Category Archives: Week 8: Youth and Anti-War Movement

George Wallace and Richard Nixon tapped into the stereotype of “elite doves” and “reactionary hardhats” for their political advantage by uniting a coalition of workers who were becoming disillusioned with the Democratic party. By pushing the narrative of Democrats being radically anti-war, anti-patriotic and elitist snobs, the rhetoric of Nixon and Wallace convinced this groupContinue reading “Two Doves, One Stone”

The elite doves are the people who are the anti-war activists, and the hard hats are the polar opposite. In the article, it talks about how President Nixon was getting backlash from both groups. The article says the hard hats said Nixon was a Democrat that might be peeled from the party. While Nixon wasContinue reading “Anti-War”

In “Hardhats Versus Elite Doves: Consolidation of the Image,” Penny Lewis asserts that the tension between the elite doves v. reactionary hardhats was more a stereotype than anything. Rather, the distaste of White working-class Americans for the antiwar protesters was not directly tethered to a disapproval of their message. Following the 1968 antiwar protest thatContinue reading “Nixon & the Silent Majority”

The anti-war protests held in the U.S. against the Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early 1970s had a more significant trajectory on American democracy than many realize. How people believed in this war, and how others opposed it, was used as a tool for political campaigning. During this time, diversity within the working-class,Continue reading “The White Working-Class American–To Sympathize or Not to Sympathize With, That Is The Question”

Nixon would create a divide between the working class and the new college educated white collar class. The working class were the blue-collar laborers and workers who worked in jobs such as construction. These “hardhats” as they were known would gain the name during the hardhat riots of 1970 when construction workers clashed with antiwarContinue reading “Hardhats and Doves: Political Realignment”

Lewis’ argument that the classes of “doves” and “hardhats” being more stereotypes than anything holds a large amount of weight. Nixon’s weaponization of those stereotypes to his advantage shows a level of understanding of them that isn’t prevalent with real life and is typically only found in stereotypes. With surveillance and domestic security ramped up,Continue reading “Made to Raise the Flag: Doves and Hardhats in 1970’s America”

What Wallace did was portray working class voters as the victims of liberal overreach. They set themselves as the hero’s for those that felt underrepresented, like those that felt  alienated by the anti-war protesters. Richard Nixon focused on law and order. The populist rhetoric resonated for those that saw anti- war protesters as disconnected fromContinue reading “Working class”

As with all conflicts, the Vietnam War had groups of people that either didn’t support it or wanted it to continue. This divide between the anti-war protesters and the war propagators led to certain stereotypes emerging for both sides that were used to either benefit or destroy political constituents and parties. During the late 1960s,Continue reading “Politics, class issues, and the Vietnam War”

The Vietnam War era remains as a pivotal moment in American political and cultural history, often framed through a binary of working class “hardhats” vs elite antiwar protestors. Penny Lewis, in Hardhats vs Elite Doves, dismantles this overly simplistic narrative and argues that the reality was far more complex than what has been depicted. WhileContinue reading “Workers, War and the Myth”

In the late 1960s, a stereotype came to life about the Vietnam War, dividing Americans into two groups: “elite doves” who opposed the war and “reactionary hardhats” who supported it. But this narrative wasn’t entirely accurate. The white working class was actually more anti-war than people assumed, while non-working-class tended to be more pro-war. DespiteContinue reading “War at Home: Stereotypes”