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Modern Republicanism and the New Right
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Richard Nixon's victory in 1968 is seen as the beginning of the end of Democratic Party dominance in national politics. The proximate cause of Hubert Humphrey's loss was Lyndon Johnson's unpopular prosecution of the Vietnam War, but some historians have argued that the 1968 election reflected a more fundamental realignment in American politics. The journalists Thomas and Mary Byrnes Edsall argue that it was the exploitation of "race, rights, and taxes" that permitted the Republican Party to swing the white working class and the South from the Democratic to the Republican column and to create the Republican majority that would eventually bring Ronald Reagan into office.
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Explain and assess the Edsalls' thesis using your knowledge of the time period and the sources provided to support your arguments.
After looking at the documents, establish a thesis that addresses the statement. You may partly or entirely agree or disagree with the statement. Whatever position you take, be sure to address the who, what, when, and especially the why in your response. Be sure to address the counterargument—what historians might say in opposition to your thesis. Remember that "race, rights, and taxes" are broad terms, so be sure to establish clear definitions. Do not forget to consider the point of view of the source, particularly regarding class, race, party affiliation, and location.
Primary source: Walter F. George, "The Southern Manifesto," speech, 1956.
Background information: U.S. Congressman Walter F. George, a Georgia Democrat, registered his opposition to recent Supreme Court decisions in a speech known as the "Southern Manifesto," which he gave on March 12, 1956.
It is notable that the Supreme Court. . . unanimously declared in 1927 in Lum v. Rice that the "separate but equal" principle is "within the discretion of the State in regulating its public schools and does not conflict with the 14th amendment.
"This interpretation, restated time and again, became a part of the life of the people of many of the states and confirmed their habits, customs, traditions, and way of life. It is founded on elemental humanity and commonsense, for parents should not be deprived by Government of the right to direct the lives and education of their own children. . .
This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding. . .
Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a majority of the American people believe in the dual system of government [in which the federal government shares power with the states] which has enabled us to achieve our greatness and will in time demand that the reserved rights of the States and of the people be made secure against judicial usurpation.
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Walter F. George, "The Southern Manifesto," Congressional Record, 84th Cong., 2nd sess., 1956, 102, pt. 4: 4460.
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Primary source: Barry Goldwater, acceptance speech, 1964.
Background information: At the 1964 Republican Convention, the party nominated Barry Goldwater (1909–98) for the presidency. A U.S. senator from Arizona, Goldwater campaigned as a staunch advocate for the Cold War and against the liberal Democratic Party, foreshadowing the ideological dispositions of subsequent Republican presidencies, most notably, Richard M. Nixon (1913–94), Ronald Reagan (1911– ), and George W. Bush (1946– ).
[. . . ]
The growing menace in our country tonight, to personal safety, to life, to limb and property, in homes, in churches, on the playgrounds, and places of business, particularly in our great cities, is the mounting concern, or should be, of every thoughtful citizen in the United States.
Security from domestic violence, no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government, and a government that cannot fulfill that purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens. History shows us—demonstrates that nothing—nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets from bullies and marauders.
We see, in private property and in economy based upon and fostering private property, the one way to make government a durable ally of the whole man, rather than his determined enemy. We see in the sanctity of private property the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society. And beyond that, we see, in cherished diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives and accomplishments. We do not seek to lead anyone's life for him—we seek only to secure his rights and to guarantee him opportunity to strive, with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.
[. . . ]
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Barry Goldwater, "Acceptance Speech," (16 July 1964), Republican National Convention.
Courtesy of the Arizona Historical Foundation. Arizona State University.
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Primary source: David Leip, "1964 Presidential Election Results," statistical table and map, 1999.
Background information: Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–73), who assumed the presidency in November 1963 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy (1917–63), was elected to a full term in 1964 by a landslide electoral margin over U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (1909–98).
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Presidential Candidate
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Vice Presidential Candidate
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Political Party
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Popular Vote
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Electoral Vote
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Lyndon Johnson |
Hubert Humphrey |
Democrat |
43,129,566 |
61.05% |
486 |
90.3% |
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Barry Goldwater |
William Miller |
Republican |
27,178,188 |
38.47% |
52 |
9.7% |
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Other |
- |
- |
336,838 |
0.48% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
|
|
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David Leip, "1964 Presidential Election Results," at http://www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/GENERAL/pe1964.html.
