Lewis L. Gould - 1968: The Election That Changed America: The Election That Changed America

1968:
THE ELECTION
THAT CHANGED
AMERICA

Lewis L. G ould

Second Edition

The American Ways Series

IVAN R. DEE Chicago

By the 1990 s public disenchantment with politics in the United States had reached intense levels. Huge budget deficits, a persistent economic slowdown, and unmet social problems focused popular unhappiness on the political system and its flaws. A generation of divided government, in which Republicans dominated the presidency while Democrats controlled Congress, had produced an apparent gridlock in Washington which stalled constructive responses to the nations needs. Angry voters flirted with third parties or grew apathetic toward politics altogether.

The origins of these problems extended back into the mid- 1960 s when the Democratic party waged an unpopular war in Vietnam, pursued a Great Society in domestic affairs, and dealt with long-deferred issues of civil rights for black citizens. By 1968 , however, the war in Vietnam had become stalemated. Liberal programs to improve the lives of the poor and minorities provoked bitter opposition among white Americans. As a result, the presidential election of 1968 became a contest in which the passions and violence of the society surged into the political arena. Assassinations, urban rioting, and war added new volatility to national politics.

The outcome of the election left no one fully satisfied. The Republicans put Richard Nixon in the White House, but the Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress. Radicals were frustrated that the nation had not embraced social revolution. Conservatives resented the residual strength of liberal ideas. The issue of race had not been addressed nor its effects diminished. A close election had left things much as they had been when the year beganor so it seemed on the surface.

In fact the 1968 election proved to be a watershed event in American politics. Republicans used the skills they brought to Nixons campaign to create an ascendancy in presidential politics. Democrats, divided and torn after 1968 , emerged as only crippled challengers for the White House in the 1970 s and 1980 s. Bitterness over racial issues and discord on the Vietnam War continued to shape national affairs. The events of 1968 changed the way Americans felt about politics and their leaders. An erosion of confidence in American institutions began that has not yet reached a conclusion.

Soon after Nixon took office, books appeared to explain the trauma through which the country had passed. Since those early accounts, historians and journalists have reexamined 1968 , most often in the context of the rebellious college students who rallied to liberal Democrats such as Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy. Few authors have considered the political history of the entire election, including the crucial events of the last month of the campaign. The analytic narrative that follows provides an overview of the election based on the many published works on the campaign and unpublished materials at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

Like most Americans in 1968 , I experienced the events of that year through television. It was a time of recurrent shocks, intense emotions, and passionate judgments. Twenty-four years later I have tried to examine the election in a calm and judicious spirit. During a troubled time, fallible men and women made decisions that changed the nation. This book considers the reasons for actions and events that occurred during the critical 1968 election and the lasting consequences for American politics and society.

A Note on the Second Edition, 2010

In the more than sixteen years since 1968 first appeared, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have occupied the White House. The Republicans recaptured Congress in 1994 and the Democrats did so in 2006 . The rise of international terrorism and the events of September , 2001 , the menace of global climate change, and the intense polarization of national politics have overshadowed the historical roots of the present condition of the United States. Yet the continuing readership of this book as a reliable, brief account of the election of 1968 suggested that an updated edition of the narrative would be useful for todays students of this significant moment in national politics.

I have left the basic structure of the book as it was in 1993 . The prose has been tightened in spots; some quotations from figures such as Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have been inserted; and errors have been corrected. The conclusion has been reshaped to reflect changes in American politics since the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and to explain what happened to the main figures in the presidential race of 1968 . The recommended reading has been updated to incorporate books that have appeared since the first edition.