President Richard Nixon won a second term in the White House, by being the avenger of left-wing cultural chaos. Posted on 10/07/2012 4:39:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
President Richard Nixon won a second term in the White House, by being the avenger of left-wing cultural chaos.
Will challenger Mitt Romney win a first term as President, because he provides a similar alternative?
This year’s election will mark the fortieth anniversary of another historic contest. In November of 1972 President Richard Nixon defeated his opponent George McGovern in the Electoral College by a landslide margin of 49 states to 1. Setting the U.S. presidential record for the widest margin of victory among the popular vote, Nixon received nearly 18 million more votes than McGovern.
While Nixon is most often remembered for his downfall and near-impeachment following his second inauguration, his re-election victory – and the cultural conditions that led up to it – was nonetheless dramatic. And in an age where overwhelming majorities believe that America is “heading in the wrong direction,” it’s worth noting how concerns of “right and wrong” shook the election of 40 years ago – and how these concerns might play out this year.
During Nixon’s first term, a great awakening began among a broad sector of the American population. After decades of having been disengaged from politics and public policy debates, and without much in the way of formal organization, millions of faith-based Americans—at that time mostly white, middle-class, Protestant and evangelical Christians—had become increasingly alarmed at the cultural trends and growing civil unrest of the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The challenges to marriage and Judeo-Christian sexual norms posed by the so-called “sexual revolution;” the youthful rebellion against societal authority structures brought about by the so-called “hippie” culture; and the Vietnam War protests by the first generation of American youth who thought it was something less than “honorable” to fight on behalf of the country—all these developments and others proved to be quite unnerving to these millions of Americans.
In the midst of this upheaval, Nixon delivered an important address to the nation during his first term in office, on November 3, 1969. In the speech, Nixon famously made reference to a so-called “silent majority” of Americans—people who supposedly agreed with him on issues of culture, “law and order,” and his desire to fight back against Communism, even though the views of this “silent majority” were largely ignored by political, media, and academic elites.
In using the “silent majority” language, Nixon sought to politically awaken and unify this huge chunk of the American population that had little or no voice in American media and who often did not vote. This sector of American society was very real, and very frustrated by what they believed was a degradation of America and its institutions. Nixon successfully conveyed that he understood those frustrations, and the bond he created with the “silent majority” helped bring about his landslide re-election.
So does today’s cultural upheaval compare to that of 40 years ago? There’s no doubt that the United States of 2012 is quite different from the country Nixon served.
In 1972 the nation’s population was slightly over 200 million, while today there are over 314 million of us. In 1972 over 80% of the American population was White and of European descent. Today, according to some demographic reports, Whites make up as little as 74% of the population, while there is universal agreement that this majority is rapidly eroding.
In 1972 roughly 90% of Americans identified themselves as Christian. Today that figure is approximately 73%, as other religions, and a preference for no religious affiliation at all, become more prevalent.
So the United States of 2012 is more racially and ideologically pluralistic than was Nixon’s America. Yet concerns about the degradation of America are as prevalent today as they were in 1972. And while the radicalized influences that sought to upend the foundations of America were playing out on college campuses and in local communities across the country forty years ago, today they are in the White House, itself, and Americans sense the dangers that this poses.
Despite his promises of unifying America, President Barack Obama has exacerbated our divisions and violated many of our common understandings of right and wrong. When Arizona and Alabama sought two years ago to clarify the rule of law as it regards legal and illegal immigration, our President sided with the U.N., China, the dictator of Venezuela and Mexican President Felipe Calderon in opposing these two states, and then punished the residents there with costly federal lawsuits.
When South Carolina and Florida pursued voter ID laws so as to prevent non-citizens from voting, President Obama sued them to prevent the laws from being implemented. When Ohio sought to streamline early voting for military service personnel, President Obama sued Ohio to stop the troops from voting.
President Obama praises government employees, but calls private business owners “greedy.” As his policies have expanded government dependency, removed the work requirement for welfare, decreased the workforce participation rate and run-up over $5 trillion in deficit spending, he insists that he is moving our country “forward.”
