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Rise & Reelection of Nixon · Saberian History Lectures

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So when we talk about the rise of Richard Nixon,
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and I think really the rise of Nixon is probably
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one of the most transformative events of American
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politics. Here you have, and it's transformative
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insofar as It's in 1968 that you have the beginnings
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of the major party realignments, where all of
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a sudden now we start seeing the South as a Republican
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part of the United States, whereas previously
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what party had dominated the American South?
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The Democrats. It's also where we begin to see
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a, for lack of a better word, a semi -permanent
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settlement of Republican presidents. If you look
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at the Republican presidents after LBJ it goes
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Nixon, Ford is president by succession, then
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you have Reagan, Bush the elder, and then Bush
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the younger. And so for much of the second half
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of the 20th century and into the early 21st century,
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the Republican Party plays a major role after
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being in the dark from 1928 to 1952. Kind of
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re -sketch the timeline if it's something that
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I have on a previous podcast. Oh, well. So 1960,
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Nixon loses to Kennedy in a closely contested
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election. Again, very small electoral map. We
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had talked about that when we talked about the
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election of Kennedy. Actually, let me see if
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I can bring that up on the map for you. because
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this might be a ring around the ring around the
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rosy of historic elections. Let me do that real
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quick. 1960. So if I look at the election in
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1960, you're talking less than a hundred thousand
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votes and you'll notice, oh, it would help if
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y 'all could actually see the screen. Here we
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go. So here's the election of 1960. Nixon lost
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the popular vote by less than 100 ,000. And you'll
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notice that it's kind of a mishmash of red and
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blue states. You do see the South voting as a
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block, except your Florida all by itself. You
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have most of the far west voting as a block except
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for New Mexico and Nevada and the Midwest is
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a combination breaking Republican and Democrat.
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It was a close election and not a very ideologic
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one. What I mean by that and this gets into a
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wider theory that I haven't had a chance to expound
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upon is that for much of American politics after
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the Civil War and after the New Deal, you had
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a very narrow political space. What do I mean
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by a very narrow political space? The differences
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between the political parties. So think about
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this for a moment. If you're a Republican, or
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if you're a Democrat, first of all, at this point
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in American history, are both parties uh... for
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lack of a better word comprised of people of
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faith christianity is still the dominant major
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figure of the religion now again if you're a
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republican you might be more apt to be protestant
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whereas again the democrats have catholics in
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their coalition and jews in their coalition to
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numbers that the republicans don't have although
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there are plenty of republican jews and so you
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have a fear of god so you wouldn't have uh...
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We don't think of either party as being atheistic,
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are both parties anti -communist? Yes. You have,
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for the most part, both of them are advocating
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property rights, both of them are advocating
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growing the American middle class, and so in
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terms of the political space of the Democratic
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Party and the Republican Party at that time,
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The gulf between them is relatively small and
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you have a lot of people voting on what I would
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call ethno -familiar lines. When I mean ethno
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-familiar lines, I mean okay, I'm voting Republican
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because that is my family affiliation. I'm voting
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Republican because my parents voted Republican
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or I'm voting Democrat because I'm Irish and
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my family voted Democrat. You get the idea. Are
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there people who still vote in those veins today?
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Yes. Now, would we actually describe the space
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between the Republican and Democratic party as
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narrow or broad today? Very broad. You have also
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something else. Do you have... The issues you
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don't have, you don't have gun control as a major
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issue, you don't have abortion as a major issue,
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you don't have the highly divisive issues that
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are in our politics today in the 1960s. These
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were largely debates about unions, tax rates,
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and what good communist fighting looks like.
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So do you see how it's a very narrow space in
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the early 1960s, but now it's broadened in our
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modern times? Nixon loses in 1960. 1962, he tries
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to run for the governorship of California. He
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loses that. Okay. So after losing the presidency
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and losing his home state of California, He thinks
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he's done. And he gives his last press conference
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and he tells the reporters you won't have Richard
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Nixon to kick around anymore. In six short years
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he will go from being down and out to being president.
