Presidential Politics 1960-2008
Dwight D. and Mamie Eisenhower (Rep.) America s Grandparents 1953-1961
First presidential debate 1960
V. P. Nixon (Rep) loses
Camelot!
Jack and Jackie Kennedy (Dem) 1961-1963
VP Lyndon B Johnson (Dem) 1963-1969
1964 Civil Rights Act "We have lost the South for a generation."
1964 Reelection of LBJ
1965 Voting Rights Act Things are 'moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years.' 'There's no question about it,' the attorney general said. 'In the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has.'... Kennedy said that prejudice exists and probably will continue to... 'But we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.' - Robert F. Kennedy, Washington Post, May 27, 1961
GREAT SOCIETY War on Poverty Medicare old people Medicaid poor, children, disabled Head Start Education Employment affirmative action 24 th Amendment ends poll tax Job Corps VISTA (domestic Peace Corps)
Hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?
I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved the Great Society - in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs... But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe. LBJ
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 However, LBJ lied to the American people stating that North Vietnam had fired on an US ship. He then asked for unlimited support for the war in Vietnam from Congress. Revealed in the Pentagon Papers 1970. US vs the New York Times
New Hampshire Primary 1968 Eugene McCarthy wins 40% of votes Get Clean for Gene! Johnson will not run again for president
Democratic contenders 1968: VP Hubert Humphrey and Robert Kennedy
Spring Summer 1968 The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr assassinated Robert F. Kennedy assassinated French Student s Revolution Warsaw Pact invades Czechoslovakia Democratic Convention chooses Humphrey over McCarthy students riot
Ted Kennedy s Eulogy to brother Robert My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'
And, the Beatles begin to break up
In the meantime, Republican Richard M Nixon had a secret plan
And, in the South, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. George Wallace
1968 election of R Nixon
Richard M.Nixon 1969-1974 political coalition Cultural war anti 60s reforms angry white men anti-libertarian; anti- abortion (Roe vs Wade 1972) Southern Strategy make the party of Lincoln the party of the KKK
Nixon domestic policies Made affirmative action a reality Tried to pass guaranteed income (negative income tax) Tried to pass universal health care 26 th amendment (18 year old voting rights)
Foreign policies Détente with the USSR Recognition of Communist China Man on the moon 1969 Supported Israel in Yom Kippur War 1973 (gas crisis)
Vietnam War No secret plan Did withdraw troops 1973 Christmas bombing of Cambodia 1970 (protests Kent and Jackson state universities)
1972 election George McGovern WWII bomber pilot D.S.C. Anti-Vietnam War Nixon CREEP dirty tricks
1972 CREEP Burglary of Democratic headquarters in Woodward and Bernstein reporters Washington Post Watergate Complex All the President s Men
1972 reelection of Nixon
What were the Watergate crimes? Covering up the fact that the burglary had been ordered by CREEP Tampering with a grand jury Using the FBI and the CIA Using the Internal Revenue Service Using Justice Department (Saturday Night Massacre)
PRESIDENT: Yeah. What did the president know and when did he know it? HALDEMAN: Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them, and their investigation is now leading into some directions we don't want it to go....the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray [head of FBI] and just say, "Stay the hell out of this...this business here we don't want you to go any further on it."
War Powers Act 1973 requires the president to report to Congress all non routine deployments of military forces within forty-eight hours of their occurrence and it mandates that forces committed to actual hostilities by presidential order be withdrawn within sixty days unless Congress declared war or otherwise gave permission.
Nixon Resigns not impeached I am not a crook Pardoned by President Gerald Ford (Rep) 1974-1977
1977-1981 Jimmy Carter (Dem) from Plains Georgia I will never lie to you
Carter 1976 first president from Deep South since 1848 (Z. Taylor)
Camp David Accords 1978 peace between Egypt and Israel Anwar Sadat Menachim Begin Peace has held up Carter continually stressing human rights over RealPolitik
Stagflation stagnant economy and inflation
Iran Hostage Crisis 53 Americans from Tehran Embassy
1980 Carter vs Teddy Kennedy for Democratic nomination No clear answer to question Why do you want to be president?, but resented Carter as head of the party.
Ronald Reagan (Rep) 1981-1989 Former movie actor (Westerns) Governor of California Against big government Supply Side Economics Cheerful
Anti-Government Regulation Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
1980 Election
R Reagan Domestic Goodbye Keynes Cut taxes Cut domestic programs Federal Reserve Chairman Volker raised interest rates, sending USA into worst recession since the 30s. Rebounded in time for election
Foreign Policy: Arms race with USSR & Star Wars
Deficit spending
1984 The Reverend Jesse Jackson, second African American candidate, third in Democratic primaries Ron and Nancy Reagan Walter Mondale & VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro
1984 Election Morning in America again
Iran Contra Iran Nicaragua
Nicaragua had an elected communist government Congress did not allow US revenue to support contra revolutionaries Arms sales to Iran were prohibited Reagan s men sold arms to Iran to influence Iran to free our hostages held in Lebanon and to finance the contras. Reagan s defense was that he didn t know what was going on in the White House
1988 Election Read my lips: no new taxes VP George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993 James Danforth (Dan) Quayle
Michael Dukakis & Llyod Bentsen, Democratic candidates More Dan Qualye: Potatoe Latin speaking Latin America
1988 Republican Bush first Vice President to win presidency since Martin van Buren 1836
Fall of Berlin Wall 1989 Reagan gets credit, not Bush
Persian Gulf War 1990 protect Kuwait from Saddam General Colin Powell, Chairman of Hussein Joint Chiefs of Staff
1992 It s the Economy, stupid Ross Perot DEFICIT AHEAD!
William Jefferson Clinton (Bill) Hillary Rodham Clinton 1993-2001 Clinton: from a place called Hope Another conservative Southerner (Arkansas)
1992 Though a Southerner Clinton s support of civil rights cost him the South
Clinton: so good, so bad Goodbye Deficit Impeached, not convicted (for lying to Congress) A secretary is not a toy
2000 GW Bush, Al Gore and the Supreme Court
2004 GW Bush son of GHW Bush, Republican as cowboy John Kerry, Democrat (Vietnam War Silver Star, then anti-war) (with John Lennon 1972)
2004
John McCain, Vietnam P.O.W.
2008John McCain, Republican, Barack Obama, Democrat 365-173 Biggest win since 1992
Conservative = Status Quo Republicans Progressive = Liberal Democrats Liberty = Libertarian Totalitarian = Prohibitionist