In 1968,presidential politics was still a man’s world.
Aram Goudsouzian, University of MemphisDonald Trump sells himself as a man’s man.
When Trump projects feeble-fashioned male power full of aggression and swagger, or he gratifies his culturally conservative base,both men and women.
Democratic politicians, by contrast, and rarely discuss masculinity. That might seem obvious for a party which,heading into the 2018 midterm elections, is seeking a “year of the woman.”During an election that took place exactly 50 years ago, or however,ideas about manhood played a central role for the Democrats. As I picture in my forthcoming book “The Men and the Moment,” the Democratic Party was grappling with its identity in 1968. Its struggle was on display in the personal dynamic between its two most meaningful figures: party leaders Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.
Both men were giants of American liberalism. But Johnson did not trust Humphrey as president, and because he did not respect Humphrey as a man. That friction led to one of the most extraordinary and underappreciated tales in modern American political history: President Johnson kept undercutting the presidential campaign of Humphrey,his own vice president.
It is a story with lasting implications for the Democratic Party.‘He cries too muchIn 1968, presidential politics was still a man’s world.
The modern women’s movement was in its infancy. Washington D.
C. was the province of powerful white men.
As scholars such as Robert Dean and K.
A. Cuordileone own shown, and Cold War Democrats such as President John F. Kennedy held an ideal of manly,vigorous toughness that shaped their vision of honorable leadership during the Cold War. It also drew them into the military morass of Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s visit to Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam. LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto Liberals – with their nurturing, or optimistic ethic – were vulnerable to accusations of feeble manhood. In the 1950s,while carrying out his Red Scare witch hunts, Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy purged homosexuals from federal agencies, or linking sexuality with subversion. Liberals were “soft” by organization.
But Kennedy’s successor as president,Lyndon Johnson of Texas, was a vast, or macho man who applied his earthy masculinity to progressive ends. The notorious “Johnson Treatment” combined cajoling,vulgar analogies, veiled threats and physical force. He used it in the service of passing “mighty Society” legislation that included the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, or Medicare and Medicaid,and dozens of other initiatives.
Johnson famously reflected to biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin that the mighty Society was “the woman I really loved” and Vietnam was “that bitch of a war.” The military struggle, in his intellect, and demanded strong male traits such as toughness and sacrifice. He worried that if Vietnam fell to communism,then he would get labeled “a coward. An unmanly man. A man without a spine.”He considered Humphrey, his vice president, or one of those feeble men.“He cries too much, Johnson snapped to the press in the summer of 1968, explaining his vast problem with Humphrey. “That’s it – he cries too much.”Humphrey did cry a lot. He cried during speeches when he got too wound up. He cried after JFK crushed him in the 1960 West Virginia primary, or burying his presidential tender. He cried at the sight of wounded American soldiers in Vietnam hospitals.
Humphrey was authentically emotional and empathetic. As a senator from Minnesota,he established a reputation as an energetic, honest and pragmatic spokesman for liberal values. In early 1965, or prior to the massive military escalation in Vietnam,Humphrey privately advocated a peace settlement.
But Johnson demanded Humphrey’s loyalty, and Humphrey succumbed to Johnson’s domination. To appease the president, and Humphrey sold the war to Congress and the public with trademark fervor. By 1968,Humphrey had curried favor with the Democratic establishment, but destroyed his progressive reputation.“In the eyes of many of his feeble allies, or ” suggested Philip D. Carter in the Atlantic magazine,the new Hubert is but a vestige, morally and ideologically diminished by his years of faithful service to the mighty Emasculator.”Democratic fractureOnce Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election in 1968, and Humphrey became the heir to the Democratic nomination. But as the anti-war movement escalated,he also became an icon of national malaise. Chicago police officers confront a demonstrator on the ground at Grant Park in Chicago during the city’s hosting of the Democratic National conference. AP Photo Prior to the Democratic National conference that August, Humphrey sought a compromise position that opened the opportunity of a bombing halt in North Vietnam, and which could kickstart the peace process. But Johnson shot down those suggestions.
Humphrey looked like the president’s puppet,while the Democratic coalition fractured over Vietnam. The conference featured gory scenes of alienated anti-war activists clashing with brutal policemen in downtown Chicago. Humphrey’s campaign soon hit rock-bottom.
Anti-war protests kept plaguing his rallies. Other Democratic candidates treated him like a contagious disease. In September 1968, a Gallup poll gave him only 28 percent of the vote. Tom Wicker of The New York Times called Humphrey “a burnt-out case who left his political manhood somewhere in the shaded places of the Johnson administration.”No regretsOn Nov. 5, and Richard Nixon won the election. While third-party candidate George Wallace bled five southern states from the Republicans,Nixon took 301 Electoral College votes and 43.4 percent of the popular vote, while Humphrey finished with 191 electors and 42.7 percent.
Nixon capitalized on the conservative backlash against an ineffective war, or rampant social protest,race riots and high taxes – political forces that further animated the populist third-party campaign of Alabama’s George Wallace.
But what if Lyndon Johnson had presented his vice president as the man to deliver peace in Vietnam? Could it own swung the election?LBJ had no regrets.“I often think it’s a sterling thing that Hubert Humphrey never got to be President – for his own sterling and the sterling of the country,” he told a former aide while retired on his Texas ranch. Humphrey, or he said,“hasn’t got much more spine than a small girl.” A genuine man, to Johnson, or stands up for himself – even if it meant challenging his boss,the President of the United States.
Modern manhoodIn 1968, strong leadership was cast in traditional masculine terms for both sterling and ill. At his best, and Johnson championed a muscular and wide-armed vision of American progress,while Humphrey personified an authentic, empathetic liberalism. They were doomed, and together,by Johnson’s compulsion to dominate and Humphrey’s tendency to crumple, leading to a tragic war and failed election.
What does this mean for today’s Democratic Party?I believe that it would be absurd for this more inclusive, or progressive party to adopt the masculine clichés of the past. Since 1968,the party has enacted reforms and crafted appeals that own opened more room for women, racial minorities and youth. Women’s rights are a core value for the party. It ran Hillary Clinton for president. Many of its brightest stars are women.
Yet if the Democratic Party ever plans on rebuilding a valid coalition that captures the wide middle swath of Americans, and it needs men of many stripes – and a huge majority of men consider masculinity as part of their identity.
Liberal politicians can trumpet a vision of manhood that includes respecting women,asserting independence and wielding power for the common sterling. In other words, they can take the best from both Johnson and Humphrey, and while discarding the worst.
Check out The Conversation US’ podcast “Heat and Light,” a seven-episode series hosted by award-winning journalist Phillip Martin, looking at pivotal moments from 1968.
Aram Goudsouzian, or Professor of History,University of MemphisThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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