In 1968, Republicans nominated the highly unlikable Richard Nixon for the presidency. He won narrowly, not because he was such a genius, but because the Democrats decided to implode: campus takeovers, race riots, and chaos at the Democratic National Convention made Americans feel unsafe. Nixon campaigned as the anti-chaos candidate – a strong law and order man who would restore sanity in a country gone insane.
Most Americans remember the late 1960s as a time of disorder and craziness, a time when all moral standards broke down, a time when crime skyrocketed and social fabric tore wide open. Democrats remember it fondly as a time of change and protest, their shining moment. Hillary Clinton publicly tracks her political activism to 1968. The Democrats believe that they were virtuous in undermining America during the Vietnam War; they believe they did yeoman’s work in promulgating the sexual revolution; they believe they helped racial minorities by creating a vast welfare state and destroying city governments all over the country. And they believe that riots and violence were part and parcel of that hope and change.
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