The choice and the echo: poverty politics and the 1968 campaign

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Richard Nixon’s successful campaign for the presidency in 1968. It shows how Nixon tread a fine line between conservative Republicans and progressive Republicans in seeking the party’s nomination. In harmony with conservatives, Nixon promised to return ‘law and order’ to the United States, but to appease progressives, Nixon also promised to pursue ‘black capitalism’. The chapter also argues that Nixon’s opposition to the War on Poverty – which he called the ‘clearest choice’ in the 1968 campaign - has been underappreciated by historians who have analysed the Nixon, Humphrey, and Wallace contest.