06-18-2024, 06:19 PM
People may be forgetting how despised LBJ was in 1968, and how the stink of LBJ clung to Hubert Humphrey. My father voted for Dick Gregory, which was a vote for Nixon, but he refused to entertain any notion of voting for the Democratic candidate after that convention. Then McGovern came along and won the hearts of many who had turned away from the Democrats, but lost more because they found him too "radical". Our perceptions of "left" and "right" have changed so much since back then that it's tough to figure out how it all happened if you weren't there.
Gary Wills wrote a great book about Richard Nixon, called Nixon Agonistes, in which he posits that the seeds of Nixon's self-destruction were there from the git-go and that the power of the Presidency enabled his paranoia to engulf him.
Gary Wills wrote a great book about Richard Nixon, called Nixon Agonistes, in which he posits that the seeds of Nixon's self-destruction were there from the git-go and that the power of the Presidency enabled his paranoia to engulf him.