Had George Wallace won the Democratic nomination in...

1964 - Who would you have voted for?
*Wallace (D)
*Goldwater (R)
*Hass (Socialst Labor)
*Deberry (Socialst Worker)

1972-
*Wallace (D)
*Nixon (R)
*Hospers (Libertarian)
*Schmitz (American)

1976-
*Wallace (D)
*Ford (R)
*McCarthy (I)

I'd have voted for Wallace in 1976 (he had sufficiently changed by then).

In 1972, I hate to say it, but I probably would have voted for Nixon. He governed as a liberal Democrat on the domestic social welfare and economic issues.

In 1964, however, Wallace was not even trying to win the nomination. He only entered 3 primaries.

I wouldn't have voted for Wallace for fucking dog-catcher!!!!!!!!!!!

:grr:

Especially when you consider that Wallace would probably have beaten Goldwater in '64. The states Goldwater won in the actual election would have gone to Wallace, and he would have been competitive in a lot of other states. I'd probably be sweeping streets and talking in jive. This is why Johnson, flaws and all, is my favorite president in history. When you consider the impact his decision to push for civil rights has had on this country, there are very few things that compare with it. FDR and the Depression and WWII; Wilson and WWI; Lincoln and the Civil War; Washington refusing to become king; maybe Truman electing to fight a war of attrition against communism -- it ranks with these things as a point of inflexion on our nation's timeline.

But in 1976 I actually did vote for Gene McCarthy

but if I'd had those awful choices:

1964: Hass, I presume (never heard of him before).

1972: NONE of these; would have stayed at home or written-in someone

1976: McCarthy, assuming this is Eugene and not Joe!; and if it had been just between
Wallace and Ford, might even have voted for Ford.


What a horrible idea - I assume such things couldn't actually happen!

Your question, Nick, assumes that these would have been the only choices. For of all, they were not. In 1972, one had the option of voting for Dr. Benjamin Spock if one really wanted to protest the choice provided by the two establishment parties; I probrably would have taken that option if the practical choice been between Nixon and Wallace.

That was my first general election and I voted for McGovern. I heard a story, but have never tried to check it, that Nixon finished third in precinct in which I voted -- which included the dorms of San Francisco State University -- behind McGovern and Spock.

... there would have been a liberal-Dem-led third-party candidacy that would have gained a lot of support from the Dem establishment and most northern Democrats.

So I'd probably have voted for that ticket.

Had that not happened, I would probably have voted for Nixon as the lesser of two evils.

1976, I would probably have voted for Ford.