Mr. Obama has undercut our nation’s ally Israel in the Middle East, but calls militant Islamists in the region our “friends” – even as they kill American civilians, military personnel, and a U.S. Ambassador (Christopher Stevens). And while his predecessor oversaw the construction of an offshore detention center (Guantanamo Bay) in which to detain and interrogate foreign terror suspects, President Obama has sought to welcome those very dangerous characters into the domestic U.S. and grant them access to American courts.
Indeed, we are surrounded by left-wing cultural chaos. What was once wrong is now right, and right is now wrong, in Obama’s America. If Mitt Romney can continue to convince America that he is as keenly aware of America’s degradation as millions of the rest of us are, he may find a majority of us standing with him in November.
There has got to be a national debate as to whether we want to turn this trend around; of course, we'll be labelled racists for raising the issue.
So many things are different that it’s hard to follow the parallel this article is trying to make.
As you say, the demographics have changed considerably. Also, the percentage of people on the dole. Also, the dedication of the media to be a propaganda arm for the Democrats. Not to mention McGovern was a challenger, Obama is an incumbent.
I think this article is grasping at straws to make its point.
BTTT
+1
Agree. Also, bringing up Nixon is usually a bad idea. Irony is the Watergate break in was completely unnecessary, not were any “dirty tricks”, to win that election. It was completely in the bag. Why cheat or, worse, commit illegal actions in any campaign much less one youve already won? Nixon remains an obsessive boogeyman character for leftists.
You are so right about Watergate. So unnecessary. Also, so minor compared to the history of election-cheating on the Democrat side.
Watergate was a propaganda coup for the left, nothing more.
One more point about Watergate: it’s very possible the whole thing was an entrapment set up by the dems who fed false information to Nixon’s brother about supposed “damning evidence” in the Watergate offices... the dems correctly figuring that the Nixon people were stupid enough to go for the bait.
In the 1972 election...you had a very liberal Nixon (most Big Government programs created under his admin....opening of Communist China) against a very liberal McGovern.
1972 was not an election of right and left....it was an election of left and very left. McGovern scared a lot more people than Nixon did
72 was the election that made the label “ Liberal” so toxic the left still has to run from it . That’s when they put on the mask and began to pretend to be “ moderate” , “ centrist” , and later “ progressive”. To hide their REAL position.
And yet, we sit idly by hoping for a “savior”, just like ‘60/’70 era. The left burned our cities, stoned our police, burned draft cards, thumbed their noses at every sense of law and order, humiliated our troops, denied justice for terrorists and promoted socialism. An we did nothing.
The left today is circumventing every judicial/legislative precedence and those in congress charged with protecting and defending those very principles do nothing. We spend our energies whining to one another on the internet rather than suffer the inconvenience of courage.
Why do we expect the outcome to be any different?
100% correct....I hope he’s enjoying his special room in hell.
What may happen is 1) war with China leads to an explosive increase in American robotics and automation, 2) after the war we no longer need cheap immigrant labor because the robots will work for less, 3) automation will happen in law enforcement leading unfortunately to a police state. No one will be here that shouldn't be here, 4) people inclined to raise children will displace the vain/envious/selfish leftists that are breeding themselves out of existence.
Some of Nixon's accomplishments as president:
Why doesn't the Left consider Nixon a hero? Why doesn't the Left consider Nixon a hero?
I was just having a debate with a very liberal friend about de-funding PBS and they said I should be for taxpayer funding because Nixon did it.
I guess they thought if Nixon did it, I should be all for it.
All I could do was laugh. Your list would have come in handy.
I was just having a debate with a very liberal friend about de-funding PBS and they said I should be for taxpayer funding because Nixon did it.
I guess they thought if Nixon did it, I should be all for it.
All I could do was laugh. Your list would have come in handy.
It must be that liberal Nixon list that persuaded Julie to campaign for Obama but most likely “white guilt”. A CA politician named Joe Shell told the truth about Nixon in 1962 long before his presidency.
Nixon, in the 1950 California senate race, defeated Helen Ghahagan Douglas. Nixon accurately labeled her a communist “fellow traveler.”
To this day, the left cannot talk about this race without breaking down into slobbering fits.
Watergate was the payback.
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