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And six years after that he will go from being
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president to resigning. Now there's a lot of
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things that happen between here and there. So
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let's get into very quickly, the election of
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1964. 1964, Goldwater loses to LBJ. Now I believe
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yesterday, or not yesterday, Thursday I showed
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y 'all the Daisy ad and I showed, I did not show
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you Reagan's time for choosing speech. I think
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I'm actually going to talk about that in the
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80s. But here's the thing that happens. Let me
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show you how bad the loss is for Goldwater. Here's
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64. LBJ carried every state except Arizona, which
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was Goldwater's home state, and the South. What's
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interesting? The South voted Republican. Now,
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what's interesting is Goldwater In addition to
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being strong on defense, the doctrine of peace
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through strength, which did appeal to the patriotism
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of people in the South, also was a big believer
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in states' rights. Even if that allows the state
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to do horrible things. And so, that's interesting,
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but if I'm a Republican and I look at this map,
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this is a bad map for me, isn't it? Now let me
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tell you what happened, and I've said it several
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times. What you had was in the election of 1964,
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the Republican coalition split. You had in the
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Republican party two factions. One was the progressive
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wing of the Republican party led by Nelson Rockefeller,
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who is the descendant of John Dee. And then you
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had Goldwater. Now again, The Goldwater faction
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I can readily describe as a type of Western libertarianism.
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His center of power is Arizona and California.
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I know we don't think of California as a libertarian
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state, but in 1964 it was. And in 1968 it was,
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because California is the end of the frontier.
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And so one of the things that is kind of interesting
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is, okay, we think about Silicon Valley as the
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heart of technology and very progressive. But
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one of the reasons Silicon Valley was the heart
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of technology is the land was cheap and the government
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intervention was slight back when Silicon Valley
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got started. By the way, is the government interventions
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in California slight? Now, to the point of being
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predatory and in this art Texan state, where
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are most of our migrants coming from? California.
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There are refugees fleeing a Soviet state. No?
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Too soon for that joke? I was going to make another
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bad joke, but anyway, here you have these hapless
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refugees. They don't share our customs and don't
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speak our language. But enough about our friends
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from California. Republicans are dealt a horrible
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defeat. They know that part of the reason they
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lost is you had a large portion of the Republican
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electorate voting for the Democrat LBJ rather
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than voting for Goldwater, who they thought was
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going to start a nuclear war with the Russians.
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Did I show you all the days he had, yes? Yes.
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Thursday? The little girl at the countdown, the
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atomic blast? Yes. Okay. So now, so you have
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a split in the Republican Party, gives the Democrats
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a super majority. Okay? Now, what's interesting
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is, When Ronald Reagan was campaigning for Goldwater,
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many of the Great Society programs had either
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not yet been passed or were still in their infancy.
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They had not seen the transformative effects
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of the expansion of the government bureaucracy
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by virtue of the Great Society and its effect
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on the United States. So think about this for
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a moment. Prior to the Great Society, you did
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not have food stamps and you did not have housing
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projects. How many of you know people who make
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the complaint that food stamps actually deter
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work? How many of you know people who've made
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that argument? How many of you have seen the
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assertion made that really the housing projects
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are the ghettos that we've just taken poor people
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and moved them to the inner city? So in 1964
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Those programs hadn't met their fullest flavor.
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By 1968, the costs of those programs, both to
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the American psyche and to the American finance,
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had begun to make themselves plain. the agitations
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of the social protest movement while benign in
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1964 had reached a fever pitch in 1968. So let
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me just sort of tell you how chaotic 1968 was.
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1968 is considered one of the most chaotic times
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in American history. January of 1968, North Korea
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seizes the USS Pueblo and the North Vietnamese
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Army and the Viet Cong staged the Tet Offensive.
