University of Virginia Library

Colloquium

Racist Hatred Game Played By Wallace

By KEVIN MANNIX

The returns are in and
decency and justice seem to be
the real losers in the Florida
primary. Remember George
Wallace? He's the man who
stood in the schoolhouse door
to prevent integration in
Alabama. He's also the winner
in the Florida primary. That
doesn't say much for the
people of the state of Florida.

Certainly some of Wallace's
supporters are decent people
who really believe he's on the
side of the little man and who
really believe he's just against
the government telling people
what to do. Yet one must
question the true
motives-conscious or
subconscious-of many of the
supporters of George Wallace.

Demagoguery

Throughout his public
career Wallace has used
political demagoguery as his
main tool. He preys on the
fears and hatreds of the
American people. He appeals
to all that is low and base in all
of us. Yet he knows how to do
it without making it obvious.

If you substitute words
while implying the same thing
you can get a lot of support
from people who are unwilling
to admit their reasons to
themselves. Busing is not an
issue over a method of
integrating schools; it is an
issue over government-fostered
integration itself when
Wallace talks about it.

Railing

When he rails against big
government you know that
he's not talking about the
Defense Department; he's
talking about integration and
equal opportunity fostered by
the Federal government. It is
noteworthy that 21% of the
voters in Florida actually voted
against equal educational
opportunity in the straw
ballot. That is the base George
Wallace is building upon.

Yet we all know that
Wallace won't win the
Democratic nomination. There
still are enough decent,
intelligent Democratic voters
around to prevent that-I
believe. His gambit is becoming
clear: he wants to force the
other Democratic contenders
to play his racist hatred game.

Yet, when the results were
in Edmund Muskie made it
clear that he will not play the
game; his eloquent statement
pointing out what Wallace
really stands for is an example
which should be followed by
all candidates. When Muskie
stated that he hated what
Wallace stood for Muskie laid
the issue on the line.

As for the other results,
Humphrey, by coming in
second, has strengthened his
candidacy. Henry Jackson's
close third also keeps him in
contention. Muskie's
fourth-place ranking can be
expected to some extent,
considering the fact that
Humphrey and Jackson
devoted all, their time to
Florida while Muskie had to
campaign in New Hampshire.

Narrow

John Lindsay's narrow
victory over George McGovern
for fifth place is not too clear,
either, considering the fact that
Lindsay spent much more
money and time in Florida
than McGovern. Finally,
Shirley Chisholms 4% vote tally
was better than expected and
proves that the fiery
Congresswoman is a candidate
worth watching.

Yet one cannot, again,
ignore George Wallace's
showing. He won, and there's
no question about it. It's too
bad that the American people
who support him don't look at
the mediocre job he has done
as Governor of Alabama.

Little Man

If he was really concerned
about the little man, he would
do something to improve the
lot of the citizens of his state.
He's more interested in using
the Governorship as a
launching pad for the
Presidency than as a base for
helping the people he professes
to care about.

A few words are in order
regarding the concern
expressed by some national
commentators about the large
number of Democratic
candidates and the fact that
the Democratic Party has no
clear leader in the race for the
nomination. I don't know what
they're so worried about. All
this plethora of candidates
proves is that the Democratic
Party is more open than
before. The participation by
the people will make the
difference.

There seems to be a
presumption that the
candidates will not get behind
the final nominee in November
in order to beat Nixon; that
presumption is not valid, since
in the eyes of many Democrats
just about any Democrat is
better than Richard Nixon. I
cannot imagine George
McGovern, John Lindsay,
Edmund Muskie, Shirley
Chisholm, Hubert Humphrey, or
even Henry Jackson sitting on
the sidelines while any
Democratic contender save
George Wallace ran against
Nixon.

The nomination process is
open enough this year so that
no candidate can claim to have
been "cheated" out of the
nomination and that's the real
key to the fall campaign. I
predict that the Democratic
Party will be more united than
ever come this November and
it will because everyone truly,
had a say about who the
nominee would be.