Nixon (Domestic) Flashcards
McCarthy verse Johnson
McCarthy appealed to college students- many decided to ‘be clean for gene’ and swapped jeans for suits.
Showed how vulnerable Johnson was to a Liberal Democrat challenger.
B Kennedy vs McCarthy
McCarthy seemed arrogant, cold and distant in comparison to Kennedy.
He said nothing on MLK assassination and failed to relate to minorities.
Appealed more to Middle class
Kennedy appealed more to the poor and less privileged.
Press was increasingly pro-kennedy.
Johnson emerged as a stronger candidate than McCarthy. When he attacked both racial prejudice and riots, criticise the rise of welfare and praised hard work he began to win middle class support.
-partly because of the Kennedy Legacy he stirred intense affection amongst crowd.
Democrat liberals had asked him to challenge Johnson and he left it to McCarthy. They feared he would split the liberal vote.
Democratic national convention
The youth international party wanted to show the contempts for American politics so they called on young people to come and distrupt the Democratic National convention.
-they spread rumours they were gonna put LSD in the cities water supply and produced a pig as their presidential candidate.
12,000 Police were called to the protest where police officers removed their nameplates and retaliated shouting ‘kill kill kill’. A British reporter recorded young protesters beaten into the ground by cops who have completely lost a cool.
Democratic national convention
Democrats were tainted by the events in Chicago. It reminded voters how violence and disorder had become recurrent under Johnson’s watch.
Nixon shot head of Humphrey in the polls due to his law and order policies.
Democrats were weakened by Humphreys campaign and McCarthy refused to endorse him
Anti war protesters continued to attack Humphrey and disrupted his meetings and made it impossible for his speeches to be heard.
Reasons for Nixon’s 1968 election victory
-Association with Eisenhower and moderation
-Party loyalty
-His appeal to middle America.
-Nixon won over party loyalist by tireless party fundraising and campaigning
-The old guards liked Nixon’s extreme anti-Communism.
-Nixon had governmental experience and was associated with prosperity of the Eisenhower years.
Nixon’s promises and policies
-Bring peace with honour and Vietnam
-Restore law and order in cities
-Less and cheaper government
Nixon’s Southern strategy and the Sunbelt
Sunbelt:
-increased use of air-conditioning to make hot regions more habitable
-Federal government made these areas more accessible through massive expansion of the interstate highway system
Southern strategy:
-Rejected Johnsons policy of cutting off federal funds to segregated schools.
-Proposed new federalism- wanted to share federal revenue directly with the states
-Nixon was socially conservative and disliked the elite of the north east.
Middle America
Constituted 55% of the population.
Middle America discontent: the silent majority
Watched the riots on television
-Lost patience with rioters and the federal government.
-Taxation- giving their money away to the undeserving port
-Middle America’s children were drafted and sent to Vietnam.
Nixon’s campaign
-Learn not to make many public appearances
-Appeared dignified and experienced, spoke to large audiences
-Mastered techniques for television
Eisenhower support
Announcement of the marriage of Nixon’s daughter Julie and Eisenhower’s son David gave Nixon’s campaign a boost.
David persuaded his dying grandfather to endorse Nixon
Nixons running mate
Agnew gained national attention after spring riots he summoned black leaders and castigated them as riot inciting and burn-America down type leaders.
Agnew appealed to Middle America and Republicans
Election results
-Nixon only took 43% of the popular vote. lowest winning margin
-Humphrey took 42%
Nixon had one the support of fewer than 27% of American voters
Welfare and anti-poverty programs
-Nixon made it clear he wanted to remove the wasteful and inefficient great society programmes.
-84% of American polls believed there were too many people receiving welfare money that should be working.
Middle America resented the expense
Nixon introduced the (SSI) supplementary security income which provided guaranteed income for elderly and disabled citizens.
-increase in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits
-Proposed federalisation of Medicaid for poor families
Business
Created the:
-Environmental protection agency (EPA)
Successfully shrunk the office of economic opportunities OEO
-Closed 59 job corps centre
-Cut Federal Funding for housing and youth programs
-He hoped he could make welfare recipients work through his Family Assistance Plan (FAP)
-welfare recipients would only receive $1600 per year and there were work requirements
-That was so many criticisms of Nixon’s FAP that Congress rejected it.
-Nixon vetoed the 1971 child development act which would have provided free childcare to enable poor mother to work
Silent majority
Felt like they had no rights movement and no group to protest for them
-The silent majority felt that no one was arguing that things should stay the same
-They believed in America as it had been -Concentrated in the Sunbelt region where liberal ideas hadn’t spread yet
-Johnson had alienated them with his 1964 civil rights bill
Changes to Civil rights
-Nixon attacked busing as wrenching children from their families
-Nixon’s appointment of Conservative Supreme Court justices led to a ruling that halted busing and justified the continuance of de facto segregation of schools.
Nixon’s administration gave minorities considerable help.
-He put pressure on federal contractors to employ more minority workers.
-Introduced the first federal affirmative action program known as the Philadelphia Plan requiring government contractors in Philadelphia the higher minority workers until stated targets were reached.
-University courses dedicated to black studies founded at prestigious institutions like Duke and Harvard.
-The first black woman elected to congress in 1968
-13 black members of Congress sitting in 1971
-Civil rights group like SNCC reduce dramatically in size and influence as donations dried up.