Joe Phalon

Phalon Files

All this has happened before. Yes, the country is divided, but it’s not the first time. The very nature of our form of governance calls for there to be differences along with discussion and discourse.

Most of the time those differences have been abstract. Polls delineate where people stand. And there might be water-cooler talk over, say, a tax cut, but that was usually the extent of it.

Now we have people painting white lines down the middle of their living rooms. The Spite Fence is making a comeback. Opinions are so strong—and now so localized—they are affecting families, neighborhoods and workplaces.

You’d really have to go back to Richard Nixon to find a political force of nature similar to Donald Trump.

The Vietnam War and the unease of Communism had polarized the nation. Like the issue of terrorism today, anxieties were stoked by the Red Menace of Communism in the 1950s and 60s. There were and are legitimate concerns and fears over both issues. And there were those who would exploit those fears for personal or political gain.

Nixon had burst onto the scene as a finger-pointing opponent of Communism, and Dwight Eisenhower reluctantly named him his vice presidential pick.

He won a term of his own as president in 1968 in a close election. By then the U.S. was mired in Vietnam, but because of results of decisions made by Democrats. Mass demonstrations, which often turned violent, were directed at the Democrats, not the Republicans. Nixon had promised to end the war, and bring us “Peace with honor” and beat the Democrat establishment’s pick, Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

But the war drug on, and Nixon had to take ownership of it. By 1972, an upstart wing of the party helped Sen. George McGovern overcome the party establishment and become the nominee.

This was a dramatic match-up between an unabashed liberal who promised a quick withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam and a moderately conservative Republican who promoted “law and order,” a code word in those days meant minorities, but also included those “long-haired hippies,” protesting the war.

A bumper sticker could lead to your neighbor turning his back on you. Not only the length of your hair, but your sideburns, too, indicated where you stood on the political spectrum.

And I thought George McGovern was the greatest thing since, well, the greatest thing. I was only about 12 so I hadn’t really set benchmarks in my life yet.

My friends and I were definitely in the minority in our little suburban town. We handed out McGovern brochures in front of the local supermarket. We were met with mild amusement and bewilderment by people exiting the store. “Do your parents know what you are doing?” was asked more than once.

McGovern—a hero pilot of World War 2—was trounced, or course. And we all know what fate awaited Nixon.

And the rest of us survived our differences. And we will again.