Nelson A. Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-1979), longtime Governor of New York and Vice President, looms over America's political landscape. With the Republican Party veering towards self-destruction, many invoke Rockefeller as an emblem of a bygone GOP devoted to pragmatic liberalism. How did the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower become host to Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and Donald Trump?What history student doesn't remember Rockefeller's crowning moment? At the July 1964 Republican convention in San Francisco, Rockefeller denounced extremists in the Party - the John Birch Society, newly converted states rights Democrats, small government ideologues - who coalesced around Barry Goldwater, the putative nominee. To boos from Goldwater supporters, Rockefeller outlined his objections to conservatism:
"There is no place in this Republican party for such hawkers of hate, such purveyors of prejudice, such fabricators of fear…These people have nothing in common with Republicanism. The Republican party must repudiate these people.”
Folks at the Cow Palace disagreed. "This is still a free country, ladies and gentlemen!" Rockefeller scolded as the crowd jeered him as a socialist and fouler epithets. Rocky later claimed "I had the time of my life." His jeremiad hardly convinced Goldwater or his supporters, who virtually excommunicated Rockefeller from the GOP. In fairness, who could blame them? To them, Rocky's speech seemed like the shrill cry of a sore loser.
Rocky's last hurrah: San Francisco, 1964
Thus the central dilemma of Rockefeller's career. Was he "the conscience of the Republican Party," as speechwriter Emmet Hughes insisted? A selfish egotist who divided the GOP? Did Rocky's efforts help or harm his cause? It's a complex question, and worth examining as the quest for Rockefeller Republicans resumes.Son of Standard Oil heir John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich, daughter of Rhode Island Senator Nelson Aldrich, Rockefeller came from unparalleled wealth and privilege. The Rockefellers were Old Guard Republicans, ruthlessly defending business prerogatives (whether crafting trusts or obliterating unions) but retaining vestiges of racial idealism, hosting the United Negro College Fund and other endeavors.
Rockefeller as HEW Undersecretary, 1954
As a young man, Rockefeller earned respect both as a patron of art and as a technocrat. During World War II he served as Franklin Roosevelt's emissary to Latin America, building goodwill through propaganda along with funds and social programs. He served as Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Dwight Eisenhower, proposing expanded social security and healthcare programs. He later joined the State Department, infuriating John Foster Dulles with his assertive views on foreign policy. Soon elective office beckoned.In 1958, he was elected Governor of New York, one of the few Republican victories in a Democratic year. Rockefeller's brash, hands-on campaigning style belied his aristocratic background. He connected with disparate New Yorkers with remarkable ease: East Side ethnics, upstate farmers, Coney Island beachcombers. "Hiya, fella!" he would greet them before munching a hot dog or blintz. Rockefeller's colorless opponent, Averell Harriman, proved no match.
Rockefeller gnoshes with Louis Leftkowitz, 1958
Rockefeller was both an effective and popular governor. Richard Norton Smith characterizes his style as "hyperactive, physically transforming, dismissive of musty precedent." He refurbished state schools, funded state interstates, created state parks, backed by "pay as you go" taxation. Despite legislative resistance, Rockefeller succeeded in improving New York and creating a budget surplus. He easily won reelection in 1962 against Democratic New York Mayor Robert Wagner.Building on his bureaucratic experience, Rockefeller mixed personal politics with careful planning. He assembled task forces to examine state problems, from housing and taxation to nuclear defense. Eisenhower accused Rockefeller of being "too used to borrowing brains instead of using his own." Despite the ex-President's harsh assessment, Rockefeller's system worked - at first.
New York rivals: Rockefeller and John Lindsay
Rockefeller gained national recognition for supporting civil rights. In New York, he fought to desegregate schools and public housing. At the urging of Jackie Robinson, baseball player-turned-activist, he hired more blacks into state government - including Robinson himself. He redoubled his efforts outside the state, paying to rebuild bombed Southern churches and donating to the NAACP. "We can serve and save freedom elsewhere only as we practice it in our own lives," Rockefeller said.Certainly Martin Luther King, Jr. found Rockefeller a consistent ally. Rockefeller paid King's hospital bills after a 1958 assassination attempt; King supported Rockefeller's 1960 presidential bid. Rockefeller invited King to speak in Albany, bailed SCLC members out of prison and attended King's sermons in Atlanta. "Your genuine good will and deep humanitarian concern are an inspiration to all of us," King wrote. After King's murder in April 1968, Rockefeller provided funds to Coretta Scott King, allowing her to complete King's Poor People's Campaign.
