A Half-Century Later and Still Addicted to National Politics
Perhaps I was a strange kid.
Fifty years ago, at age 10, I became acutely interested in national politics for the first time…and I haven’t been able to sever this addiction ever since. That year’s election featured a back-from-the-political-dead Republican Richard Nixon running against a grudging consensus, albeit old-time labor Democrat named Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Added to the volatile mix, given the year that was 1968, was an independent candidate who ended up securing five electoral victories in the south, something no independent candidate has ever been able to accomplish since. His name was George C. Wallace.
Nixon, who was Ike’s Vice President during the 1950s, famously lost to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Two years later, Nixon lost in his quest for the California governorship to Edmund G. “Pat” Brown (father of Jerry Brown), and announced his decision to leave political candidacy going forward. In his televised concession he bitterly told an oft-adversarial press that “…think what you will miss…you won’t have Nixon to kick around, anymore, because this is my last press conference….” That was 1962.
Six years later, he was about to become the thirty-seventh President of the United States, only to resign the presidency six years later. No one could have foreseen any of that in 1968. The year already gave us the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. The younger Kennedy’s assassination following Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to seek re-election left Democrats with no alternative but Sen. Eugene McCarthy, whose outspoken opposition to the Viet Nam War put him at odds with LBJ who was in the midst of pursuing that war for the previous five years. In an effort to mend the breach, Democrats grudgingly accepted Johnson’s Vice President Humphrey, whose bona fides on civil rights and other liberal pursuits were well established. Not having outspokenly taken issue with the Johnson administration’s pursuit of war in southeast Asia, Humphrey was hoped to bring Democrats together. In the tussle over civil rights, though, it wasn’t the Republicans who stood in the way as much as it was the Democrats from the old South, particularly the deep South, who left the party in droves, supporting instead Alabama Governor George Wallace, known for his opposition to desegregation as personified in his blocking the door at the University of Alabama in the face of Bobby Kennedy’s assistant, Nicholas Katzenbach.
With that kind of intrigue, who could not possibly take interest in the election of 1968?
Well, yours’ truly took in so much of that election, it began an addiction to national political elections that has lasted one half of a century later, unto this very day.
Months ago, I predicted that Republicans would retain both houses of Congress and there has been nothing since to indicate that this prediction isn’t still certain on my part. It will be close, but the G.O.P. will narrowly retain majority status in the House, and modestly increase their majority in the Senate.
In the half century that has passed, with thirteen presidential elections closely followed, and just as many transformative mid-term elections also followed, there are many similarities in the ones I have observed with today’s mid-term election, with one exception, who just happens to be President of the United States. As never so intently before, this year’s mid-term election comes down to a national referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump. For his own part, Trump is rallying his base to support Republican candidates with amazing energy and stamina, to a degree and number of appearances never attempted by a sitting president. Republican success or failure will largely depend on whether or not Trump can push his voters to the polls, even though he isn’t technically on the ballot. With nothing of substance to offer, other than continued oversight and possible impeachment, Democrats are also hanging their fortunes on just how the country feels about President Trump, so they too see that the election of 2018 is all about Trump.
Stay tuned, and please don’t forget to vote.
-Drew Nickell, 1 November 2018
© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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