Making America Right the Multiple False Starts of the Conservative Movement and How It Took Over America (1940- 1969)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MAKING AMERICA RIGHT THE MULTIPLE FALSE STARTS OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND HOW IT TOOK OVER AMERICA (1940- 1969) Denis Savage Master’s thesis Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication [TYPE THE MAKING AMERICA SIDEBAR RIGHT TITLE] THE MULTIPLE FALSE STARTS OF THE [Type the sidebar CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND HOW IT content. A sidebar is a TOOK OVER AMERICA (1940-1969) standalone supplement to the Denis Savage main document. It is Master’s Thesis History of Society often aligned on the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication left or right of the Erasmus University Rotterdam page, or located at the top or bottom. Date: 12-02-2017 Use the Drawing Student Number: 459898 Tools tab to change Contact: [email protected] the formatting of the sidebar text box.] Reference style: Chicago Supervisor: prof.dr. Ben Wubs Second Reader: dr. Robbert-Jan Adriaansen Cover artwork: William F. Buckley RIP Cartoonist: Nate Beeler https://www.cagle.com/nate-beeler/2008/02/william-f-buckley-rip 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Research Question ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 9 1.3 Key Concepts ................................................................................................................................. 9 1.4 Historiography ............................................................................................................................. 13 1.5 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 2: From Dire Beginnings .......................................................................................................... 18 2.1 The rise of Robert Taft ................................................................................................................. 19 2.2 One step forward and two steps back ........................................................................................ 28 2.3 The dramatic rise and public fall of McCarthyism ....................................................................... 28 2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 3: The Radical Rebirth of Conservatism................................................................................... 37 3.1 The extreme conscience of conservatism ................................................................................... 38 3.2 Conservatism’s Watershed Moment ........................................................................................... 43 3.3 The infamous 1964 election ........................................................................................................ 45 3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 4: A United Conservatism ........................................................................................................ 53 4.1 The Catholic Conversion of Conservatism ................................................................................... 55 4.2 National Review and the Revival of Conservatism ...................................................................... 60 4.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 5: Solidifying the Conservative Brand ...................................................................................... 72 5.1 Pruning the conservative garden ................................................................................................ 73 5.2 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 6: Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 81 Primary Sources ..................................................................................................................................... 85 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 89 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Ben Wubs for his constant guidance, constructive feedback and support throughout the process. More importantly, I would like to thank him for his extreme patience with my labour some approach. It is often said, that one should never forget your roots. With that in mind, I would like to thank all my prior teachers, who played a part in cultivating my love and pursuit of knowledge, with the future Dr. Alan McCarthy playing a pivotal and influential part. To all my friends, wherever you maybe across the globe, thank you for all the support you have offered me throughout the years. To those in Ireland, seeing everyone pursue and achieve their goals, gave me motivation to better myself. To all those in the Netherlands, thank you for being the often much needed external respite. And a massive thank you, to all those who helped me with my thesis, I will forever be grateful. To my fellow appreciators of Newaza, thank you for helping make me a better person. For the lessons you taught me for both on and off the mats. To my employers, thank you for being flexible enough to allow me to pursue a masters. In particular, Paddy Murphy’s, as without them, I would not have been able to continue my Dutch adventure. Lastly, I would like to express how indebted I am to the love and support offered by my family. I hope with this thesis, I can have done the family proud. To my father, Pat, I hope that you are able to live vicariously through this. Everything I am and do, I owe it to you. 3 To my mother, Eileen, thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Even through adversity, you have provided unconditional love. To my sister, Niamh, you are my inspiration to work harder. An eternal source of pride. 4 Chapter 1: Introduction On the 8th of November 2016, there was a seismic change in American politics, one that left academics, politicians, journalists and the world dumbfounded. This anomalous event was the election of Donald Trump as the 45th American president. The following day, the liberal British-American journalist, Richard Wolffe, wrote in The Guardian that Donald Trump’s victory is nothing short of a revolution where an era that stretches back to Franklin D Roosevelt just came to an abrupt and ugly end.1 No longer was the United States an expansive, outward-looking, globalist power, instead, it had now definitively turned inward.2 Political experts quickly scrambled to find an explanation for Trump’s electoral victory. Placing it in a global perspective, where the 2016 presidential election campaign in the United States reflects the phenomenon of populism. The populism preached by Donald Trump was based on the premise that because he was an outsider to the world of politics, it was he that would best serve to interests of ordinary Americans disgusted with the corrupt establishment, incompetent politicians, dishonest Wall Street speculators, arrogant intellectuals, and politically correct liberals.3 Or more eloquently put by Trump’s campaign slogan, he promised to Drain the Swamp.4 Yet, such claims of Trump’s election being a revolution, run contrary to how the word is defined in dictionaries.5 While it may have been revolutionary that a reality tv-star and property magnate was elected president of America, it is a stretch to say that Trump's election was revolutionary, considering he merely utilised a platform provided to him by the conservative movement in America. During the pandemonium of Trump's election and in the intervening time since he assumed office, the pivotal role that the conservative movement played in his victory was 1 Richard Wolffe, “Donald Trump’s victory is nothing short of a revolution,” The Guardian, 9 November 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-victory-us-election-result-revolution (accessed July 25, 2017). 2 Ibid. 3 Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, "Trump, Brexit, and the rise of populism: Economic have-nots and cultural backlash," HKS Working Paper, No. RWP16-026 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2818659 (accessed August 15, 2017). 4Julie Bykowicz, “Donald Trump’s pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ and ban lobbyists complicates administration hiring,” Independent, 17 November 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-lobbyist-ban-complicates-administration-hiring-a7422156.html (accessed August 12, 2017). 5According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a revolution is defined as ‘a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system’ or ‘a dramatic and wide-reaching change in conditions, attitudes or operations. "Revolution - Definition Of Revolution In