Political Parties - The Reagan Revolution | 6

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2018

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The year 1968 marked a watershed in American politics. Anti-war protests were roiling the country. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead in Memphis. Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s approval rating was plummeting. The assassination of Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy would throw the party into disarray, toppling the New Deal coalition built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt two generations earlier and leading to a conservative surge.

The political sea change would drive Republican nominee Richard Nixon to the White House in 1968. And it would eventually elect a former actor and California governor who would change the face of American politics in ways that are still being felt to this day. His name was Ronald Reagan.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:07.0	Imagine it's around noon on May 17, 1968.
0:20.6	You're an anti-war activist in Caitonville, Maryland.
0:24.6	You and a group of eight others have just arrived at the Knights of Columbus building
0:28.2	on the west side of town.
0:29.8	It's a two-story building with white siding and peaked windows at the front.
0:33.9	The local office of the Selective Service is on the building's second floor.
0:38.2	You're standing in a small circle at the foot of an exterior staircase that leads up
0:42.0	to the second floor entrance.
0:43.8	The group's leader, Father Daniel Barrigan, takes a moment to look everyone carefully
0:47.8	in the eye.
0:48.8	Now remember, don't speak a word unless you absolutely have to.
0:53.3	If anyone attempts to interfere, Father Philip and I will take care of it.
0:57.3	You just focus on gathering the files.
1:00.3	Carrying a wire basket in your hand, you follow the others up the stairs and into the building.
1:05.4	The office is down the hall and on the right, and you follow Father Daniel through the door.
1:10.2	Inside, the clerk looks up to greet you.
1:12.6	Good afternoon.
1:13.6	Can I help you with something, Father?
1:15.8	Father Daniel doesn't respond.
1:17.8	Instead, he walks past the clerk's desk and straight for a row of filing cabinets.
	...

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