WSJ: Young Conservatives Have an Unlikely New Icon: Richard Nixon

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The kids are “Nixonmaxxing.”

More than half a century after Watergate, conservative youth are discovering the aesthetic, and adopting the attitude, of the late Richard Nixon.

It’s a vibe. Videos that feature archival footage of the famously square 37th president over rap music from artists such as Drake and Biggie Smalls are going viral on Instagram and YouTube. Influencers sport ball caps, crew necks and fanny packs emblazoned with messages such as “Pretty Girls for Nixon” and “Nixon Now More Than Ever.” Hats stamped with “Nixonmaxxing” sold out in a matter of hours earlier this year.

“Nixon hype edit was not something I knew I needed,” one fan wrote in the comments of a recent Instagram video. “Is Nixon pulling off the greatest posthumous political comeback in history?” someone else wrote.

Now, Nixon is being recast as a forerunner of “America First” by a new generation of conservatives: a combative president loathed by the press and besieged by investigators who was brought down by the same establishment they believe targeted President Trump.

While Trump’s admiration for Nixon dates back decades, the former president’s downfall is gaining new resonance in his second term as the White House challenges post-Watergate restraints on presidential power. What began as 1970s nostalgia memes and revisionist essays by alternative intellectuals is now being echoed by the most powerful Republican politicians in the country.

“I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance,” Vice President JD Vance said last month at an event at the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. “And I think deservedly so.”

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