How the hell did that happen!?

>>2177645
DC is like 85% Black, not sure about Massachusetts

>>2177645
I wonder too. Why couldn't people see Nixon is giant a meme?

Was it media blackout? Would he have won in the era of the Internet?

Nixon was already a fairly popular incumbent who was relatively centrist on domestic issues for a Republican and was negotiating detente with China.

McGovern got through the Democratic primaries with youth and activist support, but (thanks partially to smear campaigns by the Nixon campaign), was seen as a radical--the candidate of "amnesty, acid, and abortion", and many major labor unions (at the time the most important part of the Democratic coalition) withheld their support for him. In addition, it was leaked that his original running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was receiving electroshock therapy for depression, and he was forced off the ticket; this incident significantly harmed McGovern in the polls. Thus, he only won D.C. (blacks+white liberals) and Massachusetts (the most consistently Democratic state in the country since 1960)

>>2177666
>many major labor unions (at the time the most important part of the Democratic coalition) withheld their support for him
Why?

>>2177666
>relatively centrist on domestic issues for a Republican
M8 this is pre-reagan

>>2177678

Obviously the conservative movement was a lot weaker in 1972, but many Republicans did see Nixon as too moderate. They still voted for him. Reagan himself was already a national figure, having ran in 1968.

>>2177645
hunter s thompsons fault

>>2177666
Why is Massachusetts consistently Democratic? Is it because of Boston and all the Irish-American Catholics there?

>>2177808
>Massachusetts
Isn't it home to the Kennedys?

>>2177815
Yes, he was. What was Massachusetts like politically before the 1960's?

>>2177808

In part Boston, but Democrats have actually won every county in the state at a presidential level since 1992. There are both wealthy liberal areas, working-class mill towns, and the heavily Irish South Boston, and the western part of the state is more like Vermont.

>>2177820

Consistently Republican until 1928, heavily WASP and conservative. However, Catholic immigrants (especially Irish, Italians, and Portuguese) started to outnumber English Protestants, and in 1928, Catholics turned out in droves for Al Smith (the Democratic nominee, a Catholic who ran against Prohibition) and flipped Massachusetts and Rhode Island even as Smith lost in a landslide. It was closer to the national average in the New Deal era and voted for Eisenhower but permanently became a Democratic stronghold with Kennedy.

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36KB, 730x617px

>>2177808
I can't think of a single reason why.

As it turns out, literally everyone hates hippies.

>>2177652
People were tired of Vietnam. Nixon supported immediately pulling out of Vietnam.

>>2179945
Especially a Generation that had a lot of young people who used to be hippies in it.

>>2177645
>McGovern
like an ancap meme incarnate

Nixon played politics real hard during his campaign. That's pretty much it.