The 1968 US Presidential Election: Rotting from the head down

We Are History

Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell

History

4.9 • 802 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell present the not-so-serious podcast unravelling fascinating and down-right bizarre historical events. This time: They dive deep into the year American politics took a dark turn towards lies, divisiveness and criminality. As is said so often on this podcast; 'it could never happen now'. This is the bitterly fought American Election that set the modern tone with its controversy and dishonesty - and heralded the rise of the new right in America. Spoiler alert - Richard Nixon ends up as a preserved head in Futurama. Get all episodes a week early – when you support We Are History on Patreon: https://patreon.com/WeAreHistory “That guy off the chimp movie? No way!” – John O’Farrell “I am alone in the land of the aardvarks.” – Senator Eugene McCarthy “If there’s one thing I know about American politics, is that they don’t want a poet for president.” – Angela Barnes Reading List: An American Melodrama; the Presidential Campaign of 1968 by Lewis Chester, Geoffrey Hodgson and Bruce Page. We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell. Audio production by Simon Williams and artwork by James Parrett. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production. https://twitter.com/wearehistorypod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a brand spanking new series of We Are History with me Angela Barnes.
0:10.8	And me, John O'Farrell.
0:12.5	We're back, John.
0:14.4	So I've chosen today's subject, Angela.
0:16.7	You have indeed. What have you chosen, John?
0:19.2	Well, I chose this because I went to the theatre.
0:21.9	You did not. I did. I saw a play.
0:24.6	You're so calm.
0:25.9	This is how cultured I. It's quite different from going to a football match, you know.
0:29.4	You can't just shout at them for being shit.
0:31.3	Is that right?
0:32.4	Yeah, I was specifically asked. I was asked to stop doing that by the Asher's 10 minutes in. No, I just, of course, because it wasn't she, actually. It was a very good play. And the play I went to see was Best of Enemies by the prolific and very talented James Graham. And that was all about the TV debates between Gore Vidal and William Buckley during the run-up to the 1968 American
0:56.4	presidential election.
0:58.3	A pair of intellectuals coming from very different angles.
1:01.8	Yeah, can you mention it now?
1:03.0	Let's have two intellectuals talking for an hour about the principles of politics.
1:06.4	No, we just have Piers Morgan and someone from Love Island discussing politics now on G.B. News. That's the
1:11.7	nearest we've got to the Vidal-Buffly debates now. Exactly. But it made me realise what an incredible
1:17.4	and, whilst I was sitting there, you know, I realised what an incredible and important and very divisive
1:22.4	election that was. And it sort of set the tone. I think this is why James Graham chose it.
1:28.0	It set a tone in terms of its divisiveness and the rise of the right wing in America.
1:32.9	And there's just so much to talk about.
	...

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