Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History 1968 Election Ri

Were elected through back channels, small party conventions. In 1968, 73 of democratic delegates through the convention had been elected this way. Less than 25 were elected in the way we normally do it. President Lyndon Johnson took himself out of the race. He was not up for reelection in 1968. This initiated a freefall in the Democratic Party between a number of candidates. One of which who was very popular was unfortunately dead by august of 1968. That was robert kennedy. He was a peace candidate. He had been a unifying candidate for many people in the party. He was assassinated in june of 1968. That is one thing lying behind the convention in august of 1968. The kennedy delegates who had been elected, pledged to kennedy. Hubert humphrey, Lyndon Johnsons Vice President had become the nominee by august. There was another peace candidate, mccarthy who had delegates like kennedy who showed up in chicago in august. It is something of a freeforall where the delegates are concerned. It is more of a freeforall in many ways as you will see. Because of the vietnam war, because of Robert Kennedys assassination, there were a lot of people who had come to chicago to demonstrate against the war, against the Democratic Party, against lyndon b. Johnson. There were a lot of people on the streets outside of the convention in the hilton hotel, which is still there. The city made some strategic errors. Mayor daley had denied anybody a permit to spend the night in the parks or to be in the parks after 11 00 p. M. That wasnt something of a problem because there were so many thousands of young people who had come. There were a couple of groups, the National Mobilization committee to end the war. There was the Youth International party called the yippies. They are the ones you have probably seen. The mobe was trying to forge a consensus among young voters. The yippies were led by Abbie Hoffman and were known for their street theater and various antics. I think at one point in the Stock Exchange they manage to get in and drop dollar bills onto the floor and watched all the people on the floor of the Stock Exchange scramble for the money. That was exactly what they were looking for. While the democrats were wrangling in the convention hall, protesters in the streets started to clash with police. Peace now is what they are chanting. [video clip] prof. Dailey that is the Chicago Police. They are chanting the whole world is watching. The Police Charged the crowd and they started with nightsticks beating up people indiscriminately. Hitting people on the head, teargas. You can hear the reaction to the teargas. The police beat reporters to keep them from filming. This was shocking to people for a whole bunch of reasons. It was one of the first times that white young people were beat up indiscriminately by the police. Thousands of them. It made the news. It made the world news, which is why they chanted the whole world is watching. It was a huge embarrassment for the United States. Obviously, also a defining moment for the people who were there. That is grant park. The scene of president obamas election rallies. Lets see what is happening inside the convention. That is what is happening outside. There is a very famous moment, i cant remember who it is looking out and watching the police beat up the protesters, saying these are children. What is happening . Here is what is happening inside the convention at the hilton. Dan rather. Get your hands off me. Dont push me. [commotion] prof. Dailey we have a young dan rather. I dont know what is going on but there is security people around dan. He is obviously getting roughed up. We tried to talk to him and see who he was, what his situation was. The security people as you can see did this. I didnt do very well. Prof. Dailey that is exactly what they had. They had a bunch of thugs posing as secret service agents. That is exactly what they were doing. They were going down the aisles in the convention beating people up. Mostly the media in the convention. There is huge uproar in the convention. We will pass on some of the dialogue between the mayor, who can be very colorful in his language and some of the other delegates. This is the first time there is an investigation of all of this. This is the first time anything is called a police riot. That is what it was. The blame for the riot can be laid squarely on the shoulders of mayor daley. He denied protests to people who wanted to peacefully protest the war. He had a take no prisoners mentality. He told the Chicago Police go in there and take no prisoners. He ensured that chicago would be the site when all of the world would see the unbridgeable gaps among americans. There is a literary person who said the war is destroying us as we are destroying vietnam. Another reporter was more succinct and said the democrats are finished as he scrolls in a notebook, watching police chase hippies down michigan avenue. The twin legacies of the Chicago Convention and Lyndon Johnsons aggressive policies in vietnam handicapped Hubert Humphreys candidacy. He was in a very difficult position. He was the Vice President. It is bad form to criticize a sitting president. Even if the president is a lame duck president as Lyndon Johnson was. Humphrey was much more inclined to press for peace than johnson had done. The economy was booming. There was Government Spending on the increasingly expensive war in vietnam. That part looked ok. The democrats were all right there. The war is increasingly unpopular. Humphrey finally separated himself from johnsons war policies in september, 1968. Saying he would be open to peace talks. He became a plausible peace candidate at that point. Appealing to some of the young people who were here. At the same time, labor stepped up. The labor constituents who are generally strong with organizing the vote and getting people out to vote. That is what labor did in those years. The late help from a labor helped hubert humphrey. It also created the impression that the election was closer than it really was. The republican, Richard Nixon, wins and he wins with 43 percent of the popular vote. Humphrey had 42. 