Talk:Richard Nixon

I'm not a cheerleader for Nixon, but can someone explain the relevance of this quote: "His mother was a devout Quaker and a wonderful parent. But his father, Frank Nixon, was a slightly paranoid, bitter man, and Richard took more after his father." Could we have a reference for this statement? Since when are the words "Quaker" and "paranoid" antonyms?

I stand by my statement that Nixon's mother was a devout Quaker and wonderful parent; that Nixon's father was slightly paranoid and bitter, and that Nixon took more after his father.

True, "Quaker" and "paranoid" are not antonyms, but "devout Quakers" are very rarely paranoid, as the religion places a heavy emphasis on trust and love of all people, and paranoids are very rarely able to make that commitment.

You asked for sources. "In Search of Nixon," a respected work by Bruce Mazlish, makes clear that Hannah Nixon was devout and that Richard felt close to her as a boy; that Frank was somewhat bitter and that Richard felt more distant from him.

Nixon's 1968 speech to the Republican Convention was also revealing.

He spoke of himself. "I see another child...he is helped on his journey through life. A father who had to go to work before he finished the sixth grade, sacrificed everything so that his sons could go to college. A gentle Quaker mother, with a passionate concern for peace."

Fathers who sacrifice EVERYTHING are often bitter, and it's revealing that he spoke of his father in terms of total sacrifice, his mother in terms of gentility and peace.

That Nixon took more after his father than mother is abundantly clear by his angry and paranoid behavior around the Watergate scandal that drove him from office.