Miles Fidelman on Substack

As I’ve written previously, I’ve been reading Richard Nixon’s memoirs, and I’ve just gotten to his retelling of the 1968 election. I’ve been struck by the parallels with our most recent election. “There were going to be seven key states in the 1968 presidential campaign: New York, California, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Michigan.” Unlike 1968, The Democratic Convention wasn’t a shitshow. Then “It seemed as if the Democratic Convention was confirming every indictment of their leadership that I had made in my convention speeches. Television magnified the agony of Chicago into a national debacle.” Still, like then some were unsatisfied: “McCarthy and his zealous followers had been embittered by the convention because their efforts to pass a peace plank in the platform were defeated.” “The Deep South had to be virtually conceded to George Wallace. I could not match him there without compromising on the Civil Rights issue, which I would not do.” This time the George Wallace voters had become the core of the MAGA Republican Party. “Lyndon Johnson stayed home in the White House, and Humphrey became a handy target for everyone on the left who hated the Johnson Administration and the Vietnam War.” It’s no wonder Nixon won. The only difference, as I noted yesterday (https://open.substack.com/pub/milesfidelman/p/in-stark-contrast?r=3ahemj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web) Nixon ran a campaign stressing hope and unity - and went on to finish what Kennedy started - bringing a measure of resolution to the Cold War, landing men on the moon, and starting to clean up the environment. Trump promises a different course.