Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

Nixon’s southern strategy relied on rousing emotion rather than invoking reason, which Nixon aides said required too much “discipline.” Black activism and the “New Left” became Nixon’s scapegoats. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention of 1968 saw a battle between the New Left and the establishment. This division meant that even though more Americans voted for candidates other than Nixon, the Electoral College put him in office. Behind the scenes, Nixon and his team undermined peace talks in Vietnam to make Democrats look bad: This attempted undermining of an election was not fully accepted until the 2017 discovery of the notes from Nixon’s aide H.R. Haldeman. Nixon used scapegoats and media manipulation to argue that his opponents were “lazy, dangerous, and anti-American” (53). While Nixon initially targeted anti-war protestors and college students, in 1963 he began targeting Black and Brown Americans. This led to the resurrection of the Confederate flag and the establishment of more Confederate monuments.

Nixon’s administration used rhetoric to turn what had previously been considered commonsense health decisions of the liberal consensus into politicized talking points. In the late 1960s, Nixon ordered all military hospitals to perform abortions, even in states without legalization.