More from the social democratic America.
The 1970s had been deeply challenging to the Popular Front. President Gavin's management of the numerous African and Asian peacekeeping campaigns alienated the public from Spock and Dellums's anti-war rhetoric, and co-opting the Front's typical pro-agricultural policies engineered the conditions for farmers to swing dramatically to the Union party. But the hearings on pervasive kickbacks in defense contract allotments circumscribed Gavin's political influence. The successive defeat of two leftist candidates created wedge room for a centrist, and New York Governor Felix Rohatyn stepped in. Despite a narrow primary victory over 1976 VP nominee and Communist House Whip Ronald Reagan, Rohatyn slaked the party's institutionally influential left with Socialist Detroit mayor Kenneth Cockrel Sr.
Engelhard represented, in voters' minds, the inability of the Union party to shed its reputation as the party of country clubs. A wealthy international businessman, he lacked the nonpartisan appeal of Gavin and was an aloof campaigner. Rohatyn proposed creating an elected Management Congress to administer the nationalized industries and welfare state and mandating workplace democracy through codetermination, but also extricating the financial sector from government control and turning the national infrastructure bank, managed jointly by government and labor union representatives, into a corporation. This undercut Engelhard's standing as the candidate of business, and for the first time ever, small business owners voted for the Front candidate in greater numbers than for the Union candidate.
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