Former conservative senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole said "the beginning of the 21st century is still the Age of Nixon," and that today's leaders would be wise to emulate the 37th president.
In a column he wrote for Politico, Dole said that despite the obvious controversy that still haunts President Richard Nixon's legacy, this country benefits from his accomplishments.
"I can say with confidence that the beginning of the 21st century is still the Age of Nixon; we're still living in world he played a role in shaping," writes Dole, a eulogist at Nixon's funeral in 1994.
"Though our country has changed in many ways in the 43 years since Nixon's resignation and 23 years since his death, the basic domestic policies and international order that he brought to fruition remain in place," Dole wrote.
Dole rattled off Nixon's "transformative foreign policies" as well as his domestic accomplishments, the latter of which are "oft-forgotten (or, more likely, unknown)," including Title IX, desegregation efforts and the "first federal dollars to fight cancer."
And the former Senate Majority Leader from Kansas said Nixon's accomplishments came during a "turbulent era that makes today's upheaval look almost placid in comparison" while staring down an opposition Congress.
"Today's leaders can also learn to think in terms of national interest, versus becoming a prisoner to ideology," Dole wrote. "Of course Nixon was a partisan, and few possessed such seasoned political antennae as he did. But above all, he was a pragmatist, not an ideologue."
Dole turns 94 in July.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.