The perfect complement to this presidential election has been a copy of “Whistlestop” by John Dickerson, the moderator of CBS’s Face the Nation. While the historic pairing of the first woman nominee and an outrageously unqualified and unhinged opponent has no precedent, per se, we are reminded that scandals, scoundrels and partisan media are nothing new. A good read.
But one election eerily and easily resonates. It was 1968 when Alabama Gov. George Wallace ran as the American Independent Party candidate, and he was on the ballot in every state. He would get 10 million votes, 23 percent of the total, and 46 electoral votes from five (southern) states. He didn’t just run against Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. He ran against race rioters, big government, the “left-wing press,” communism, against elitism, school-busing–and in support of “states’ rights,” law and order and those frustrated and fed up with the status quo.
His populist appeal was underscored by his ability to “tell it like it is.” His campaign rallies, accompanied by a country music band and dotted with tiny Confederate flags, were more like red-meat rhetoric, concert tours. John Birchers, conspiracists and thinly-veiled racists were among those lured by a racial dog whistle and the Wallace mantra: “Stand Up for America.” Typical signage included: “News Media Unfair,” “Law and Wallace” and “Give America back to the people, vote Wallace.”
Wallace ranted and railed against anarchists and criminal coddling. “If policemen could run this country for about two years, they’d straighten it out,” he said. A Los Angeles Times editorial characterized his appeal as one meant to “play upon the fears, frustrations and bigotry of the discontented and the ignorant.”
And when the Gallup Poll had him trailing with high unfavorables, he responded in a fashion we’ve become all too familiar with today. “They lie when they poll,” he said. “They are trying to forge public opinion in the country, and professional polls are owned by Eastern monied interests, and they lie. They’re trying to rig an election.”
Who knew what George Wallace had presaged?