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In February, there are massive civil rights protests
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in Carolina, Wisconsin, and Chapel Hill. In March,
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the issue of the Vietnam War drives a wedge inside
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the Democratic Party. You have anti -war candidates
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like Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy posing
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as primary challengers to LBJ on the issue of
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Vietnam. So, 1968, originally LBJ was thinking
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about running for re -election. March, he's up
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against people who want the United States out
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of the war. You have the protest movement outside
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of the White House chanting, hey, hey, LBJ, how
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many boys did you kill today? And this was demoralizing
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for Johnson. And so in March, which if you think
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about it, when do we start presidential primaries?
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Not in March, you started in September of the
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previous year. In March, LBJ announces he would
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not seek reelection. So let's go real quick to
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1968. You have in the Democratic Party you have
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the immigrants, you have the unions, you have
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the South, and within that you have the Dove
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Faction and the War Faction. You have Democrats
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who are against the war, and in that you also
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have the protest movement. So this Dove faction,
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and you do have some overlap. Okay. So you're
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the Democratic party, your sitting president
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decides he doesn't want to run again. Who do
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you put in? Why, the Vice President, of course.
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So, this Democratic establishment puts in the
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sitting Vice President Hubert Humphrey to replace
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LBJ as the lead of the ticket. April 4th, Martin
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Luther King is assassinated outside of the Lorraine
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Hotel in Memphis. Riots ensue in every major
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American city with an African -American population.
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Cities from New York all the way to Louisville
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are in flames. The army had to be called in to
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occupy Washington DC for the first time since
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MacArthur expelled the bonus army. Y 'all remember
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Ferguson, don't you? Picture a Ferguson -style
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situation in every major American city. Picture
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it in Washington DC where they have to bring
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in the Army to put it down. Does that give you
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an idea of just how chaotic 68 was? April 11th,
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LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which
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prohibited racial discrimination in terms of
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housing. Prima facie, a good and wholesome law.
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However, for a generation of people whose only
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experience with people of color may well have
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been news reports of agitation, the idea of those
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people coming soon to a neighborhood near you
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was something that a lot of people couldn't live
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with. And as if the spring wasn't crazy enough,
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the summer of 68 was far more exciting. June
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5th. Robert Kennedy is assassinated by the Palestinian
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activist Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel
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in Los Angeles. In July, black militants led
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by Fred Evans will have a shootout in Glenville,
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Ohio. In August, all hell will break loose in
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Chicago as anti -war protesters clash with police
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outside the Democratic National Convention. party
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nominates their establishment candidate Hubert
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Humphrey, angering the dove wing of the party
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and the social protest movement, who at first
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coalesced around Bobby Kennedy and then around
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Eugene McCarthy. So why didn't they coalesce
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around Bobby Kennedy? Because Bobby Kennedy died
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on June 5th, then they coalesced around Eugene
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McCarthy. In September Feminists, again, associated
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with the protest movement, protest the Miss America
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pageant as a form of exploitation. This marks
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the beginning of agitation by second wave feminists.
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First wave feminists are your suffragettes. These
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are the ones who are fighting for the right to
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vote. Second wave feminists, and again, first
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wave feminists are people seeking the vote to
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be better wives, better mothers, better Christians,
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but if I look at second wave feminism, Second
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wave feminism went well beyond notions of equality,
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equal pay for equal work. Second wave feminism
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posited that the notion of the entire existing
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social and religious order was designed for their
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enslavement and oppression. They sought to be
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liberated from the expectations of society when
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it came to female virtues, chastity, piety, patience,
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charity. Instead, they wanted to be liberated
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from the standard female obligations of being
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a wife and a mother to pursue their careers.
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To the traditional religion, the combination
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of the birth control pill would allow a woman
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to break the curse of Eve from the Garden of
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Eden. Unlike their sisters ten years earlier,
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many of these women did not go to college to
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find a man, but had to deal with the cognitive
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dissonance of going to college to get a degree
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and then also tending to the expectations of
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being a wife and mother. So think about this
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for a moment. You have the protest movement of
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the African Americans now seen as dangerous by
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virtue of the riots. You have the protest movement
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of feminism seen as a vile bacchanal cult devoted
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to sexuality with no responsibility. In October,
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US Olympics, the medalists, and I have their
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names presently, in October, the Mexico City
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games, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, two African
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American men who placed first and third in the
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200 meter run during the customary playing of
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the American national anthem, raised their fists
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in the black power salute as a sign of defiance
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and an international embarrassment. I've got
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the image. So think about this for a moment.
