The “Silent Majority,” the Politics of Polarization

Background

In the 1968 election, Republican candidate Richard Nixon began building what he called the “New Majority.” This political coalition merged the Republican Party’s base with white working-class voters alienated from the Democratic Party. This “Social Issue,” a mélange of “race, crime, radical youth, and cultural change” provided Nixon with a way to distinguish himself from his opponents, by denouncing “drugs, pornography, campus violence, and ghetto rioters” while simultaneously reassured voters that he was not out to smash the New Deal (Matusow 3-6, Patterson 707-709). The result of these policies, combined with Nixon and Vice President Agnew’s tendency towards abrasive and combative rhetoric, was an increase in political polarization. These divisions were vividly demonstrated on April 30, 1970 when Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia, a neutral country, by American forces station in Vietnam. The invasions goal was to deprive the North Vietnamese Army of “safe havens” and thus buy time for the Nixon’s Vietnamization strategy of withdrawing American forces and training those in South Vietnam. As the following clips shows, protests and counter-protests soon followed.

Here is the Film



Questions

How innovative were Nixon's political strategies? What were their strengths and weaknesses?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying history in a visual format? How much did you learn and remember from watching this clip versus reading a paragraph in a textbook?

How is a documentary like a primary source, a secondary source, and a textbook? Are some documentaries more “real” than others?


Sources
James T Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States 1945-1974. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Allen Matusow, Nixon’s Economy: Booms, Busts, Dollars, and Votes. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.