Courtesy uselectionatlas.org, copyright David Leip, 1999. All Rights Reserved.
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Primary source:
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Background information: A landmark piece of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited segregation in public places and declared discrimination, whether race- or sex-based, to be illegal in hiring practices and education.
AN ACT
To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States, to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.
[. . . ]
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Civil Rights Act of 1964, U.S. Statutes at Large 78
(1964): 241–268. Full text of the act is at Our Documents, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=97.
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Primary source: President Lyndon B. Johnson, "To Fulfill These Rights," commencement address, 1965.
Background information: President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–73) made this landmark speech in 1965 to students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically black institution, to delineate the tenets of his Great Society program.
In far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation: deprived of freedom, crippled by hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope.
In our time change has come to this Nation, too. The American Negro, acting with impressive restraint, has peacefully protested and marched, entered the courtrooms and the seats of government, demanding a justice that has long been denied. The voice of the Negro was the call to action. But it is a tribute to America that, once aroused, the courts and the Congress, the President and most of the people, have been the allies of progress.
The voting rights bill will be the latest, and among the most important, in a long series of victories. But this victory—as Winston Churchill said of another triumph for freedom—"is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
That beginning is freedom. . . But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
. . . We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result. . .
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President Lyndon B. Johnson, "Commencement Address at Howard University: 'To Fulfill These Rights,'" (4 June 1965); reprinted in The American Reader,, ed. Diane Ravitch (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 340.
Courtesy of Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum at the National Archives and Records Administration.
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Primary source:
Miranda v. Arizona, Supreme Court decision, 1966.
Background information: In Miranda v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 on June 13, 1966, that all individuals taken into police custody must be informed of their constitutional rights, and that information obtained otherwise is inadmissible in a court of law.
Chief Justice Warren:
The prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way, unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination.
[. . . ]
In the absence of other effective measures the following procedures to safeguard the Fifth Amendment privilege must be observed: The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says will be used against him in court; he must be clearly informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation, and that, if he is indigent, a lawyer will be appointed to represent him.
[. . . ]
If the individual indicates, prior to or during questioning, that he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease; if he states that he wants an attorney, the questioning must cease until an attorney is present.
[. . . ]
In none of these cases was the defendant given a full and effective warning of his rights at the outset of the interrogation process. In all the cases, the questioning elicited oral admissions, and in three of them, signed statements as well which were admitted at their trials. They all thus share salient features—incommunicado interrogation of individuals in a police-dominated atmosphere, resulting in self-incriminating statements without full warnings of constitutional rights.
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Miranda v. Arizona, Supreme Court decision, 384 U.S. 436
(1966). Full text of the decision is at
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=384&invol=436.
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Primary source: Richard Nixon, "Acceptance of the Republican Nomination for President," speech, 1968.
Background information: At the 1968 Republican National Convention, Richard M. Nixon (1913–94) accepted his party's nomination for the presidency on behalf of "the silent majority" of citizens who were not demonstrating against the federal government or against the American way of life.
My fellow Americans, most important we're going to win because our cause is right. . . . As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home. And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish:
Did we come all this way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy and Korea and in Valley Forge for this?
Listen to the answers to those questions. It is another voice, it is a quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting. It is the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non shouters, the non demonstrators. They're not racists or sick; they're not guilty of the crime that plagues the land; they are black, they are white; they're native born and foreign born; they're young and they're old. They work in American factories, they run American businesses. They serve in government; they provide most of the soldiers who die to keep it free. They give drive to the spirit of America. They give lift to the American dream. They give steel to the backbone of America. They're good people. They're decent people; they work and they save and they pay their taxes and they care. . . .
And tonight it's time for some honest talk about the problem of order in the United States. Let us always respect, as I do, our courts and those who serve on them, but let us also recognize that some of our courts in their decisions have gone too far in weakening the peace forces as against the criminal forces in this country. Let those who have the responsibility to enforce our laws, and our judges who have the responsibility to interpret them, be dedicated to the great principles of civil rights. But let them also recognize that the first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence. And that right must be guaranteed in this country. . . .