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We use this symbol as a sign of liberation, which
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it is in our modern context, but at the time
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in 1968, in the throes of the Cold War, the Olympics,
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which are an expression of national patriotism,
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this is people airing America's dirty laundry
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on the international stage. Does that make sense?
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Do you see why this would offend people? Did
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anything happen to them? There are repercussions
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to follow. I kind of don't want to deal with
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this in too many lurid details because I've got
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more things to go through. So if you think about
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it, cities on fire, discourse at home. People
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not minding the traditional religion and international
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embarrassment abroad. The Democrats go from controlling
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the House, the Senate, and the presidency. If
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you see your world like that, do you think you
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want to give the party in power another two to
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four years? No. So in November of 1968, people
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registered their disgust with the welfare state
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and the social protest movement. The Republicans
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united behind the familiar face, the Vice President
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from the good old days of We Like Ike. The ethos
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was simple. Elect Nixon and we'll have it like
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we used to under Eisenhower. By the way, under
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Eisenhower was the economy booming. Was there
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peace and prosperity at home? Yes. And Nixon
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promised to bring back law and order. In the
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South, Many Democrats disgusted with the party's
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embrace of ethnic and gender politics and away
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from traditional values, voted against the Democratic
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Party by voting for the segregationist George
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Wallace. Let me show you the map of 1968. Because
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I want to speak to something that's 64, that's
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60. 68. You know, and historians want to talk
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about the Wallace effect. I've often said Many
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historians talk about the Wallace Effect because
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there are so many people who cannot believe that
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people with enthusiasm voted for Richard Nixon.
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If you look at the situation, why did they vote
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for Richard Nixon with such enthusiasm that the
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events of 1968 made the current Democratic administration
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an existential threat to people's sense of reality.
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Look at how many states Nixon carried. Now, let
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me actually show you the math. 301 to Humphrey's
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191. Now, if I had added Wallace's 9 million
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to Humphrey's 30 million, yes, Wallace would
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have won the popular vote. Would he have won
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the electoral college? Not at all. And also,
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Do you think the American South, having been
21:39
fed up with the chaos and tumult brought to you
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by LBJ, was going to vote for the Democrats when,
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as a bloc, the South had voted for Goldwater
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in 64? You get the idea. And so, while many historians
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try and paint Nixon as a vile and despicable
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man, There were people who voted wholeheartedly
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for that man. Because, oh my god, the Democrats
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putting up the establishment candidate and getting
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the one person the protest movement didn't want.
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Too soon? Do you hear the echo? Alright, let's
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get to the reign of Nixon. Now, the inauguration,
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and this was actually written in separate speeches,
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but we're kind of behind time, so I'm throwing
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them together. Reign of Richard Nixon, 1968 -72.
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The inauguration of Nixon was not a return of
22:51
the king moment. This was not a moment of great
22:54
peace or bringing about the golden age. Nixon
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had come to power standing precariously atop
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a split Republican party and plunging through
23:02
a split Democratic party. Nixon's election was
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close and it was not a wave election by any stretch
23:07
of the imagination. One of the other things that
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Nixon has going for him is you have a lot of
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people, and I kind of want to get to the bit.
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1964, presidency, house, senate, democrat, democrat,
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democrat. 1968, presidency goes republican, but
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the house and the senate are still democrat.
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Oh by the way, so it wasn't a wave election.
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Congress stayed in the hands of the democratic
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party, it's just the chief executive changed.
