Well, it is a bit more complicated than that. First as frosh congressmen and not much later as Senators, Jack Kennedy and Dick Nixon were buds. Kennedy actually dropped by Nixon's office in the Senate buildings to drop off a $3,000 campaign donation that he said was from his dad. That friendship ended with the 1960 presidential race, as Nixon felt personally betrayed by the press (who had largely kissed up to him until then), the Kennedy family in general, and Jack in particular.
A bigger man than Nixon might have taken the big picture, viewed it all philosophically. Not Nixon, he of the "pink lady" handouts and the Pumpkin Papers and goodness knows what other dirty tricks. "Sock it to me?" Anyway, in 1968 (until now, probably the most f**ked up year of U.S. history that I have ever lived through), there were a few weakly unifying factors in the Democratic party. LBJ's party influence was all but over, gutted by his micromanagement and failure in Vietnam. Bobby Kennedy was probably the Great White Hope, while student radicals were beginning to rally around Clean Gene. With the abdication from the electoral process of Lyndon, Hu-bird became the standard bearer. As so often, Tom Lehrer has le mot juste here: "Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks, he must clear it." That, and the disastrous demonstrations at the Democratic convention in Chicago, and Nixon's Southern Strategy, were what finally brought the Trickster to power.
Naturally, the seeds of his own destruction were present even in his victory. But I'm sure you're about to cover all of that.
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Date: 2005-06-07 03:54 am (UTC)A bigger man than Nixon might have taken the big picture, viewed it all philosophically. Not Nixon, he of the "pink lady" handouts and the Pumpkin Papers and goodness knows what other dirty tricks. "Sock it to me?" Anyway, in 1968 (until now, probably the most f**ked up year of U.S. history that I have ever lived through), there were a few weakly unifying factors in the Democratic party. LBJ's party influence was all but over, gutted by his micromanagement and failure in Vietnam. Bobby Kennedy was probably the Great White Hope, while student radicals were beginning to rally around Clean Gene. With the abdication from the electoral process of Lyndon, Hu-bird became the standard bearer. As so often, Tom Lehrer has le mot juste here: "Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks, he must clear it." That, and the disastrous demonstrations at the Democratic convention in Chicago, and Nixon's Southern Strategy, were what finally brought the Trickster to power.
Naturally, the seeds of his own destruction were present even in his victory. But I'm sure you're about to cover all of that.