For the past five years we have been deluged by Government programs for the unemployed, programs for the cities, programs for the poor, and we have reaped from these programs an ugly harvest of frustrations, violence and failure across the land. And now our opponents will be offering more of the same—more billions for Government jobs, Government housing, Government welfare. I say it's time to quit pouring billions of dollars into programs that have failed in the United States of America. . . .
Again we turn to the American Revolution for our answers. The war on poverty didn't begin five years ago in this country, it began when this country began. It's been the most successful war on poverty in the history of nations. There's more wealth in America today, more broadly shared than in any nation in the world.
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Richard Nixon, "Acceptance of the Republican Nomination for President" (8 August 1968), at the Richard Nixon Library.
Courtesy of the Richard Nixon Library.
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Primary source: David Leip, "1968 Presidential Election Results," statistical table and map, 1999.
Background information: Richard M. Nixon (1913–94) became the 37th President of the United States in November 1968, during one of the most tumultuous and divisive periods in American history.
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Presidential Candidate
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Vice Presidential Candidate
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Political Party
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Popular Vote
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Electoral Vote
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|
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Richard Nixon |
Spiro Agnew |
Republican |
31,785,480 |
43.42% |
301 |
55.9% |
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Hubert Humphrey |
Edmund Muskie |
Democrat |
31,275,166 |
42.72% |
191 |
35.5% |
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George Wallace |
Curtis LeMay |
American Independent |
9,906,473 |
13.53% |
46 |
8.6% |
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Other |
- |
- |
244,756 |
0.33% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
|
|
|
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David Leip, "1968 Presidential Election Results," at http://www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/GENERAL/pe1968.html.
Courtesy uselectionatlas.org, copyright David Leip, 1999. All Rights Reserved.
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Primary source: Kevin Phillips, "The Future of American Politics," 1969.
Background information: Kevin Phillips, a writer and commentator who began his career as an advisor to Richard M. Nixon, discusses the "southern strategy" of electing Republicans to national office.
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Substantial Negro support is not necessary to national Republican victory. The GOP can build a winning coalition without Negro Votes. Indeed, Negro-Democratic mutual identification was a major source of Democratic loss, and Republican Party or (George Wallace's) American Independent Party profit, in many sections of the country.
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Kevin P. Phillips, "The Future of American Politics," in The Emerging Republican Majority (New York: Arlington House, 1969), 468.
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Primary source: David Leip, "1980 Presidential Election Results," statistical table and map, 1999.
Background information: Ronald Reagan (1911– ) became the 40th American president after a landslide electoral victory over President Jimmy Carter (1924– ).
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Presidential Candidate
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Vice Presidential Candidate
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Political Party
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Popular Vote
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Electoral Vote
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|
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Ronald Reagan |
George Bush |
Republican |
43,904,153 |
50.75% |
489 |
90.9% |
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Jimmy Carter |
Walter Mondale |
Democrat |
35,483,883 |
41.01% |
49 |
9.1% |
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John Anderson |
Patrick Lucey |
Nat'l Union |
5,720,060 |
6.61% |
0 |
0% |
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Ed Clark |
David Koch |
Libertarian |
921,299 |
1.06% |
0 |
0% |
| Other |
- |
- |
485,826 |
0.56% |
0 |
0% |
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|
|
|
|
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David Leip, "1980 Presidential Election Results," at http://www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/GENERAL/pe1980.html.
Courtesy uselectionatlas.org, copyright David Leip, 1999. All Rights Reserved.
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Primary source: Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, 1981.
Background information: In his first inaugural address, in 1981, President Ronald Reagan (1911– ) pledged to reduce the size and role of the federal government on behalf of "we the people," launching a new era of partisan acrimony that has not yet subsided.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.
From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
We hear much of special interest groups. Our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and our factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick—professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in short, "We the people," this breed called Americans. . .
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government. . .
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government.
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Ronald Reagan, "First Inaugural Address" (20 January 1981), Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington to George W. Bush (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1989).
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