Daniel Freer, July 17, 2020
In 1960, the Democratic party had been devastated in two consecutive elections, losing to a rather uninspiring President Eisenhower. After Franklin Roosevelt’s dominant leadership for the 13 years between 1932 and his death in April of 1945, the Democrats tried to ride out his vision for as long as possible, with the reelection of Truman in 1948. But Truman hadn’t been nearly as inspiring as his predecessor, and so his appeal faded as he made several unpopular mistakes related to the global spread of Communism. Luckily their Republican opponents didn’t have a clear vision for the future at the time either.
John F. Kennedy was by no means the most influential Civil Rights leader of the time (see Martin Luther King Jr., or Malcolm X), but he began to support their message even before he was elected, winning 70 percent of the black vote in his electoral win in 1960. That being said, John F. Kennedy’s election in 1960 was very narrow, and his win was certainly not because of his Civil Rights vision. And yet, JFK ultimately became the harbinger of a new Democratic Party: one which focused on the progression of Civil Rights.
The support of black Americans by the president, and the Democratic party in turn, created anger among many who saw the United States as a white country that should stay that way. This led to, among other things, a realignment of voters, particularly in the south, who saw racial integration as an affront to their way of life. Those opposed to Civil Rights began to vote against Democrats, no matter who they were. Even in the wake of JFK’s assassination in 1963, voters in southern states switched their support to the Republican party, largely as a protest vote against Civil Rights.
However, as the Civil Rights movement heated up, it began to create concern among average white Americans across the country. In 1968, the high-profile assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy (who had been a Democratic candidate for president) exacerbated these concerns. Richard Nixon chose to listen to these concerned white Americans, and ran his campaign on a promise to restore “Law and Order” to the country. Though southern states initially rejected Nixon in favor of George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, they came around to his message in 1972, and “Law and Order” appeared to have won as a prevailing message of the times.
“Law and Order” was truly a brilliant message. It gave the government reason to quash protests, and to deny racial progress, in the name of peace and prosperity. It ensured the support of both southerners who opposed racial equality, and moderate whites who would rather stop the boat from rocking than fight for the rights of somebody else. The message was so compelling, in fact, that Democrats even began to adopt it after embarrassing electoral defeats throughout the 1970s and 1980s, excluding Jimmy Carter’s win in 1976 (which was largely a reaction to the Watergate Scandal). Bill Clinton’s now infamous 1994 crime bill, for example, was an attempt to show that Democrats could maintain “Law and Order” just as well as Republicans.
With Barack Obama’s election in 2008, everything changed once again. The Democratic Party began to return to their initial focus as laid out in the 1960s: one of equality. Obama had inherited the legacy of JFK, and Martin Luther King Jr., men who had become influential when he was still learning to walk. And since then a new Civil Rights movement started to brew, with renewed protests, this time about overpolicing of communities of color and the destruction of monuments perceived as racist.
Clearly, the fight between progress and law and order is still not over. Perhaps it never will be. Any push for change causes unexpected results, and creates a backlash against it. Even when it isn’t about racial equality, it will be about something else. And as history has shown, the fight is not one between political parties, but can also be within them, and within each one of us as individuals. There can be no progress without turmoil, and there can be no order with constant change.
However, one thing has become clear in the last 4 years: Donald Trump and the Republican Party that supports him do not believe in the “Law and Order” that was a staple of past Republican administrations. Trump has constantly skirted the law, if not outright breaking it, and has been supported every step of the way by his colleagues, with few exceptions. The country has never been in less order, mostly due to the failure of Trump’s administration to adequately prepare the country for any unexpected event, as seen by disastrous responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and #BlackLivesMatter protests, among other things.
So if you vote for Donald Trump this year, you aren’t voting for “Law and Order”. And you certainly aren’t voting for progress. A vote for Donald Trump is no more than a vote against JFK’s legacy, and a rejection of the racial equality that should have been achieved years ago.