Although I agree with the thrust of Charles Sykes’s Politico post to the effect that the Democratic presidential candidates who are embracing a long laundry list of radical positions are doing themselves no good for the general election, there is one particular with which I disagree:
President Richard Nixon, while lacking Trump’s theatricality and instability, was regarded with fear and loathing by much of the country.
I fear that Mr. Sykes’s memory is deserting him. According to Gallup, Nixon’s approval rating ranged from 50% to 63% throughout 1972. That is an approval rating of which more recent presidents including Clinton and Obama can only dream. Nixon’s approval rating only began to plummet for good in 1973 after he had been re=elected when the Watergate revelations hit the news media. On Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War in particular his approval rating was higher than that of Lyndon Johnson, his predecessor.
I never voted for Nixon but I do remember what the late 1960s and early 1970s were like pretty vividly (except 1969 about which my memories are fuzzy for reasons I’ll explain another time).
By the standard Mr. Sykes is setting both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both feared and loathed by much of the country. What I think is fairer to say is that Nixon, Clinton, and Obama were all despised by a relative handful of activists, loved by others, and most of the American people didn’t give a damn one way or another.
What really happened in 1972 is that activists, caught within their own echo chamber, convinced themselves that Richard Nixon was much less popular than he really was, put forward a nominee whose views were out of step with what most of the American people believed, and went on to lose every state other than Massachusetts including Mr. McGovern’s home state. No Democratic president of the post-war period has won 49 states. It wasn’t dirty tricks that won the 1972 election. It was taking the temperature of the country incorrectly that resulted in a resounding defeat.
That’s what Democrats need to consider. Don’t assess your chances based on what your own most extreme supporters believe.
“but I do remember what the late 1960s and early 1970s were like pretty vividly (except 1969 about which my memories are fuzzy for reasons I’ll explain another time).â€
When did you ditch your Jefferson Airplane discs for The Bee Gees and platform shoes? And we’ll cut you some slack on 1969. Zeppelin I was released and a lot of people were a bit fuzzy…..
But seriously folks. I think the media are shooting themselves in the foot. Progressives, pundits and pols are all in a media driven echo chamber comprised of 5 or so cities. They actually believe their crap.
I have always been out of step. In the 60s I listened to jazz or classical and I wore the same styles I wore in the 50s. The only things I have ever worn that weren’t classically styled were when I was a student. I purchased every pair of World War II Navy surplus bellbottomed trousers I could put my hands on. They were cheap and, made of wool, warm in the Chicago winters. I wore them before, during, and after their period of popularity.
Also, I think the present Democratic strategy is to win those cities and damn the rest of the country. What I think they’re missing is that they just need to lose a few percentage points of black votes and they can lose whole states. The percentage of blacks who characterize themselves as moderate or conservative is higher than they appear to recognize.
That suggests to me that either the Democratic presidential candidate or vice presidential candidate will be black. IMO the best ticket is Biden-Booker which is what I’ve been saying for some time. Warren-Harris or Harris-Castro would not be winning tickets.
“What I think they are missing…l
Hence the full court press on the (tired old) racism claim.
This post reminds me Scholars Stages point that the objective record of events; what people who experienced the events remembered, and what people who didn’t experience the events learned about them are distant relations.
That may explain it. Sykes was a teenager and ineligible to vote in 1972.
” Navy surplus bellbottomed trousers I could put my hands on. They were cheap and, made of wool, warm in the Chicago winters.”
The ones with all of the buttons?
Nixon won the 1968 election by an historically low margin, even lower than Trump’s margin. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_by_Electoral_College_margin)
As I recall there were a lot of people who didnt like him, but as you note about in line with other presidents prior to Trump. McGovern may or may not have been too radical. If you look back at the numbers, 1972 was a near perfect storm of a year for Nixon. There was a lull in the inflation rate and there was a big bump in GDP growth that year. Real GDP growth that year was 6.9%. Trump almost made 3% and his fans rave about growth, imagine 6.9%. This was before Watergate came out and before the Vietnam war got messy. Not sure any Democrat could have won against those numbers.
Steve
Yep. I loved those trousers. Wore them ’til they all wore out–all through undergraduate and graduate school. I may still have a threadbare pair with the crotch worn through around somewhere. I doubt they’d fit me. My waist is a bit larger now than then. Only 4″ which isn’t bad for more than 50 years later.
The subject was the 1972 election. Nixon carried every state but Massachusetts.
It got messy long before that. The years with the highest number of U. S. casualties were 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Without the casualties in those years almost 2/3s of the names on that wall wouldn’t be there. I have classmates and friends whose names are on that wall.
Makes me think back, that year I was 19, in K. C. Mo. and McGovern was to speak at the main train station there. I wasn’t political at all, but being from the farm, I couldn’t miss it. Walked there, early, watched them set up the stage, people began to fill the huge station. Men in suits and sunglasses ringed the stage, they all wore shoulder bags with one arm hidden inside, more and more people came, until it became clear I couldn’t leave if I had to. By the time McGovern took the stage, it was hard to breath because the crowd pressed so tight. Can’t remember a word he said, all I remember is the pressure from all sides. Bad crowd control, I was young, I feel sorry for those who were not. I imagine now that many must have urinated on themselves that day, in that place at my current age, I know I would have had no choice.