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Does that make sense? So it wasn't a coattails
23:49
election, it wasn't a ground breaker the way
23:51
you had in 1932. So he inherited a Congress that
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was fractured both on domestic policy and foreign
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policy, and so Tricky Dick would have to cobble
24:02
coalitions where he could find it. Yes, that
24:04
was actually his name, Tricky Dick, in reference
24:06
to Richard. I know it sounds like an obscenity,
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some of you are smiling, sorry. The driving force
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behind American foreign policy had been the Cold
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War from 1947 to 1991. Nixon inherits a world
24:19
in dire straits. Communists had firm control
24:21
over Eastern Europe, China, and they were on
24:24
the ascent in Southeast Asia, and they were meddling
24:27
in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
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Nixon appointed Dr. Henry Kissinger to be his
24:33
national security advisor, and he would later
24:36
be the Secretary of State. Kissinger was a historian
24:41
by training, which means there's hope for some
24:43
of us yet. Too soon? Classically trained historian,
24:50
his field of expertise was actually Helmut von
24:53
Moltke's creation of the German Empire. The second
24:57
one. Kissinger moved American foreign policy
25:02
away from its ideological roots towards a doctrine
25:07
of Realpolitik. I'm actually going to write that
25:10
one down for you. It's a fancy German word, which
25:12
actually means anybody want to take a guess?
25:15
Real politics. In other words, dealing with the
25:17
politics of the reality rather than dealing with
25:20
it according to your ideology. In other words,
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a fancy German way of saying pragmatism. So,
25:30
basing your foreign policy given the circumstances
25:32
rather than ideological commitments. In this
25:34
case, Kissinger understood that the ideology
25:36
of communism was also contained in the national
25:39
interests of the major players, China and Russia.
25:42
Very early in the Nixon administration, there
25:44
had been an undeclared border war between China
25:48
and the Soviet Union. Kissinger saw this as an
25:52
opportunity to advance U .S. interests in the
25:54
Pacific generally and to help extricate the U
25:57
.S. from Vietnam. Nixon would go to China in
26:01
October of 1971. Now think about this for a moment.
26:05
Why is it that Nixon could go to China where
26:10
LBJ couldn't. Not just time. Think about this
26:18
for a moment. If you're passing New Deal -style
26:21
legislation, if you're the party that had been
26:24
communistically witch -hunted, if the world thought
26:27
you were soft on communism, can you go to China?
26:30
But if you are the old star of the old House
26:34
American Activities Committee, if you've made
26:36
your reputation hunting communists, You can go
26:40
to China because the people know that you're
26:43
not going to sell them out. Does that make sense?
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And so this is where they get the expression,
26:48
only Nixon could go to China. Now think about
26:54
this for a moment. Oh my god, jockeying the Chinese
26:57
against the Russians. Do we have a split between
27:02
the Chinese and the Russians now? Is China a
27:06
trading partner of the United States? That was
27:10
all made possible by the Nixon administration
27:13
recognizing the Chinese government as a sovereign
27:16
government and opening relations. Prior to that,
27:19
the United States did not negotiate with the
27:21
People's Republic of China, only with the nationalists
27:24
in Taiwan. Nixon would use the China leverage
27:31
to gain further advantage over the Soviet Union.
27:34
The following year, 1972, the United States signs
27:38
a strategic arms limitation or assault one treaty
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which limited the number of warheads and prohibited
27:45
the construction of missile defense systems.
27:48
That was between the U .S. and the Soviet Union.
27:51
Why would you prohibit the creation of a missile
27:53
defense system? Because how does nuclear deterrence
28:00
works? How does it work? Because you actually
28:06
have to have the fear that you will nuke the
28:08
other guy and that they will nuke you. It creates
28:10
not a balance of power, but a balance of terror.
