Figure 1.--Here we see President-elect Nixon a few days fter the 1968 election. The caption read, "Nixon Gives an Autograph: President-elect Richard M. Nixon, autographs a book for Mac Cox, 10, after the youngster presented him with a New Testament as he left the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church where he attended services with his familky Sunday. Mrs. Nixon is at right." The photogrph was taken on November 10. The 1968 presidential election proved to be an important realignment in American presidential politics. The South left the Democratic Party for the first time since the Civil War. Voices in the Democratic Party became increasinly strident amd left-wing. President Nixon in 1972 would adopt a Southern strategy, courung the South. One development would also becomne the emergence of the Chruistuian right in American politics. The relignment was not just in the South, but also the Bible Belt of the Mid-West and blue collar voters who did not like the increasing shift left of the Democrativ Party.

The 1968 election was one of several that are generally seen as a major realignment in American politics. It was not immediately apparent because Wallace carried the Deep South. But from 1968 on the Democrats could no longer count on the South as part of its political strategy. And President Nixon in 1972 would adopt a Southern strategy. Since that election, the South would be an important part of a new Republican coalition. Other major changes occurred. The 1968 election also affected other Democratic strongholds. It was the s the last time until 1988 that Washington voted Democratic. It was also the last time until 1992 that Connecticut, Maine and Michigan voted Democratic in a presidential election election. The last major realignment was the Roosevelt 1932 election victory when forged an coalition of labor, ethnics, farmers, and the South which ws virtually impossible to defeat. Only war-hero Dwight Eisenhower was able to overcome the coaltion that Roosevelt had forged. The 1969 election not only tore the South out of the Democratic coalition, but also diluted the union blue-collar Democratic vote. After 1968 it was teRepublicans who dominated the presidential elections. Certainly Civil Rights was part of the changing political landscape, especially in the South. Vice-President Humphrey won less than 10 percent of the white Southern vote, and about two-thirds of his vote in the region was from newly-enfranchized blacks. [Gould, p 165 and White, p 401] But Civil Rights and the South is only part of the story. The Democratic Party had begun to change. In addition to Civil Rights and opposition to the Vietnam War, more stridently left-wing voices in the Democratic Party emerged. For them even left-wing stalwart Hunert Humprey was not liberal enough. This was not unrealted to Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. Blacks and left-wing Americans were among the strongest proponents of both Civil Rights and opposition to the war. They were also the most likely to question Ametica's opposition to Soviet imperialism and commitment to free market capitalism. This explains the much of the political shifts outside the South. This process was furthered reforms in how the Democratic Party selected its presidential nominees. The McGovern–Fraser Commission adopted a set of rules for the states to follow in selecting Democratic Party convention delegates. The overall impact was to reduced the influence of party leaders like Mayor Daley in Chicago on the nominating process. The reforms also were designed to increase representation for minorities, women, and youth. The reforms also led to more states adopting primaries to select convention delegates.

Sources

Gould, Lewis L. 1968: The Election that Changed America (Ivan R. Dee, 1993).

White, Theodore H. The Making of the President-—1968 (Atheneum, 1969).

Created: 8:38 PM 3/17/2012
Last edited: 8:38 PM 3/17/2012