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Welcome to the commentary magazine Daily Podcast today is Monday, May 3rd 2021.

I am John Puthore, editor of commentary. I am bereft today of my usual omnidirectional microphone or unidirectional microphone.

What is it? No, it's a some kind of directional mic.

I think they're all uni.

Okay, so it's a uni directional microphone that I usually have and I'm now taking you straight through my microphone in my MacBook.

So if I sound different, I apologize that of course the voice you heard was that of our producer and associate editor of commentary, Noah Rothman, Hanoah.

And also with us of course, senior writer Christine Rosen, Hi Christine.

Hi John.

That executive editor, Abe Greenwald. Hi Abe.

Hi John.

So on November 3rd 1969, Richard Nixon, who had ascended to the presidency by half a percentage point over Hubert Humphrey with a scam 43.5% of the vote,

gave a speech from the Oval Office that came to be known historically as the silent majority speech. And mostly the speech was about Vietnam and about the attitude of the American people toward the war in Vietnam.

But the speech had a larger historical meaning and context that we can get to because I want to ask everybody you guys and then our listeners, the question of whether we are heading into another period in which what Nixon brilliantly called, I think it was the right array price.

I'm not sure came up with the phrase the silent majority. Okay, here's what he said. Okay, quote.

This by the way, I bring this up because this was this was by leagues. This was one of the most successful presidential speeches ever given after it was given.

White House received millions of telegrams of support and it was the first real indication that Nixon, who again had sort of won in a weird way, there was a split in the right because George Wallace had run

a third party and three years after this, almost to the day, three years after this speech, Nixon got almost 62% of the vote.

George, from govern 37% of the vote, it was a second largest landslide in American history. And this speech told the reason in part that Nixon won that overwhelming majority as you'll hear.

Okay, here's what he said. I know it may not be fashionable to speak of patriotism or national destiny these days, but I feel it is appropriate to do so on this occasion.

200 years ago, this nation was weak and poor, but even then America was the hope of billions in the world.

Today, we have become the strongest and richest nation in the world and the wheel of destiny has turned so that any hope the world has for the survival of peace and freedom will be determined by whether the American people have the moral, stamina and the courage to meet the challenge of free world leadership.

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