Everyone is talking about this George Packer piece – if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out.

I don’t have much to add, except to concur with Packer’s thesis that Nixon is a central figure for the modern Republican party. Republicans talk frequently about Reagan and Goldwater, but it seems to me that these figures represent models of governance, not political strategy. While they may be what a conservative President is supposed to be, they don’t look like what a conservative Presidential candidate is supposed to be.

A distinction between campaigning and governance might have been salient twenty or thirty years ago, but we’ve now reached the age of the permanent campaign. Like it or not, we can’t distinguish between a President’s agenda and a re-election campaign. This is why I think the Nixon legacy is more important than the Reagan legacy. Nixon essentially built the Reagan coalition of conservative working-class whites and wealthy elites. Reagan added some of the Christian Right, but I think that element has been overplayed.

Anyone familiar with the inner workings of the Nixon campaign knows that Nixon was intent upon using the threat of “elites” to bring traditional Democrats into the Republican fold. Race riots, campus unrest, Vietname protests – all of these were deeply unsettling to conservative whites, and Nixon knew that. The “silent majority” was a center-right grouping of cultural conservatives. Nixon even toyed with the idea of forming a new party that emphasized “law and order” issues and cultural (but not social) conservatism.

Of course, the ugly underbelly of this strategy is its reliance upon race-baiting, prejudice, and outright lies. Nixon exploited racial tensions, summoned ugly fears, and crassly manipulated these working-class whites. And while the Republican Party is no longer as overtly nasty, it’s hard to miss the Nixon legacy in the Karl Rove playbook. Subtle race-baiting? Check. Appealing to traditional prejudices? Check. Total deception? Oh yeah.

So, what have we learned? Is American ready to move beyond the Nixonian slash-and-burn politics? Barack Obama has signaled a willingness to engage in a new kind of political debate. John McCain, who has enjoyed a reputation as a more honorable campaigner, has been pretty disappointing so far. But it’s not too late to salvage this election and leave behind the Nixon-Rove era.