7 of the popular vote. Where was the remaining 13. 5 of the vote . That went to former alabama governor George Wallace, who ran as an independent. There is george. You can tell from the confederate battle flag behind him what his policies might have been. He ran as an independent. He is important here not just for who he is but for what his campaign has. It detaches traditionally urban white sectors to the people who voted for the democrats. White workingclass voters in cities. They were attracted to wallace. He did very well in ohio, michigan, indiana, illinois. He got more than 10 of the white vote in those places. Westerners like him to, idaho, nevada, they like George Wallace. He split the southern vote with humphrey excuse me, with nixon. Wallace is a former democrat, now an independent. He and nixon split the southern vote, traditionally the democratic vote. Between them, they take every state in the south except for texas, Lyndon Johnsons home state. Richard nixon, former Vice President under eisenhower. Earlier a republican congressman from california. He wins the election in 1968 in part by taking away some of wallaces issues. He talks about restoring voice to the choir americans. The americans who are not making trouble. He takes some of that vote and has a Vice President who has become famous and not for good reasons. Spiro agnew talks about exactly who will be represented under nixons presidency. He says nixons campaign was bringing us together after the democratic debacle. He was going to bring people together and bring the country together. Here is how spiro agnew defined how that went. It is time to divide on lines. He says when the president said bring us together, what he meant was the functioning, contributing portions of American People. The new president would have his job cut out for him. The same americans who voted overwhelmingly for nixon at least catapulted him to the white house gave democrats both houses of congress. Richard nixon will be the first president to enter the white house without control of either house of Congress Since Zachary Taylor in 1849. That is how unusual it is. That represents in part a real distrust at this point of government. Wanting to have real checks and balances. It is an extreme version of that kind of distrust that you see. Nixons job is to sew the nations it had fractured. They were all at odds with each other. This phrase, Middle America, was not a phrase in the 1960s. It is a new phrase that describes a portion of america that is where american president ial elections will be fought and won for the next 40 years. This thing, Middle America, it was not very firm in the late 1960s. It was hard to figure out who was in Middle America and who was not in Middle America. Maintaining majority was tricky. Nixon had a majority that was formed by disgruntled white democrats. Wallace voters, it was an increasingly conservative fiscally and culturally conservative Republican Party. This is where Richard Nixon is standing in the middle. It manages to get the voters who will vote for both of those things that becomes very important. The election in 1968 is regarded as a bellwether for the next president ial election. The democrats win only one of the next six president ial elections between 1968 and 1992. You have a long period of unified republican control of the white house. It is a profound shift in american politics. Nixon realizes his future depends in good measure on his ability to get the 13. 5 percent that voted for George Wallace. Nixon needs to have those people in order to win. He understands wallace voters in the south or north are spooked by the social changes. They are spooked by racial changes, by youth behavior, hippies, all of these things. Nixon takes on this wallace law order mantel where he talks vaguely about calming things down. He will be the protectors of middleclass against the lawless urban class. This is what he is always talking about. People in the cities. They are burning the cities. They are wrecking america. He had a hard time. He had to lure these wallace voters, which included democratic voters in the north, workingclass urban catholics traditionally. They voted democratic. They voted for mayor daley who was an urban catholic. Richard nixon needs those votes. This is the moment when the Republican Party starts to reach out to what was traditionally a democratic working base. It was a base of white ethnics that had been part of the new Deal Coalition in the 1930s. We tend to think of workingclass whites as being democrats. They are only democrats for about 30 years. Nixon understands that democrats want security. We talked earlier, Social Security, different programs. People want security. They are