(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/ The Bulwark | Photos: Shutterstock, Getty)MILLIONS OF WORKING PARENTS struggle every day to find decent childcare they can afford. And it might not be happening if only Richard Nixon had signed legislation to create a comprehensive childcare system back in 1971. Nixon signaled he would support a major initiative, and seemed friendly to a bipartisan bill that passed both chambers. Since then, Democrats and Republicans have been arguing over whether the federal government has any business supporting childcare and—if it does—what that support should look like. “In a lot of ways, this represents a real evolution in Democratic thought on childcare,” Elliot Haspel, a prominent left-leaning analyst and writer on childcare policies, told me in a phone interview.