Liberal Reform in the Nixon Administration

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Nixon’s 1968 Campaign Attempting to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, this poster includes the liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller and the conservative Barry Goldwater. While Nixon’s slogan “Champion of Forgotten America” spoke to whites alienated by Great Society programs for minorities and the poor, the poster’s inclusion of black Republican senator Edward Brooke and basketball player Wilt Chamberlain gave a nod to African Americans. © David J. & Janice L. Frent Collection/CORBIS

Opposition to civil rights measures, Great Society reforms, and protest groups—along with frustrations over the war in Vietnam (see “A Nation Polarized” in chapter 29)—delivered the White House to Republican Richard M. Nixon in 1968. Nixon attacked the Great Society for “pouring billions of dollars into programs that have failed” and promised to represent the “forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators.” Yet, his administration either promoted or accepted important elements of the liberal reform agenda, including greater federal assistance to the poor, new protections for women and minorities, and environmental reforms.