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by Glenn Peter Young (Author)
The Winning Words Vol III (covering from 1936, the Second FDR to 2020 Trump/Biden) looks at American presidential elections through the slogans used by all parties. This volume projects that Malcolm X's slogan of "by whatever means necessary" was more important than the any of the "official" presidential slogans used. Whether it was Richard Nixon's victories, the issues of Reagan's 1980 election, or Trump and the 2016 election, the controversies concerning the use of "by whatever means necessary" tactics are discussed.This evaluation contends that most modern presidential elections (mainly the Republican campaigns) took this Malcolm X slogan to heart. Therefore, the review of these elections often shows one side "playing within the rules" and the other side using "whatever means necessary." This difference of approach can alone account for the outcomes of several elections. In addition, this volume looks at the transition of the selection of a candidate from the very undemocratic process of the cliché of "eight men in a smoked filled room" to one in which every states now has an open process (primaries and caucuses) to select delegates to the national convention. The impacts of these new approaches, and how they run counter to the "whatever means" approach, is explored in detail. This volume also continues to cover three other themes that are present in other volumes. The first one is the internal n struggle between those who were "isolationist" and those who wanted a greater role for the United States in the world. The internal struggle has resulted in what is (almost) historical a unique role of the United States as "a reluctant nation" pressed into world leadership, and with much controversy concerning all the wars with which we have become involved. Another theme in these volumes is racism. However, this volume looks at how the new role of leader of the "Free World" came to overlap with traditional practices of American racism. While not to downplay the dynamic role of Black leaders, this volume covers how parties started to address racism through the prism of the Cold War. In these years American racism became an international issue and not just "a local concern." Television coverage of the repression of demonstrations only added to the international nature of things. Those who supported Civil Rights claimed that segregationist policies were "bad press" working against US interests. The pro-segregationist turned the issue by declaring it was Communist agitators who were "riling up the colored" to destroy America from within. They claimed that only through maintaining segregation could the nation fight against the communist. In this volume the issue concerning racism most addressed is voter repression; and the massive impacts on elections when and where Blacks could vote and when and where they could not. However, this work contends the most dominate and continuing factor in all these elections was the efforts of majority of voters - poorer whites - to preserve their position of power (by any means) that they obtained through the reforms of Andrew Jackson. Whatever the "issues of the movement," in all these elections, through to 2020, the dynamic of this white effort to preserve power is present. The last on-going theme is the messaging of the slogans. In this volume we see that there was a transition away from "idea" slogans to ones focused more on the candidates. The slogans switched from "A chicken in every pot," and a Fair or New Deal to that of "I like Ike" "JFK for the USA," "All the Way with LBJ" and "Nixon's the One." In recent elections there has been a shift back toward slogans of ideas "Hope" and "Change," "Stronger Together" and "Make America Great Again." The personal slogans made the "messaging" of the campaigns limited to basically saying our person is just better than theirs. The "idea slogans" have often led to far more lively elections and debates.
