Spojené státy americké prezidentské volby vlády USA 1968

Americké prezidentské volby z roku 1968, americké prezidentské volby konané 5. listopadu 1968, ve kterých republikán Richard M. Nixon porazil demokrata Huberta H. Humphreye.

Pozadí

Předběžné volby do roku 1968 byly transformovány v roce 1967, kdy minnesotský demokratický senátor Eugene J. McCarthy vyzval Demokratickou přítomnost. Lyndon B. Johnson o jeho vietnamských válečných politikách. Johnson uspěl do prezidentského úřadu v roce 1963, po atentátu na Johna F. Kennedyho, a byl drtivě znovu zvolen v roce 1964. Na počátku svého funkčního období byl nesmírně populární, ale americká angažovanost ve Vietnamu, která během prezidentských administrativ neviditelně eskalovala oba Dwight D. Eisenhower a Kennedy, byli velmi viditelní rychle se zvyšujícím počtem obětí v USA, a jak se válka stala nepopularitou, tak to udělal i Johnson.

Volby v roce 1966 obnovily republikány jako velkou menšinu v Kongresu a sociální legislativa se zpomalila a soupeřila s vietnamskou válkou o dostupné peníze. Přes zákon o občanských právech (1964) a zákon o hlasovacích právech (1965) se mnoho afrických Američanů rozčarovalo pokrokem v oblasti občanských práv. Vzniklo tak hnutí „Black Power“, které zasáhlo Johnsonovu popularitu i mezi africkými Američany. Obecný nárůst trestné činnosti a sporadické násilí ve městech vyvolaly obavy v bílých komunitách. Reakce byla výzva k „právu a pořádku“, která se stala nejen otázkou, ale mnozí věřili, kódovým slovem pro afroamerickou represi.

Začátkem roku 1968 oznámil Michiganský republikánský guvernér George Romney svou kandidaturu na prezidentský úřad. Mnozí věřili, že guvernér New Yorku, Nelson Rockefeller, by mohl být také vyzývatelem, a George Wallace, bývalý demokratický guvernér Alabamy a segregacista během jeho funkčního období, začal naznačovat jeho zájem o kancelář. Mírové frakce a černí militanti hovořili o nominování svých vlastních kandidátů a opakování čtyřcestného závodu roku 1948 se zdálo možné.

Primary

In this setting, McCarthy, whose criticism of the administration on its Vietnam policies had become increasingly caustic, announced his candidacy for president and entered the New Hampshire primary—the first of the presidential primaries. Rockefeller denied that he was a candidate but said that he would accept a draft; 30 Republican leaders endorsed him. At this time Nixon, who had been Eisenhower’s vice president and who had narrowly lost to Kennedy in 1960, declared that new leadership could end the war; he announced his candidacy and entered the New Hampshire primary.

McCarthy was the only major Democrat on the New Hampshire ballot, but, shortly before the March 12 voting, Democratic regulars, alarmed by the effectiveness of McCarthy’s legion of young amateur campaign workers, mounted a desperate write-in campaign for the president. Johnson won 48 percent of the vote, but McCarthy, with 42 percent, won 20 of the 24 delegates. Nixon won the Republican primary; Romney, with polls indicating that he had little hope of winning, had withdrawn from the primary and the presidential race.

A few days later Robert F. Kennedy announced that he would enter the race on the Democratic side. On March 31 President Johnson stunned the country by announcing an end to the bombing of most of North Vietnam—and his decision not to seek reelection. Two days later McCarthy won a somewhat diluted triumph over the president in the Wisconsin primary.

The following Thursday, April 4, African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Grief and shock among African Americans turned to anger, which found expression in rioting and violence in more than 100 cities, leading many white voters to look more closely at Wallace, who was stressing “law and order” and promising to be on the ballot in 50 states.

After King’s funeral, McCarthy, unopposed, won a preferential primary but no delegates in Pennsylvania. However, he took all the delegates in the Massachusetts primary. The upset Republican winner in Massachusetts was Rockefeller, for whom a hasty write-in campaign had been contrived. Rockefeller beat Gov. John Volpe, who was on the ballot, and Richard Nixon, who was not, and reversed his decision not to run.

Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, took four weeks to assess his chances after Johnson’s withdrawal. Humphrey then declared his candidacy and hurriedly assembled an organization to hunt delegates. In the Indiana primary Kennedy defeated both McCarthy and Indiana Gov. Roger Branigan. He also won in Washington, D.C., and trounced McCarthy in Nebraska. In Oregon McCarthy won his only primary victory over an active opponent who was on the ballot, handing Kennedy his first election defeat and winning 45 percent of the vote to Kennedy’s 39 percent. The next week, on June 4, Kennedy scored a solid victory over McCarthy in California, but shortly after midnight, as the votes were still being counted, Kennedy was fatally shot.

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Nixon, meanwhile, won every Republican primary he entered; the Massachusetts write-in effort for Rockefeller was his only reverse. Rockefeller intensified his efforts and in mid-July finished a 44-state tour as his $3 million advertising campaign reached a peak.

Humphrey entered no primaries, but he was able to gain enough delegates in those states without primaries to give him apparent control over the convention. However, dissenters were taking an increasingly hard line against him and the administration. To ardent liberals, Humphrey—until recently denounced by rightists as a dangerous radical—was becoming the very image of the establishment.