The Exceptional Politics of Richard Nixon: Politicking, Sovereignty, or "High Crimes and Misdemeanors"?

Abstract

The hubristic end to the Trump administration has brought the constitutionality of presidential actions once again into question. But is it sufficient to approach the "unconstitutional" acts of presidents merely in terms of criminality? We should ask whether or not the preoccupation with executive criminality among critical progressives ought to make way for a properly political view of those actions. The existentialist political writings of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben provide an entry point into the politicizations of authoritarian figures in a way that brings out both their radical quality and the disturbing vibration of legitimacy that attracts so many supporters. The argument is structured through a historical analysis of the Nixon presidency, in the context of the Watergate affair, so as implicitly to throw recent developments into a more effective critical relief.