Rockefeller, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albany Mayor Erastus Corning, 1961
"I enjoy problems," Rockefeller said. "The greatest game is to try and solve them." As Governor, this motto proved fitting. But some problems were his own fault. His feud with New York City Mayor John Lindsay stalled public works projects; his serial womanizing made Rockefeller the target of gossips everywhere. His spending soon spiraled beyond the state's budget. And he never discovered how to win America's highest office.Three times, Rockefeller bombed as a presidential candidate. He was a middling public speaker whose gravely New York accent alienated middle Americans; his hands-on approach backfired on a national scale, making him seem too eager for the Presidency. Here, Rocky was his own worst enemy. He admitted lifelong presidential aspirations: "When you think of what I had," he asked, "what else was there to aspire to?"
Rockefeller and his second wife, Happy
And Rockefeller continually played the divider. In 1960, he toyed with a candidacy, to the chagrin of Vice President Richard Nixon. To stave off Rockefeller's challenge, Nixon met with Rockefeller on the eve of the Republican convention, allowing Rocky to dictate the GOP platform, including a strong civil rights plank. This humiliated Nixon, who nursed a lifelong grudge against Rockefeller, and angered conservatives. Afterwards, Rockefeller became their bête noir.Rockefeller's best chance came in 1964. Against Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, he seemed a safe bet. Many branded Goldwater an extremist for attacking government programs and advocating a hardline foreign policy. While personally anti-racist, he opposed the Civil Rights Act, incongruously arguing that "Our aim... is neither to establish a segregated society nor an integrated society as such. It is to prefer freedom." To southern Democrats disillusioned with John F. Kennedy's racial idealism, Goldwater proved a godsend.
But Rockefeller's personal life ruined his chances. He divorced his first wife, Mary Todhunter Clark, in 1963 and remarried his mistress, Margaret "Happy" Murphy, herself a divorcee. Prudish Americans recoiled in horror; his support plummeted, especially among women. Kennedy was amazed that "[any] man would ever love love over politics." Lyndon Johnson enthused that "Rockefeller's wife ain't gonna let him get off the ground."
Barry Goldwater silences moderate Republicans, 1964
Rockefeller never recovered. He lost New Hampshire to a write-in campaign by Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam, and other states to Goldwater; only a last-minute visit won the Oregon primary. The race hinged on California, which tipped into Goldwater's column after Happy gave birth just before the primary. Goldwater secured a majority of delegates, assuring his nomination.But the Party establishment wouldn't surrender. Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, who'd resisted entreaties to run, finally entered the race in June. Scranton's effort did little more than further divide the Party. His supporters issued a letter denouncing Goldwater's platform as "a crazy quilt patchwork of absurd and dangerous positions." Rockefeller's speech further inflamed Goldwater, who avowed that "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!" to thunderous applause.
Rockefeller and William Scranton, 1964
Mutual recrimination ran deep. Goldwater's supporters terrified liberal Republicans: “I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany," Jackie Robinson recalled. He joined 94 percent of blacks in supporting Johnson. Likewise, liberal intransigence infuriated Goldwater; Rockefeller and Scranton offered little support, Michigan Governor George Romney refused to campaign for him. Surveying this civil war, many pundits predicted the Republican Party's demise.Goldwater's landslide loss to Johnson seemed to vindicate Rockefeller. When Goldwater commented that conservatism hadn't lost in the election, Rockefeller acidly replied "It certainly couldn't have been said to have won." But backlash against Johnson's Great Society programs fostered a Republican victory in the 1966 midterms. Rockefeller won reelection but proved wary to seek the presidency again.
