Post by Moses on Dec 29, 2004 14:53:51 GMT -5
....Wallace's American Independent Party ultimately transformed the two major parties. Wallace forced the Republican Party to adopt its "southern strategy," to endorse what [Republican nominee] Barry Goldwater had talked about in 1964 — "a choice, not an echo."
Because Wallace represented a serious threat in a close election year, especially in the South, the Republicans had to pick up on his issues. Wallace took them to the right. And whereas the GOP had chased the Democrats' liberalism ever since the Great Depression, the Democrats then began to chase the Republicans' conservatism.
One clear example, of course, was Bill Clinton moving the party to welfare reform. But you saw it again at the Democratic convention this summer. John Kerry's soldierly salute was another example of how the Democrats are chasing the Republicans still.
IR: Wallace won four states, 46 electoral votes, and more than 13% of the vote in 1968. How did he manage such a strong showing?
GILLESPIE: The context for Wallace's campaign was the storm and stress of the 1960s. Layered over that was the resistance to moving toward racial justice and integration. But he was a strong labor candidate, which we often forget. He wasn't just a Southern candidate, either: Wallace appealed to hard hats in the North, partly with his fighting against the Vietnam protesters.
He was also preaching law and order, as opposed to the hymn of the student movement, "The Times They Are A-Changing."
In some ways, Wallace represented a more genuine populism than the power-to-the-people populism of the left. The Wallace movement was a part of the general revolution of the 1960s — and maybe one of the most successful parts.
We don't tend to think of it that way, but it was fueled by the populism involved in challenging established power. And it attracted a lot of new voters who helped make the South solidly Republican.
IR: Did Wallace teach the Republicans how to code their appeals to racism and nativism?
GILLESPIE: There's no doubt they learned that at Wallace's knee. There was an example this summer of that old coded appeal, when George W. Bush would not go to speak to the NAACP. He then spoke to the Urban League, as though he were some brave president appearing at a hostile outpost of power.
This is much more respectable than Wallace at his worst. But it is saying, "We're a party of white people, and if black people want to take us on our own terms, that's fine. But if they can't, so be it. We'll be the party of white people in this country."
IR: How coded — or overt — was Wallace's racial message?
GILLESPIE: A lot of it was couched in what he said about protesters, and about law and order. He would talk about how Washington, D.C. — which everybody knew had a large black population — would be made safe by President Wallace, even if he had to "station troops every 20 feet."
His platform condemned the "so-called civil rights acts," railed against "minority group rebellions," and it talked about a "frightening increase in the crime rate" and in the welfare rolls. It was that kind of thing, clearly designed to appeal to the Archie Bunkers of America. He was careful not to make it more overt.
IR: What else did the Republicans learn from Wallace?
GILLESPIE: The ongoing culture war can also be traced back to Wallace's Southern fundamentalism: He was the first to run on issues like homosexuality and school prayer.
Wallace definitely had winnable ideas. Nixon borrowed his law-and-order theme, hook, line and sinker. Wallace was running against the war protesters, and Nixon also appropriated that aspect. Wallace was running against the Supreme Court, too, so Nixon promised to put strict Southern constructionists [constitutional conservatives] on the Supreme Court.
---http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=492&printable=1
Because Wallace represented a serious threat in a close election year, especially in the South, the Republicans had to pick up on his issues. Wallace took them to the right. And whereas the GOP had chased the Democrats' liberalism ever since the Great Depression, the Democrats then began to chase the Republicans' conservatism.
One clear example, of course, was Bill Clinton moving the party to welfare reform. But you saw it again at the Democratic convention this summer. John Kerry's soldierly salute was another example of how the Democrats are chasing the Republicans still.
IR: Wallace won four states, 46 electoral votes, and more than 13% of the vote in 1968. How did he manage such a strong showing?
GILLESPIE: The context for Wallace's campaign was the storm and stress of the 1960s. Layered over that was the resistance to moving toward racial justice and integration. But he was a strong labor candidate, which we often forget. He wasn't just a Southern candidate, either: Wallace appealed to hard hats in the North, partly with his fighting against the Vietnam protesters.
He was also preaching law and order, as opposed to the hymn of the student movement, "The Times They Are A-Changing."
In some ways, Wallace represented a more genuine populism than the power-to-the-people populism of the left. The Wallace movement was a part of the general revolution of the 1960s — and maybe one of the most successful parts.
We don't tend to think of it that way, but it was fueled by the populism involved in challenging established power. And it attracted a lot of new voters who helped make the South solidly Republican.
IR: Did Wallace teach the Republicans how to code their appeals to racism and nativism?
GILLESPIE: There's no doubt they learned that at Wallace's knee. There was an example this summer of that old coded appeal, when George W. Bush would not go to speak to the NAACP. He then spoke to the Urban League, as though he were some brave president appearing at a hostile outpost of power.
This is much more respectable than Wallace at his worst. But it is saying, "We're a party of white people, and if black people want to take us on our own terms, that's fine. But if they can't, so be it. We'll be the party of white people in this country."
IR: How coded — or overt — was Wallace's racial message?
GILLESPIE: A lot of it was couched in what he said about protesters, and about law and order. He would talk about how Washington, D.C. — which everybody knew had a large black population — would be made safe by President Wallace, even if he had to "station troops every 20 feet."
His platform condemned the "so-called civil rights acts," railed against "minority group rebellions," and it talked about a "frightening increase in the crime rate" and in the welfare rolls. It was that kind of thing, clearly designed to appeal to the Archie Bunkers of America. He was careful not to make it more overt.
IR: What else did the Republicans learn from Wallace?
GILLESPIE: The ongoing culture war can also be traced back to Wallace's Southern fundamentalism: He was the first to run on issues like homosexuality and school prayer.
Wallace definitely had winnable ideas. Nixon borrowed his law-and-order theme, hook, line and sinker. Wallace was running against the war protesters, and Nixon also appropriated that aspect. Wallace was running against the Supreme Court, too, so Nixon promised to put strict Southern constructionists [constitutional conservatives] on the Supreme Court.
---http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=492&printable=1