defenders of the new deal social safety net. There arent wallace republicans democrats, old democrats from the democratic coalition. Those people want to keep the new deal. They are not interested in republican economics as they are being described. A syndicated columnist later says his definition of american conservatives americans are conservatives, what they want to preserve is the new deal. What do they want in this new deal . He is not there anymore, wallaces American Independent Party calls for increases in national healthcare, and the right to collective bargaining. You can see why wallace was appealing to the working class. It reminds you again how Long National healthcare has been on the agenda. We talked about it already under fdr and under harry truman. Here it is again with George Wallace. Leading conservative magazines described George Wallaces brand of conservatism and nixons adoption of it as countrywestern marxism. To romance these workers, nixon embraced key elements of lyndon b. Johnsons vision, signing a whole bunch of laws that were passed by the democraticcontrolled congress. I will read you the list of laws that Richard Nixon passed. As a republican, he passed all of these laws with the democratic controlled congress. Republicans begin to complain after a while. He passes a National Environmental policy act created the epa. The Environmental Protection agency. He passed the clean air act, the Consumer Protection agency act. The federal the Noise Pollution and control act. The equal Employment Opportunity act. The federal Election Campaign act of 1971. The employment Retirement Income security act. The Occupational Safety and health act, which is always a constant target under republicans ever since. Workers in dangerous occupations like coal mining or who were exposed to Hazardous Substances like asbestos were big fans of all of these things. These were very popular things. Republicans held applause. The republican president said Fortune Magazine was putting cuffs on capitalism through corporate regulation. Nixons blend of republicanism and radicalism confused the new york times. It was congenial to the errors of populism. The eras of populism, era of new deal, these people of the countrywestern marxist liked it a lot. This cemented the white workingclass electorate. These people never voted republican in their life. They voted for Richard Nixon. What is happening with the economy in the 1970s. The basic answer is nothing good is happening with the economy. American prosperity, especially workingclass prosperity had been synonymous with the National Interest since world war ii. If you look at world war ii in the 1950s, there is talk about the American People and all of these things. If you remember, the g. I. Bill of rights, which was there to help workingclass americans buy houses, help them go to school, these things had been done with the interests of the white workingclass in mind. Fdr said already in 1944 that every american had a right to a job, living wage, home, and education. These are things on the agenda since the new deal. Even by 1944, you have the expanded new deal in the second bill of rights that roosevelt is talking about. This is a quote from roosevelt in 1944. We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be. If some fraction of our peoples ill fed, ill clothed, ill housed, and ill secure. Americans found this position americans found this position very appealing in 1944. They still did 30 years later. It was a bedrock of both parties. There are few people, like libertarian barry goldwater, who wanted to tinker with the Social Security state. But nobody else did, or nobody else with any power. In 1973, a gallup poll said that 91 of americans believed that tax laws should be changed to ease the burden on moderate and lower income and increase those on higher income and corporations. 91 of americans want to see their taxes lowered and taxes on the rich and corporations are raised. The majority of Americans Still believe that. It just hasnt been part of policy. In 1973, 72 of americans agree that the federal government has a responsibility to do away with poverty in this country. Although 69 were skeptical about welfare, 62 thought more should be done to help the poor. One thing to bear in mind is that full employment as a goal is part of the basic platform of every Political Party until the 1970s. They dont achieve it, but it is there as a goal. The idea that everyone should have a job. They dont get it. It is there that has the value. It is something that disappears later on. But the key to prosperity in this country this is true when you talk about the right to work platforms and legislation. The key was always the opportunity to work. To have a job. This is in part because of what has been happening for the 30 years back. If you look back to the new deal, when roosevelt entered the white house in 1933, 25 of americans could not find a job. You remember this. A quarter of americans who wanted a job could not find a job. Throughout the 1930s, unemployment never dipped below 14 . Where is unemployment today . Thats right. Roughly 4 . That is really, very low. In the 1950s, unemployment dips down to 4. 6 , almost as low today. By 1969 it was 3. 9 , we would have to recount the votes to tell the difference between then and today. Very low by 1969. Between 1945 and 1970, this is important. Americans became richer overall, meaning people got they were doing better overa