Rockefeller, George Romney and Ronald Reagan, 1967
In 1968, Rockefeller backed Governor Romney, auto executive-turned-politician who shared his commitment to civil rights. But Romney ran a desultory campaign, derailed by constant gaffes: most notably, claiming he'd been "brainwashed" about Vietnam. Richard Nixon, resurrected from his 1960 defeat, vaulted to frontrunner status. In May, Rockefeller belatedly declared his candidacy, hoping to derail Nixon at the convention.It was a nonstarter. Despite Rocky's unlikely alliance with California Governor Ronald Reagan, challenging Nixon from the right, Nixon won on the first ballot. Again, Rockefeller seemed like the party spoiler, while Nixon seemed to reconcile conservatives and liberals. As a crowning insult, Nixon selected Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, formerly a staunch Rockefeller supporter, as his running mate.
Richard Nixon and Rockefeller
After Nixon's election, Rockefeller veered to the right. He was forced to cut back spending due to escalating debt. He instituted harsh drug sentencing laws that remain controversial to this day. His reputation was blackened further with the Attica Prison riot in September 1971. Refusing to meet or negotiate with the prisoners, he dispatched the State Police on an ill-conceived raid that killed 33 inmates and 10 guards. Rockefeller stepped down in December 1973, his departure mourned by few.But Rockefeller wasn't out of the public eye for long. After Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford tapped Rocky as Vice President. Like all VPs, Rockefeller felt marginalized ("I'm not built to be standby equipment," he said), and his mere presence enraged conservative Republicans. Ford narrowly bested Ronald Reagan's primary challenge in 1976; to placate conservatives, Ford dumped Rockefeller for Bob Dole. Rockefeller died in January 1979, a political outcast.
Rocky bids the GOP a fond farewell, 1976
Assessing Rockefeller's legacy is difficult. His image centers around two myths: one, that he was a full-bore progressive, an FDR in Republican clothing. Two, that he was a principled defender of the Party against dogmatic conservatism. Both characterizations have grains of truth, but require significant qualification.First, Rockefeller's liberalism was mixed. His support of civil rights, public works projects and universal healthcare fit the bill. But he was a Cold War hawk, who spent his early governorship appropriating funds for fallout shelters and never wavered on supporting the Vietnam War. (Lest we forget, Henry Kissinger was his protégé.) Adjusting to the Nixon backlash, Rockefeller became the War on Drugs' most zealous prosecutor. And Attica deservedly remains a blot on his legacy.
On the second point, it's instructive to compare Rockefeller to his colleague, William Scranton. Like Rockefeller, Scranton came from a wealthy family (founders of the Pennsylvania town). Unlike Rockefeller, Scranton reluctantly entered politics. Only Eisenhower's prodding made him run for Governor; he refused presidential entreaties until Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act. Later, Scranton refused a Senate seat and declined Nixon's offer to serve as Secretary of State. Aside from a brief stint as Ford's UN Ambassador, Scranton retired from politics until his death in July 2013.
William Scranton, reluctant candidate
In contrast, Rockefeller evinced naked ambition. His 1960 and 1968 presidential bids merely aggravated Party leaders; in 1964, his most serious campaign, he flamed out early and needlessly extended a divisive primary fight. "He was lording it over them like he had won," Rick Perlstein comments on his convention speech, elsewhere labeling Rockefeller "the most arrogant man in America." Rockefeller's candidacies served himself more than his cause, alienating moderates and conservatives alike.Certainly, Rockefeller harbored principled objections to conservatism. But his brusque, self-serving efforts backfired. They tagged Republican liberals as a divisive force within the party. Goldwater and his supporters saw no reason to accommodate those who labeled them madmen and placed themselves above party. When conservatives took over, rank-and-file Republicans abandoned Rockefeller Republicans. By Rocky's death, they were marginalized; under Ronald Reagan, they virtually vanished.
History shouldn't reduce anyone to a symbol. Nelson Rockefeller was in many ways a great man: his achievements as Governor, his commitment to civil rights, his philanthropy. He was also grandly flawed: arrogant and ambitious, often petty, certainly a womanizer. If Goldwater and Reagan drove the Republicans towards extremism, Rockefeller's pigheadedness played a part. In politics, personality often overwhelms principle.
SourcesThis article mainly draws on Richard Norton Smith's On His Own Terms (2014), one of the best biographies I've ever read. Two other excellent books, Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm (2001) and Geoffrey Kabaservice's Rule and Ruin (2012), place Rockefeller within the context of an evolving Republican Party.