28:14
Which also tells you something about peace. Peace
28:19
does not occur in a vacuum. Peace is an equilibrium
28:22
of violence and violence potential. Remember
28:26
that. Now, this is the policy of détente, or
28:32
peaceful coexistence, which would later be lambasted
28:35
by Ronald Reagan when he runs for president in
28:38
the 1970s and 1980s. As successful as Nixon was
28:47
abroad, Nixon had to deal with the tumultuous
28:50
situation in American domestic policy. The country
28:53
was deeply divided by race, class, and gender,
28:56
and on the issue of the Vietnam War. And, if
29:00
you combine the votes of Wallace and Nixon, the
29:02
vast majority of people were fed up with the
29:05
New Deal and all of its, with the Great Society
29:07
and all of its appendages, affirmative action,
29:10
welfare, and forced busing. Now let me talk to
29:12
you very briefly about forced busing for a moment,
29:15
because you all don't really have a schemer for
29:16
this. Okay. Brown versus Board of Education said
29:21
you didn't segregate people by race. Makes sense,
29:23
right? Okay, so Brown versus Board of Education,
29:28
you don't segregate people by race, and so how,
29:33
if you're a school district, do you determine
29:34
who goes to school where? How do they determine
29:38
where you go to school now? Well, by district
29:42
and within a district, you create attendance
29:43
zones, yes? So where you live, yes? So you have
29:48
the end of what you call de jure segregation.
29:51
De jure is as a matter of law. That's Brown versus
29:53
Board of Education that gets that process started.
29:59
But, and in rural areas, it was very simple.
30:03
Okay, if you're in a one high school town, you
30:05
don't have two high schools, you have one. Make
30:07
sense? Did I tell you about the time I actually
30:10
went to the old black high school of a campus?
30:13
And what did they do? They still had the building.
30:15
They turned it into an elementary school and
30:17
they put all their African -American students
30:19
and sent them to the main high school. Very simple,
30:22
very neat. But what do you do when you're in
30:24
a large city like Chicago or Houston or something
30:28
like that? You still have multiple schools, yes?
30:31
Now, do you have racially segregated neighborhoods?
30:39
So here you have racially segregated neighborhoods,
30:41
and what's the effect if you have racially segregated
30:43
neighborhoods and you have schools in those racially
30:45
segregated neighborhoods? You have racially segregated
30:48
schools based on racially segregated neighborhoods.
30:55
And so you have people litigating to desegregate
30:59
the schools now. How are you going to integrate
31:01
schools if the neighborhoods aren't integrated?
31:03
You can't just up and force people out of their
31:05
homes, but what can you do? You can bus the children
31:11
So you have an institution. It was called force
31:14
busing. I will tell you this Because you don't
31:17
have a schema for this and I will explain why
31:19
to you and Even the heavens are upset by the
31:23
speech. All right All right Okay, so here's the
31:31
thing So when I was going to elementary school
31:34
and when I was going to middle school, we had
31:37
forced busing. And that was in the 80s. In other
31:40
words, forced busing is a policy, begins in the
31:43
1960s, continues into the 1970s. There's still
31:46
some districts who do it today. So when I was
31:51
in fourth grade, they put us on a bus and took
31:56
us to the eastern side of town for fourth and
31:59
fifth grade. Which and we were in integrated
32:04
classrooms both in terms of zip code and in terms
32:06
of race and it was actually really quite charming
32:08
because in elementary school people like each
32:10
other. I know. But everybody got a Valentine.
32:17
And actually I remember Mr. Peterson, he was
32:20
my first male teacher for general education.
32:24
In other words, the music teacher was a guy when
32:25
I was in elementary school, but he was the first
32:28
male teacher and he was a social studies person
32:30
primarily by training. I don't know if that has
32:33
any impact on how I wound up here. Anyway, but
32:37
One of the things that was really quite disconcerting
32:40
about that was presumably there was a similar
32:42
cadre of people from the neighborhood that we
32:46
were coming from being bused to the elementary
32:49
school near my parents' house. Now think about
32:51
this for a moment. You're taking a whole bunch
32:52
of kids from one part of town, busing them over
32:55
to another part of town, and taking a whole,
32:56
you get what I'm saying? First of all, is there
32:58
a cost associated with it? Yes, that the district
33:00
is now obliged to bear. Also, think about this
33:03
for a parent, from the parent's point of view.
