Richard Nixon acquiesced in continuing most Great Society programs and even approved pathbreaking environmental, minority, and women’s rights measures (see “Liberal Reform in the Nixon Administration” in chapter 28), prompting Phyllis Schlafly to call him “too liberal.” Yet his public rhetoric and some of his actions signaled the country’s rightward move. Whereas John F. Kennedy had summoned Americans to contribute to the common good, Nixon invited Americans to “ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself?” invoking individualism and reliance on private enterprise, not on government. These preferences would grow stronger in the nation during the 1970s and beyond, as a new strand of conservatism joined the older movement that focused on anticommunism, a strong national defense, and limited government. New conservatives wanted to restore what they considered traditional moral values.

Just two years after Nixon won reelection by a huge margin, his abuse of power and efforts to cover up crimes committed by subordinates, revealed in the so-called Watergate scandal, forced the first presidential resignation in history. His successor, Gerald Ford, faced the aftermath of Watergate and severe economic problems, which returned the White House to the Democrats in 1976.