History concepts and applications

¶ … 1962, Americans didn't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore. Nixon, disillusioned at having lost California to the Democrats after having battled for the White House two years earlier, was on the retreat alongside most of the old-guard conservatives in America. This trend is one that had favored only moderate Republicans like Eisenhower after the anti-communists of the early 50's had squandered the Grand Old Party's last congressional majority. Kennedy was a centrist that wished to modify his party's "New Deal" legacy for a more middle-class electorate while continuing to champion the traditions of America as an alternative to Bolshevism. By 1980, the conservative movement came to dominate the governments of the United States and United Kingdom as it employed rhetoric that appealed to traditional Christians and to libertarians who wished to curtail government spending. An analysis of what took place between these two events reveals an electorate disillusioned with the sweeping social changes of the 1960's and ready to embrace the stability promised by what was at the time an opposition party.

The 1960's and 1970's in America saw an urban transition still unknown in most of the major cities of Europe. The Federal Housing Administration had precipitated the explosion in suburban development by offering 4% interest loans following the Second World War. Unfortunately, the FHA actively discriminated against blacks in the procurement of new home loans, polarizing cities into two camps, the predominantly white and middle class suburbs, and predominantly poor and black inner cities. At the same time, federal highway initiatives instituted under Eisenhower in the mid-1950's made cities more accessible to suburban communities by providing them with a fast, easy commute. Faced with a declining tax base, municipal authorities exacerbated the problem by condemning residential neighborhoods in order to build federally funded highways that would bring suburban commuters to downtown offices. In doing so, they condemned neighborhoods that were usually home to urban poor populations. Displaced, these residents moved to areas that had been conventionally seen as middle class, adding to preconceptions about urban blight. These residents were often also relocated in housing projects, which were built with federal money solicited for the purpose of poverty eradication. Instead, many residents often subsisted on general assistance stipends and their poverty became institutionalized. "White flight" was hastened by the large-scale urban black riots of the mid-60's in cities such as Los Angeles and Newark. At the same time, increased competition with Asia had lead to a cyclical downswing in manufacturing.

The young people of the 1960's were alienated from the Democratic Party by its insistence upon introducing a draft for the military campaign in Vietnam. These young people were more individualistic than their parents' generation, and were influenced by large-scale exposure to LSD and marijuana. This attitude of permissiveness towards drugs, coupled with easily traveled supply-roads to Southeast Asia, lead to a heroin epidemic. The older generation was quick to demonize all drug use, which they associated with an increase in crime and the protest-culture that lead to the riots that accompanied the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968.

At the same time, many conservatives quietly resented attempts at desegregation and came to associate this open process with urban blight. These opinions couldn't be easily articulated in a way that wouldn't be condemned as being racist. Conservative politicians were quick to capitalize on this fact. As a candidate for President in 1968, Nixon appealed to this "silent majority" of Americans fed up with racial strife, crime, war, and protest. There was a tendency among old-guard conservatives to associate new attitudes among the youth with their traditional foe: communism. This was exacerbated by the open rhetoric of left leaders such as Abbie Hoffman and "Hanoi Jane" Fonda.

In the wake of the Chicago riots that pitted Mayor Daly against the Yippies and Students for a Democratic Society, the Republican Party under Richard Nixon developed a battle plan. Nixon planned to attract three groups of voters away from the Democratic Party:

Urban ethnic voters, especially Catholics of Italian, Irish, and Polish descent.

Blue-collar working classes

Southern whites and suburban whites

In order to win this new coalition, Nixon planned to do three things:

Reassure blue collar workers

Exploit social issues that appealed to Roman Catholic voters

Demonstrate opposition to forced integration of schools

Nixon's plan was a success. The new focus of the Republicans allowed them to distance themselves from the exclusively free-market anti-communist rhetoric of Barry Goldwater, who had only managed to win 1/3 of the vote in 1964. Republican initiatives played to the fears of traditional city dwellers as well as suburbanites, who were quick to blame the nation's troubles on its inner city blacks and student radical leaders. At the same time, the Democrats had lost strength when RFK was killed and replaced by Hubert Humphrey, who was seen as too establishment.