33:06
Your kid misses the bus. You now have to drive
33:10
across town to go get them. Now, whereas before,
33:17
little Jimmy could just walk home. You don't
33:20
want little Jimmy to just walk home from the
33:22
other side of town, especially if the school
33:24
that little Jimmy is going to is not the nice
33:26
part of town. Right? Right. Now, do you see how
33:32
this might cause some parents to be upset? Even
33:35
if they didn't have, you know, racial overtones,
33:37
might there just be some parents who are just
33:39
straight up upset about the whole, wait, why
33:40
does my child have to be on the far side of the
33:42
moon? Especially in larger cities. Yes? So, couple
33:50
of things that the book talks about and I am
33:52
going to get into. So, were people upset by forced
33:57
busing? Yes. Some of those people's protests
34:00
were really quite violent because you'll be really
34:02
amazed how violent parents can be in the defense
34:04
of their children. It's a primal instinct. By
34:07
the way, why do I say we don't have a schema
34:09
for force -busting here? Is this an urban school?
34:16
No, this is a rural, now a suburban. And the
34:19
other thing is, so what do you do if you don't
34:21
want your kids getting bused across town to those
34:24
people? You either move out to the suburbs or
34:29
you vote your neighborhood out of the school
34:32
district. Are there school districts in downtown
34:36
San Antonio surrounded by other school districts
34:39
in San Antonio? Are there school districts in
34:42
Houston, in Austin, surrounded by other school
34:45
districts on three or four sides? Yes, they voted
34:48
themselves out to avoid forced busing. Nixon
34:53
vetoed the Voting Rights Act of 65. Congress
34:55
overrode the veto. It went to court in the case
35:00
of Swan versus Mecklenburg. That was the one
35:03
where the court ruled that the school districts
35:06
had to bus students out of their neighborhoods
35:08
to achieve racial integration. Now, as crass
35:12
as Nixon was, now think about this for a moment.
35:15
If you're Nixon, why are you crass on integration?
35:17
Who are you thinking you can bring into your
35:19
coalition? The South. The growing South. Why
35:27
do I say the growing South? You have, with the
35:33
rise of air conditioning, with the rise of other
35:34
things, people are moving from the North into
35:36
the South. The South becomes the new industrial
35:38
center of the United States. Texas lags a little
35:41
bit. Texas will hit its stride in terms of industrialism
35:45
in the 1980s, but into the 1970s, you have a
35:48
lot of jobs moving to the American South. Nixon
35:54
knew how to bend on environmentalism. He actually
35:57
found naturalism to be a boring hobby. Nixon
35:59
signs the Endangered Species Act of 69 and the
36:03
Clean Air Act of 1970. Now, what's kind of interesting,
36:08
the Environmental Protection Agency, which we
36:10
ascribe to be a very liberal institution, was
36:13
put into law by the signature of a Republican
36:16
president. Now what's interesting is Nixon signs
36:20
the Act, but he refuses to spend the money as
36:22
allotted by Congress. This is called impoundment,
36:25
where the executive elects not to spend money
36:27
appropriated by Congress. Now what's interesting
36:31
is Nixon had to deal with the slowdown of the
36:33
American economy. Federal deficits had ballooned
36:36
under Johnson as an expensive war abroad and
36:38
an ambitious domestic agenda at home were financed
36:41
without substantial increase in revenue. If you
36:43
actually look over Chapter 27, the Revenue Act
36:47
under Johnson cut rates. To deal with the simultaneous
36:52
issue of budget deficits and a devalued currency,
36:55
the administration enacting spending cuts and
36:58
tax increases and asked the Federal Reserve to
37:00
raise interest rates. The idea was to deflate
37:03
or reevaluate the currency. This haunting issue
37:06
of stagflation would continue into the 1980s
37:10
through Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Finally,
37:16
the issue of Vietnam and the social protest movement.
