Reply #43: I knew people who blamed troops [View All]

Not many hard core ones, I personally didn't know anyone who would spit at a soldier for example, but more were disapproving, especially if a returning soldier wasn't repentant about their involvement in an illegal war. Anti war vets were highly regarded by a lot of activists, but not apolitical or pro Viet Nam war ones. And of course the Right wing seized on any example they could find of soldiers being disrespected and hammered away at it, distorting it out of proportion.

You know I never witnessed an act of outright blatant over the top militant racism either, but that didn't mean it wasn't happening around me anyway, chances are I wouldn't be the one to see it if it did. A person can have many dozens of perfectly civil interactions but the ugly one will always stand out. Many Viet Nam Vets have stories to tell about being met with varying degrees of coldness or hostility when they returned to the States.

Nixon's Southern Strategy is infamous of course, but it doesn't explain why, in 1972, he won New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Connecticut, Oregon, and every other State except for Massachusetts. Even Mondale did better than McGovern that year. I'm open to hearing what posters who lived in the South remember about whether an appeal to Religion was part of Nixon's effort. I didn't notice it in New York. An appeal to Apple Pie and Motherhood sure as hell was part of Nixon/Agnew's effort though, as was the scapegoating of pointy headed intellectuals.

The direct attack on Spock met with only partial success, but the less focused attack on "permissiveness" was a much bigger winner for the Right in expanding their base. It linked with cliches about the "excesses of the 60's". The roots of the derogatory use of "Liberal from Massachusetts" go back to McGovern, not Kerry. Before McGovern Massachusetts was linked with JFK, a positive association for most of the American public.

For the record I strongly supported McGovern in 1972 (and still do). I don't blame McGovern. I was strongly against the Viet Nam war in 1972 and have no regrets about my long opposition to it. We were not as effective in stopping the war as I wish we could have been, and it would be foolish to not admit that the political Right was organizing also during the same period with a lot of success to show for their efforts. I think some lessons have been learned by the left from that period. Learning lessons is a good thing.