Wallace in Wisconsin: The Presidential Primary of 1964 History Essay

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Wallace in Wisconsin: The Presidential Primary of 1964
In the article Wallace in Wisconsin: The Presidential Primary of 1964, Haney was trying to show that Wallace votes signified a bigger problem in the American political landscape. At the time, it was thought that the issue of segregation and civil rights was pertinent to the south, but given the number won by Wallace in Wisconsin, it was evident that the issue was also in the north. Just like Lyndon B. Johnson and Reynolds had underestimated Wallace and his far-right ideologies. A significant part of the electorate opposed the civil rights, and Reynolds stand on the housing policy in Wisconsin, and it was reflected on the ballot by voting for Wallace. Some of Wallace’s votes were protest votes, and evidently, party loyalty was secondary to the civil rights and open housing proposals of Reynolds. Secondly, the supporters of the segregation movement championed by Wallace during the primaries were not pertinent to any specific party but a representation of the electorate’s take on the two primary issues in the elections; housing and civil rights. Wallace got some Democratic and Republican votes, and therefore the subscribers of his ideologies were diverse. This very notion that his supporters were diverse in the north prompted Wallace to run for president in 1968.
Haney’s viewpoint was that the issue and challenge of civil rights and race relations were not southern in scope and it was reflected by the overwhelming support Wallace got in Wisconsin, a northern state. His viewpoint paints America as a country divided nationally and where politicians use controversial issues to seek political mileage. Haney uses the Wallace case to show that the issues dividing Americans transcend their party affiliations and though they may be painted as regional, they are indeed national in scope. Secondly, his viewpoint colors his argument that some of the overlooked issues can snowball if left unchecked. Wallace was not a worthy candidate at the beginning, and his policies and ideas seemed absurd to the seasoned politicians who believed their policies were superior, but he managed to win a significant chunk of the electorate.
From the article, one notes some of the specific examples and statistics that Haney uses to support his claims. To show that Wallace was indeed winning and his rhetoric was being adopted among the Democrats and the Republicans, he makes use of s...