America – Love It or Leave It

Time of Turmoil

It was 1968.  Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement was largely successful in achieving legal racial equality, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  But legal equality was different than social equality. While laws discriminating against minorities were illegal, but it didn’t change who got jobs, bought houses, or went to schools.  

Because those injustices were still rampant, many blacks looked for a different path to change.  The non-violent marches and protests, sit-ins and speeches that achieved the movement’s successes earlier in the decade weren’t effective.  More aggressive and confrontational actions by younger groups gained popularity. Demonstrations in the streets, leading to police confrontations and riots, were commonplace.

It was 1968.  The War in Vietnam raged.  The American war machine was fueled with draftees.  Every American male reaching eighteen years old entered the process; got a draft card, a physical, and most were declared 1-A, eligible to be drafted.  Students on campus were demonstrating, protesting, sitting-in, and sometimes rioting and burning; all in protest against the War. 

Fearing Change

Protest didn’t just mean marching on campus.  It meant long hair, “hippie” clothes, and music that “wasn’t their fathers’” Sinatra and Doris Day.  It also meant alternative mind altering drugs, marijuana and LSD.   Parents sent their kids to college and saw them come back – different.

President Lyndon Johnson was the prime author of the Civil Rights legislation.  He was also the prime proponent of the War in Vietnam.  In a nation torn by riots, protests and counter protests, he seemed unable to find a way to stop the violence.  He chose not to run for re-election in 1968.

Martin Luther King was assassinated.  So was Bobby Kennedy.  Some white Americans longed for simpler times, only a decade or so before.  Those times were still in view, in re-runs of Father Knows Best, My Three Sons and Leave it to Beaver.  Those Americans were tired of the disruption and violence.  They were exhausted from all of the change.  Their view was summed up by a bumper sticker: an American Flag and the words “America – Love it or Leave It.”

Segregation Forever

The Democratic Governor of Alabama George Wallace gained national fame by opposing desegregation. He blocked the door of the University of Alabama registrar’s office when Federal agents led black students to enter the school.  While he finally stepped aside (Federal agents were faced off against Alabama troopers) the words of his inaugural address were clear:

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Wallace didn’t start out as a racist.  He took up the segregationist stand as a way to enhance his political career in Alabama, after losing the 1958 Gubernatorial nomination.  It wasn’t a “childhood” belief, it was a cynical political choice.

In 1968 he offered Americans his “alternative” back to “simpler” racist times.   “America – Love it or Leave It” summed up his campaign program. When he was unable to gain the Democratic nomination (Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the candidate) he ran under the American Independent Party.  He gained the support of five Southern states, and also disaffected white workers in the rest of the country. 

A Political Calculation

Our Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!

This is not a campaign statement from Wallace, though it certainly is something he would say.  This is Tuesday’s morning Tweet from the President of the United States Donald Trump.  Like Wallace, he is appealing to the basest instincts of American society, demanding that those who oppose him leave the country.

We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country….

Trump claims that he is not a racist.  But perhaps he is even worse; like George Wallace he is making a cold political calculation.  His strategists determined that they can appeal to latent fear in enough white Americans, particularly white American men, to win the 2020 election. 

He appeals to the worst in America:  fear of “brown-people,” hatred of women in power, and the illusion that somehow America was better when it was segregationist, racist and misogynist. It is the underlying theme of “Make America Great Again” and the Trump rallies.  

Americans Are Better

It serves his political needs.  

America is in an era of change.  We now recognize the equality and value of all races, genders, ethnicities, and religions.  It happened fast, and change is happening even faster.  White people will not be the majority of Americans within twenty years. For some of those white people, it is scary.  They want to go back to the “good old days.”

But most realize that the “good old days” were only good for some. They know that America is better than the 1950’s, and George Wallace, and the future offered us by President Trump. We are a nation of hope, not of fear. 

George Wallace had some success, but ultimately was rejected by America.   Donald Trump’s return to Wallace’s themes will be rejected as well.