37:19
Nixon, by his constitution, was ill -suited to
37:22
deal with the hippie culture that had emerged
37:24
among America's youth at the time. The civil
37:27
rights movement had moved from a movement towards
37:30
equality to a move towards reparations. What's
37:32
reparations? You had the Black Panthers and some
37:38
segments of the NAACP wanting the United States
37:43
government to pay back the labor cost of slavery.
37:48
First of all think about that number for a moment
37:50
think about especially with interest And you're
37:53
dealing with a country that has a ballooning
37:55
national debt and is already undergoing an economic
37:57
crisis So that did not and and so and also for
38:01
Nixon who was a Quaker He's like wait wait my
38:04
people were trying to liberate these people going
38:06
back to whenever Also, the feminist movement
38:10
was seen as fighting against America's finest
38:12
traditions in favor of a lewd, infanticidal bacchanal
38:18
cult. Infanticidal killing of children. What
38:20
am I actually referencing? Abortion Roe v. Wade.
38:24
Actually, that's 72, goes into effect 73. The
38:27
Vietnam War protest was seen as domestic enemies,
38:29
giving aid and comfort to the enemy at home,
38:33
or at least in the realm of ideas. Nixon did
38:35
not care for the protesters, nor did they for
38:37
him. Unfortunately for the mob on the common
38:40
areas of college campuses, the road out of Vietnam
38:42
was not a straight one. The U .S. could not simply
38:44
withdraw. The U .S. had to appear to be making
38:47
a graceful exit. So, the process of Vietnamization
38:53
began and the North Vietnamese had to be forced
38:55
into the negotiating table. The U .S. would greatly
38:58
expand its strategic bombing of North Vietnam.
39:01
When news of the expansion of the air war reached
39:04
the public, the protest movement became enraged.
39:07
One such example of that rage was at Kent State
39:10
University. The National Guard was called up
39:12
to disperse a crowd of students. The crowd answered
39:14
the National Guard with rocks. By the way, so
39:18
you have the National Guard being answered by
39:21
the crowd with rocks, and so the National Guard
39:23
answered back with the projectiles they had at
39:25
hand. Unfortunately for the protesters, that
39:27
was a 30 -odd -6 of an M1 Garand. Guard answered
39:35
back with live rounds killing four and wounding
39:37
nine. Student outrage precipitated a general
39:39
strike among university students nationwide.
39:42
This then precipitated counter -strikes by more
39:46
reactionary elements of the working class. Oh
39:48
my god, working class people upset with protest
39:50
movements on college campus. Too soon? No? However,
39:58
the use of capital violence against violent protests
40:00
did have an effect, making clear the distinction
40:02
between violent and nonviolent protest. It is
40:05
against the fever pitch of protest and reaction
40:08
that Nixon launches his re -election campaign.
40:10
Unlike his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, the protest
40:13
movement was not part of his electoral coalition.
40:16
The protest movement served as a foil. Nixon
40:19
supported the silent majority. Now, Democrats
40:23
hoping to put together a new coalition of liberals
40:25
and radicals together put forward George McGovern
40:28
of South Dakota. Against this backdrop, Nixon
40:31
pieced together a coalition of fiscal conservative,
40:34
working class whites, and southern conservatives.
40:37
Here's what protest culture gives you. Keep chanting.
40:51
It'll work one of these days. Nixon carried every
40:56
state but one. And Washington DC. He got 520
41:03
electoral votes to McGovern's 17. He got 46 million
41:08
popular votes to McGovern's 23. Do you think
41:13
the protest movement won? Or did the protest
41:19
movement make the Nixon presidency? And so, the
41:29
thing I want you to consider, many historians
41:33
have spent a great deal of time trying, focusing
41:38
on Watergate. focusing on how America elected
41:43
such a man. America elected Richard Nixon not
41:48
once, but twice, voting with great enthusiasm
41:53
because the chaotic alternative of the social
41:56
protest movement was so terrifying. Choose your
42:03
words and your times carefully. And sometimes
42:08
remember that your picket line is not your best
42:12
battlefield.