1968 Election, Nixon's Strategy

Question 1

The Election

Answer 1

Independent George Wallace won 9.9 million votes
Republican Richard Nixon won 31.8 million votes
Democrat Hubert Humphrey won 31.2 million votes
Tight election- Wallace split traditional Republican vote

Question 2

Nixon’s Strategy- Restore Law and Order

Answer 2

Middle America lived by the rules, threatened by unrest
Lost patience with black + federal gov. after ghetto riots

Question 3

Nixon’s Strategy- Restore Law and Order (Appeal)

Answer 3

Nixon promised to return law and order to cities
Chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate, had taken harsh stance against civil rights riots in Baltimore

Question 4

Nixon’s Strategy- Reduce Reliance on Welfare

Answer 4

Johnson lost w/c + lower m/c voters- polls, 84% of Americans believed ‘there are too many people receiving welfare money who should by working’
Both Democratic candidates (before JFK assass) tried to keep poverty + inequality on agenda
Americans didn’t want to prioritise high spending

Question 5

Nixon’s Strategy- Reduce Reliance on Welfare (Appeal)

Answer 5

Nixon promised less + cheaper government.
He attacked massive bureaucracy implementing welfare- hopes he would dismantle welfare state
Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace also criticised mothers receiving welfare support- split vote

Question 6

Nixon’s Strategy- Increase Southern Support (Nixon)

Answer 6

Promised to slow down school desegregation in the South- rejecting J’s policy of cutting fed. funds to school districts
Won over Southern white voters
Chose Spiro Agnew, massive publicity in riots in Baltimore

Question 7

Nixon’s Strategy- Increase Southern Support (Wallace + American Opinions)

Answer 7

Gov. George Wallace was segregationist, appealed to Southern states outraged at Civil Rights Act (1964) under Democrats- reduced their vote
1964- 34% white Americans felt black Americans demanding too many freedoms, by 1968- 85%

Question 8

Nixon’s Strategy- Strong Policy in Vietnam

Answer 8

Vietnam seen as ‘Johnson’s war’- damaged J’s VP, Hubert Humphrey’s hopes
Middle America’s children drafted

Question 9

Nixon’s Strategy- Strong Policy in Vietnam (Appeal)

Answer 9

Nixon promised ‘peace with honour’, to end the draft, and to phase out American troops.
Enormously successful speech, many letters of support, promoted a sense of patriotism

Question 10

Nixon’s Strategy- Expose Democratic Party Weakness

Answer 10

Divided Democratic Party
Johnson exited presidential race, struggle in Democratic Party
Eugene McCarthy- anti-war, didn’t appeal to patriotic MA
Anti-war democrats disrupted Humphrey’s meetings + he was associated with Great Society