The Election of 1964: A Modern American Landslide for the Democrats

 

The Presidential Election of 1964 resulted in one of the greatest modern landslide victories in election history. Lyndon Johnson was reelected with over 61% of the popular vote, beating Republican challenger Barry Goldwater of Arizona by 15,951,320 votes. The magnitude of victory allowed Johnson to further pursue his “Great Society” goals while at the same time breaking a campaign pledge not to widen the war in Vietnam. It helped that Goldwater was viewed as “reckless and irresponsible,” having threatened once to “lob” a nuclear bomb “into the men’s room of the Kremlin…” In several ways, the Election of 1964 would dramatically alter both political parties.

 

The Democratic Convention in Atlantic City

 

The Democratic Party convention was hosted by Atlantic City in late August. Lyndon Johnson, fresh from a significant congressional victory over the Gulf of Tonkin incident as well as seeing the passage of key Great Society legislation, had no reason to fear losing the nomination. But in the days before the opening of the convention, Johnson became paranoid, speculating that his Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, was seeking to highjack the convention.

 

Complicating matters, an independent delegate group from Mississippi representing that state’s black population and calling itself the Mississippi Freedom Delegate Party, was challenging the convention’s Rule’s Committee, demanding to be seated as legitimate delegates. White delegations from Southern states threatened to walk out if the upstart group was seated. Defying all attempts at compromise, the group staged demonstrations on Atlantic City’s boardwalk throughout the convention, garnered media attention.

 

Johnson’s fears regarding Robert Kennedy were unfounded, although he insisted that the film tribute on the late president be scheduled after his nomination was secure. Robert Kennedy had resigned as Attorney General in order to seek the New York Senate seat. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota would be the Vice President.

 

The Republican Convention in San Francisco

 

The Republican Party convention was packed with pro-Goldwater activists. Rejecting the pleas of moderate Republican conservatives like New York’s governor, Nelson Rockefeller, they ended splitting the party and thus enabling a strong Johnson victory. Middle of the road Republicans and liberal Republicans deplored the contradictory Goldwater while extreme conservatives and members of such ultra conservative groups as the John Birch Society viewed him as the savior of the Republic.

 

The massive Republican loss in 1964 saw party leadership devolve to middle ground conservatives like Richard Nixon. It would not be until the Election of 1980 that the so-called right-wing of the Republican Party would regain control, incorporating the newly organized “religious right” and ultimately hatching the egg that in 2000 became neo-con Republicanism.

 

According to Historian Paul Boller, Barry Goldwater was portrayed as a “drum-beating, saber-rattling zealot who might get the country into a nuclear war if he became president.” The fears of Goldwater’s hand on the buttons to launch a global nuclear catastrophe ultimately trumped Republican accusations of corruption and Johnson’s “wheeler dealer” style of politics.

 

The Fruits of Democratic Victory in 1964

 

The “unity” Johnson referred to after winning a landslide victory was short lived. Escalation of the Vietnam War would polarize Americans and generate mass anti-war movements that ultimately led to the debacle of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who had been considered as a possible VP in 1964, staged a separate campaign, supported by students and peace activists.

 

The Election of 1964 resulted in addressing on-going Civil Rights issues, an extensive expansion of New Deal legislation under the banner of Johnson’s “Great Society,” and an escalation in American presence in Vietnam. With everyday a battle for domestic or foreign gains, it is little wonder that President Johnson, in early 1968, told the American people, he chose not to run again.

 

Sources:

 

Paul F. Boller, Jr. Presidential Campaigns From George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Jon Margolis, The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964 (William Morrow and Company, 1999).

Published April 9, 2009 in Suite101 by M.Streich