Despite Richard M. Nixon's reputation as a conservative ideologue in domestic affairs, earned over the years for his unceasing partisan attacks on the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society, he proved as pragmatic and opportunistic in social and economic policy as he had in foreign affairs. Indeed, in its commitment to equality of opportunity, a social safety net for the chronically disadvantaged, a balanced budget, and minimal support for civil rights initiatives, the Nixon approach seemed to be a continuation of Dwight D. Eisenhower's modern Republicanism. The president did not cut Great Society programs, and he continued the Model Cities program, increased funding for food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid. He also signed a measure that reduced the voting age to 18, a bill that subsequently became the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. When classical economic remedies did not suffice to pull the United States out of the economic doldrums that gripped it, the president shocked his conservative supporters by turning to Keynesian remedies. An astute political animal, the president understood that with only 43% of the popular vote in 1968 and facing hostile Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, he would have to pursue centrist policies if he wanted to win a second term.

Personally, the new president felt sympathy and compassion for the downtrodden; his Quaker upbringing and the deaths of two brothers had affected him profoundly. At the same time, he had absorbed the bootstrap, self-made man mentality from his father, and he despised those who had made their political fortunes catering to the nation's have-nots.