Richard Nixon - election Flashcards
Divisions in the Democratic Party
January 1968, anti-war senator, Eugene McCarthy ran against Johnson for the democratic nomination. He appealed to college students, who campaigned for McCarthy in New Hampshire. vote was 42% McCarthy and 49% Johnson. Vote created uncertainty for LBJ.
March 1968, Bobby Kennedy saw this, and declared his democratic candidacy, claiming he wanted peace in Vietnam, to bring the poor out of poverty, and settle disputes between ages.
April 1968, Kennedy delivered a moving speech in the Indianapolis Ghetto, empathising with the poor over their suffering and the loss of Martin Luther King.
By now, the press was pro-Kennedy. Tom Wicker, Head of Washington State Press said Bobby was an ‘easy man to fall in love with. But, Kennedy angered the democrat party, as he left it to McCarthy to challenge Johnson.
This split the liberal vote, paving way for Pro-Vietnam senator Hubert Humphrey- - didn’t win any primaries.
YIPPIES and the Democrat National Convention
August 1968, the Youth International Party YIPPIES sought to show contempt for the political system by calling on 10,000 people to disrupt the Democratic National Convention - spread rumours they put LSD in the city’s water supply, & ‘Pigasus’ as their candidate.
Daley mobilised 12000 police, who had bags of urine thrown at them, retaliating by removing their badges and shouting ‘kill, kill, kill!!’. - outbreak and disorder under democrats eg. sex in public places, and blowing weed in police faces, tainted democrats image.
Daley had anti-semitic outburts when senator Rubicoff, said with George McGovern, we wouldn’t be using Gestapo tactics on the streets. Daley responded with ‘Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch’.
Anti-war democrats chanted ‘Dump the Hump’, disrupting meetings and stopping him being heard.
Winning Middle America
People of Middle America were blue, white collar workers and low level bureaucrats earning $5000-$15000 year, constituting 55% of the population.
From 1956-66, borrowed amounts rose 110%, but income increased only 85%. Inflation made it difficult to maintain a good standard of living, and resented taxation money being given to the undeserving poor.
Resented radicalism & disorder, as their children were being drafted for Vietnam, while student protestors sat comfortably.
Nixon appealed them “My vote was more Main Street than Wall Street”. Presidential nomination speech august 1968, clearly distinguished between the rioters and Middle Americans.
“killing each other at home”, “Sirens in the night” in comparison to “forgotten Americans”.
Winning the Sun Belt (southern states)
*Nixon appealed to southern white voters after LBJ desegregated the South -rejected LBJ policy of cutting funds to schools refusing to desegregate, and slowed down desegregation as part of his ‘Southern Strategy’.
*Nixon proposed ‘New Federalism’ - the transfer of power from the government to the people. He shared federal revenue with the states, appealing to southern whites with their traditional emphasis on states rights.
*Evangelical protestants resented rich children going to Harvard & Yale doing anti-war protests, while their children were being drafted - Nixon also disliked the ‘elite’ of the North-East.
