The Nixon Years

A New Majority

Nixon leaves on copter; gives signature two-handed V salute (situational irony)

Who was Richard Milhouse Nixon?

1968 pro-Nixon rally in California

Who was Richard Millhouse Nixon?• Religion

– Quaker– refraining from drinking,

dancing and swearing• Intelligent

– Given scholarship to Harvard but too poor to accept

• Ambitious– Lawyer and WWII vet– Congressmen during Red

Scare – Wanted greatness

• Paranoid

Above: President Nixon meeting Elvis; below: as Vice-President, with Checkers

What was the Conservative Backlash?• When many Americans

switched party loyalties and voted Republican

• Became the “silent majority”• Against:• Warren Court Decisions

– Viewed as helping perpetrator, not the victim:

Gideon v. WainwrightEscobedo v. IllinoisMiranda v. Arizona

Above: Nixon wearing hardhat; below: riot police at anti-war

demonstration

Nixon and the Hardhats

Capture from long clip on conservative backlash after Kent State

• Anti-Vietnam War demonstrators

• Anti-Great Society

– “We don’t get one cent from the government.”

• Anti-Counterculture

– Those who opposed traditional American values

What was the Conservative Backlash?

Right: Prematurely gray John McCain comes home after being held and tortured in North Vietnam

Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee”We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;

We don't take our trips on LSDWe don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;

We like livin' right, and bein' free.

I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,A place where even squares can have a ball

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all

We don't make a party out of lovin';We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo;

We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy,Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,A place where even squares can have a ball.

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.

Football's still the roughest thing on campus,And the kids here still respect the college dean.

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.

Describe Nixon the politician.• Conservative but practical • Supported some Liberal

programs– Raised Social Security

benefits– Expanded Job Corps– Lowered Voting Age (18)– Environmental

Protection Agency– Occupational Safety and

Health AdministrationNixon looking thoughtful

Describe Nixon’s New Federalism Program.• Very conservative policy• Reduced taxes (gave it to states)• Family Assistance Plan

– Simplified Welfare program that required job training

– Guaranteed $1, 600 for family of 4– Did not pass in Congress

• Abolished Office of Economic Opportunity– Cornerstone of Great Society

• Impounded $15 billion federal funds for housing, education– Overruled by Supreme Court

Nixon glares at questioner during press conference

How did Nixon attempt to establish law and order?

• Appointed John Mitchell as Attorney General (very conservative)

• Strengthened police powers

– Wiretaps without Warrants

– Imprisonment without bail

• IRS & FBI used to harass Civil Rights, Anti-War protesters

– Audited tax returns

– Spied to “dig up dirt”

Nixon with the aged J. Edgar Hoover, who was FBI director under nine Presidents, starting with Warren Harding (Nixon finally pressured him to retire.)

•Infiltrated Black Panther Party, SDS

28 Black Panthers killed by policeHundreds arrested

•Supported election of city mayors who would be tough on crime

Notable was Philadelphia’s Frank Rizzo

How did Nixon attempt to establish law and order?

Rizzo arrives at riot from black tie affair, nightstick in his vest

Above: Black Panthers; below:

Capture from clip on Nixon’s anti-crime efforts and the role of the FBI

Nixon’s Anti-Crime Efforts

What was the “Southern Strategy?”• Nixon’s plan to win the votes of ‘Sun Belt’

democrats – Sun Belt = Southern States, & TX, AZ, CA,

OK, NV– Tried to delay desegregation of schools in

SC and MS• Overruled by Supreme Court

– Opposed integration through busing• Congress opposed him

– Opposed extending Voting Rights Act of ’65

– Congress extended it anyway– Tried to appoint Ultra Conservatives to

Supreme Court• G. Harrold Carswell was white

supremacist (rejected by Senate)

Above: map shows Sun Belt; below: Judge Carswell

What role did Spiro Agnew play in Nixon's attempt to gain the Wallace vote?

• Served as his “Bulldog”• Gave speeches critical of:

– Eastern Establishment– Liberal Democrats-“sniveling

handwringers”– Media- Agnew said it had liberal bias

• Curled-lipped boys in eastern ivory towers,

• An effete corps of impudent snobs,• They are nattering nabobs of

negativism.

Agnew on the cover of Life magazine

Spiro Agnew holds forth on how the Liberals are ruining America: