RICHARD NIXON TAPES: Archie Bunker & Homosexuality

Here is the thing I have never understood about Nixon.

Why was he always talking in rooms that had running tape recorders? Back then recorders were not that small. He had to have known they were on and that anything he said would become public record eventually.

For a guy that is worried the degradation of society, he sure swears a lot.

 

A bit of context.

The recorders were actually already in place when Nixon took office. President Johnson had them installed. He apparently only recorded on occasion, when he felt he needed an audio record of what was going on (all done without anybody's permission, of course). Nixon was the one who retrofitted it so that it would record all the time. Why? He felt it was an invaluable resource. He was very aware of his "place in history", and he felt that having an audio record of everything would help secure that place. Of course, he also believed that only he would ever have access to these tapes. He certainly didn't think America would hear them.

I think a lot of people would do well to listen to this clip. I don't find it fascinating because it's the president. It's fascinating because it's real. It's far more real than anything you've ever seen on reality TV. Reality TV stars are well-aware of the cameras, but Nixon talks (as always) as if he's unaware of the recording. And because of that, it's fascinating. Because Nixon's views are, for the most part, America's views. You get a real sense of the "moral majority" that Nixon supposedly stood for. When "faggots" and "fairies" were acceptable terms, and both were synonymous with "immoral". When one could consider oneself "enlightened" if you didn't object to "faggots" being on TV, but one drew the line at the idea that a football player could be a homo. And when there was a well-repeated line that "when a nation lets the homos take over, the nation falls". That's something that doesn't get said much anymore, but I caught the tail end of it back in the 80s. There was this held belief that homosexuality killed off the Greeks and the Romans, which was enough reason to keep the gays down.

And again, Nixon wasn't some "out-of-touch" politician. Most of America felt this way. Which is why I shake my head in confusion every time somebody claims that "we've accomplished nothing". I was alive when this clip was recorded, and you have NO idea how far we've come in just my lifetime until you can listen to, and really comprehend what it means.

Lex

 

actually, small microphones are nothing new. Bugging a place did not necessarily require a bulky tape recorder... you just had to be creative back then about how you hid the wire.