1968 Presidential Election
As the Labor Day unofficial start date for the general election campaign began, the modest Wallace lead that he had left the convention with soon evaporated with the wave of massive anti-war protests that blossomed from Chicago’s. Effigies of both the Alabama Governor and his GOP opponent were burned on a mass scale by the protestors, several turning violent as members of radical groups such as the SDS and Black Jaguar Party clashed with riot police.
Both Goldwater and Wallace responded by taking hawkish positions on national defense and law and order issues. Political cartoonists and TV comedian Johnny Carson lampooned the similar statements of the two candidates quite often, the latter stating that the only difference being one wanted to bomb the communists tomorrow while the other wanted to bomb them yesterday.
Jokes aside, many attacks were made by both camps on the discrepancies of the specific plans. Wallace claimed Goldwater wanted to abandon America’s edge in nuclear firepower over the Soviet Union (the Soviets had overcome the US by the third year of the Kennedy Administration, though it was never by much; for every nine US missiles there were ten Soviet). The widely printed slogan “Bomb them to the Stone Age” was widely circulated and received much support from what Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew called “The Silent Majority” in an interview with CBS’ Walter Cronkite.
Goldwater on the other hand claimed Wallace was a trigger happy hothead, echoing many attacks from President Kennedy’s camp in the primary contest. Claiming the need to avoid nuclear war was prominent, he and Romney promised a massive investment into America’s conventional forces – stating in a speech that “The spendthrift liberals are content to build a few more nukes so they can gut our national defense to pay for their bloated programs. It doesn’t work!” Wallace’s camp dispatched McNamara in response, the VP nominee coolly and calmly explaining to a national audience the nature of the Alabaman’s policies to rave reviews from the press.
In the words of Governor Agnew: “The liberal nabobs’ white knight has never been so… boring. Wallace has enough fire for the both of them.”
Left-leaning voters of both parties began to flee to McCarthy’s campaign, the Minnesota Senator promising a gradual withdrawal from South Vietnam, “As it is time for the South Vietnamese to engage in the fight by themselves. American children don’t need to engage in battles in their nation, not now that they can stand on their own two feet.” Rallies for the McCarthy/McGovern ticket often took the appearance of counterculture music festivals, Wallace remarking “You can tell who the Progressive candidates are in the crowd by the fact that they’re the only ones in suits.”
On domestic policy the battle lines were drawn sharply. Goldwater championed his small government conservatism, arguing the need to roll back regulations, cut social programs, and eliminate the Department of Public Works. To promote the economy, tax cuts were necessary while crime control needed to be instituted while still respecting concerns of bigotry. Governor Romney was the point man for the African American community, the former auto executive campaigning across black neighborhoods with black leaders of all ideologies.
Wallace by contrast proclaimed his policies with his characteristic bombast, channeling the anger building in his working class base. Never mentioning segregation in the slightest, the southern white base nevertheless remained in his corner. Northern laborers and ethnics threw their support behind him, his calls for increased programs for the working poor and an administration friendly to organized labor hitting their heartstrings. Crime wouldn’t be coddled in a Wallace Administrations, state the advertisements.
Meanwhile, the Progressives aligned themselves as the true heirs to the left, McCarthy’s maverick views appealing to many moderate Republicans weary of Goldwater while McGovern co-opted the brewing counterculture and anti-war sentiment felt on the nations fringes.
Unlike the past two elections, there would be no October Surprise. Heavier fighting in Vietnam, the rising crime rate, and no abatement to the demonstrations kept the race to the wire till Election Day.
It was clear that George Wallace had retained much of the old Truman coalition. Sweeping the Deep South and the industrial Midwest, fears of the new Soviet leadership, concerns over the escalating conflict in Vietnam, and the rising crime rate and counterculture caused a huge outpouring of white backlash against the Republicans and the Kennedy Democrats. Being the man who defeated Kennedy, Wallace had largely escaped the same taint.
In the West, what had been an indisputable part of the Truman coalition had largely abandoned Wallace. Barry Goldwater, a westerner himself, and his pre-New Deal conservatism were a perfect fit for the region and swept all the west coast, mountain, and plains states (save for Oklahoma, voting for Wallace by 24,000 votes). Loyalty to the party of Nixon and the presence of George Romney kept the African American-vote for Goldwater, while his conservatism took several border states (Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, and Florida). Backlash against Wallace gave the GOP much of the upper Midwest as well as Massachusetts, the latter both as a black eye to the man that defeated their home state hero and due to significant vote splitting for McCarthy.
The Progressives didn’t do too badly, winning a significant chunk of the popular vote. In the Electoral College, McCarthy and McGovern only won their home states and the moderate bastion of Vermont (neither main party candidates a good fit for the state). Though they weren’t able to influence the current election as much as they had hoped, both Senators had laid the groundwork for the future of the American left.
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