So! 1876 turned out to have high turnout, but was underscored by governmental corruption. Exactly one hundred years later, during the country's Bicentennial, we have another case of monumental corruption, this time in the form of the Watergate scandal. For some Americans, this was the first time they had to come to terms that the government was doing horrible things behind their backs, and all in their name as Americans. The backlash was predictable, and folks turned to more earthy politicians that made them feel good again, made them hope and believe change was on the horizon... but those politicians proved to be awkward in office and had trouble pushing through reforms with a difficult to deal with Congress, full of newly elected folks out to change the system and fed up with the compromising, glad-handing idea of Congress that got us into this mess in the first place.
As the primary season for 1976 shaped up, we saw a slew of Democratic hopefuls get weeded out pretty quickly. What were once thought sure things were upset by a political nobody who wasn't even holding office at the time. He ran on an outsider platform of radical change and managed to get the support of rural folks to swing him into an easy victory. The Democratic party would nominate in 1976 and outsider promising to be a reformer, and just to make sure the old guard of the party went along, they chose a more traditional running mate who was becoming well known in government circles and among the party's base.
For the Republicans that year... things got harder. Their incumbent, who everyone assumed would be swept into the nomination easily, faced a surprising primary challenge from someone no one in the mainstream even thought would put up a fight. He ran on a radical platform and mobilized the base, particularly the young in the party who thought a radical change was what was needed to solve the current ills of society. In his terrific book The Invisible Bridge, author Rick Perlstein dug up this quote from the establishment campaign: 'We want a united party going into the General Election. Any motion against unity is counter-productive and damaging to our prospects next November. Much like 2016, the primary was long and ugly and led all the way to the convention, but eventually the establishment candidate won out.
Unfortunately, allegations of health trouble, flip-flopping on major issues, and a pivot to the center following the primary would ultimately alienate the base and doom this candidate, who ended up losing to the outsider who no one thought would ever get this far. The election wound up being very peculiar on the map, with states that were thought to be solid Red or Blue flipping for the other candidate. It did end up being very close, but ultimately more of America wanted a reformer and someone who promised to change things rather than the standard bearer of the tumultuous status quo.
At Your Service,
Doremus Jessup
