love, support, and wisdom of my family: Julia Messitte, Peter and Susan Messitte, and Sam and Jules Messitte.

Jerry Podair: I would like to thank Lawrence University provost David Burrows for his friendship and support over the years, and my research assistant Emma Saiz for her indispensable help in bringing this book to fruition. I remain grateful to James McPherson and the late Alan Brinkley for the examples they have set for me and for all historians. As always, this book is for Caren and Julie.

Chuck Holden: Thanks to the coffee group and the history department at St. Marys College of Maryland for being wonderful scholars, teachers, and friends. Other friends have been encouraging throughout, especially Chris and Tracy Adams, Glen Hoyt, Rick and Kathy Morain, and Gene Blanshan. Finally, thanks always to my family: Rosemary and David Hoyt, Mike and Sue Holden, Mary Jo and Roger Kluesner, Ann and Gary Kendell, Bill Brunner, and all my nieces and nephews.

We disagree. Richard Nixons selection of Spiro Agnew to be his running mate in August 1968 proved to be one of the most underrated, consequential decisions in modern American politics, and it still reverberates a half century later. Although Agnews policy contributions during his five years in office were limited, he took on the important role of reshaping the trajectory of the Republican Party. His suburban, middle-class image, blended with his sharp-edged, anti-elite political style, launched his meteoric rise from an obscure county executive in a small border state to the man who was a heartbeat away from the presidency.

While there is no shortage of books about Richard Nixon, Bobby Kennedy, and the importance of the year 1968, scholarly work about Spiro Agnew is almost nonexistent. We hope that this book will help give Agnews historical significancefor better or worseits rightful place. We situate Agnew squarely, and prominently, in the lineage birthed by Barry Goldwater that is now ascendant in the GOP. It is a lineage that runs through Pat Buchanans presidential primary bids in 1992 and 1996, Sarah Palins brief star turn, the Tea Party, and most recently, Trumpism.

Since the 1960s the Republican Party has been based around a loose philosophy that has espoused support for smaller government, lower taxes, and a perceived toughness in foreign policy, particularly regarding the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The party found success at the national level in the past fifty years that had eluded it in the previous half century. And it has succeeded in achieving some of its primary policy purpose: the rollback of the New Deal/Great Society policy dominance that the Franklin Roosevelt/LBJ Democrats enjoyed from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Vice presidential scholars Christopher Devine and Kyle Kopko argue that the selection of the vice president often is justified on political, geographic, or policy grounds, but the electoral impact has been far from clear. The GOP establishment during these years nodded toward its populist wing by selective use of ticket balancing, best personified by vice presidential nominees like Bob Dole (1976), Dick Cheney (2000 and 2004), and Palin (2008). But in 2016 Trump was the firebrand at the top of the ticket. The more establishment figure (in this case Mike Pence) received the No. 2 spot to soothe the partys old guard. In 1968 it was precisely this act of ticket balancing that helped launch Agnews career.