JimC wrote:The saying is purely in the American context, I think, suggesting that only a hard-nosed republican could do it, not a wishy-washy democrat...
That's not the import or implication of the saying. Back in that day, Democrats were no more wishy-washy than Republicans, and Democrats were the war and intervention party. It was Johnson and the Democrats that escalated Vietnam, with more Republicans opposing, and Nixon running in 1968 on a peace with honor type message, looking for a way to get the US out of Vietnam. He first announced the ending of the Vietnam War in December, 1969, when he announced his plan to turn over responsibility to South Vietnamese forces gradually. That was just 10 months after he took office. However, it took until 1973 for Nixon to finally get to the point where we were really leaving.
It was the Democrats who spearheaded US involvement in World War 1, a colonial war that had nothing at all to do with the US. It was the Democrats who were the party of Jim Crow and Racism in the 1950s and early 1960s. It was the Republicans who were the party of human liberty, the party of federal intervention to stop racist state laws and segregation, etc.
Viewing the Democrats and Republicans of the late 1960s through the lens of the present day political divide is not really relevant.
So, the meaning of the saying the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials. I.e., Republicans would be four-square against such a move, if it 'twerent for Nixon's Republican street-cred at the time.
It's almost a political hypocrisy, like when Democrats lauded Obama for increasing deportations. If the same thing were done by a Republican, it'd be hatred and racism. However, it takes an Obama to increase deportations.... that kind of thing.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar