LECTURE: THE RISE OF WHITE ETHNICS

By 1968 the term "Establishment" expanded from small tight-knit group for foreign policy/military/corp officials

As more and more Americans were being defined as ESTABLISHMENT

Millions of Americans on both the left and the right said,

Hey, don’t blame me:  IM not part of the establishment!

We will talk about one example: a U.S. senator

Growing just as fast as antiwar sentiment was a challenge to the establishment form the RIGHT

They charged that the establishment had been taken over by liberals

That is what JOE is all about

In his mind, he is simply reasserting the rights of the American white working class

                        These liberals had forgotten the working man

Cared too much about African Americans, Vietnamese civillians, even equal rights for women

In Canarsie, White Ethnics repurposed some of the same tactics AND agendas as the civil rights movement and black power – they demanded THEIR rights; they demanded control of THEIR schools

They rediscover their own ethnic bonds, and claim that this is crucial source of social solidarity.

They claim that social science is on their side: government programs destroy traditional sources of social solidarity, like the family

Social engineering has unintended consquences

These white ethnics were perhaps most enflamed by the symbols of the counterculture

Hated its sneering attitude towards, family, flag, patriotism

 

 

LECTURE: 1968, Leaving Nam and 1968, a Year Drenched in Blood

Where things in Vietnam stood in 1965

Nixon's plan for Vietnam in 1968

Congress votes to defund the war in 1973

Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam in 1975

A preview of the next two weeks

Back to 1968: A Year Drenched in Blood

Many reasons for this

Crime rate is rising

Riots

Political assassination

Violence in Vietnam is brought home

Some in the protest state sought to expose the STATE as violent – provoke

more importantly, violence brought home in media coverage, and day to day examples that penetrate peoples lives

From the left, looked like progressive change had stalled

From the Right, it looked like reform had unleashed chaos

Both the left and the right blamed the ESTABLISHMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Wallace becomes the political poster child for white ethnics like Joe

Both politically, and culturally, Wallace captures their critique of and establishment that had been captured by liberals

An establishment that spit on traditional values of family, law and order, patriotism

Even U.S. Senators claim they are running against the establishment

Attacking the Establishment from the Right

imposing the costs of liberal social programs on the white working class

"Forced Bussing"

Forging White Ethnic Identity

Michael Novak and the "Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics

Neoconservative social scientists and unintended consquences of social policy

The counterculture cuts both ways

George Wallace's appeal to white ethnics