Orthogonian

plural Orthogonians

1. A member of the Orthogonian society, a social club at Whittier College founded by Richard M. Nixon in opposition to the wealthy elites at Whittier.

   Fellow Orthogonians considered him an idealist who emphasized Orthogonian rituals to develop moral behavior among the members.

   2023, Paul Carter, Richard Nixon: California's Native Son, page 40

   2 more examples

   Orthogonians, like Nixon, saw themselves as hardworking "regular" people fighting against a powerful elite (personified by the Franklins) for status and wealth.

   2016, Steven Hyden, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me

   Al Stoll, a longtime Orthogonian who graduated from Whittier in 1949, surmised that Nixon possibly started the Orthogonian Society to compensate for the fact that he was a nonfactor on the field.

   2023, Michael Richman, George Allen: A Football Life

comparative more Orthogonian · superlative most Orthogonian

1. Pertaining to or characteristic of the Orthogonian society and its ethos of appealing to working-class values and opposition to a wealthy ruling elite.

   Nixon would employ the same Orthogonian politics in his adult career.

   2011, Chris Matthews, Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America

   2 more examples

   In place of "flower power" and "the struggle," America was offered what Rick Perstein in Nixonland calls an "Orthogonian” worldview. In its pure form, this ideal embraced the virtues of a productive, humble, and obedient adulthood.

   2015, Dr. Bill Thomas, William H. Thomas, Second Wind, page 51

   Stone explored the Orthogonian concept thirteen years earlier in Nixon, though he did it with a lot less nuance.

   2016, Steven Hyden, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me