Manufacturing concern: Inside Richard Nixon’s “law and order” campaign

Abstract

With a view to contributing to an in-depth understanding of political engagement with public opinion about crime or cognate issues in the United States, this article dissects how Richard Nixon and his inner circle dealt with citizens’ views on what he collectively termed “law and order,” both during his 1968 presidential campaign and his first term in office. Based on novel data from heretofore unused or otherwise underused archival sources, the article lends concrete support to a notion which prior works have asserted without sufficient evidence, dismissed as a conspiracy theory, or, more recently, attempted to revise; namely, that Nixon’s “law and order” messaging was meant to manipulate the public so as to reap electoral dividends for him. In the process of so doing, the article investigates a series of previously understudied themes and the ways in which they intersect: Whose views exactly did Nixon try to shape to his advantage? Which strategy did he follow and what precise means did he use? And how effective were his efforts? It is shown that Nixon targeted both the white majority at large and discrete sections of it: his conservative base, disaffected Democrats, and blue-collar immigrants from Europe who lived around black urban ghettos. With each and every one of his target groups, Nixon engaged in an effort to manufacture concern over “law and order,” itself an assemblage of issues through which he hoped to improve his leadership image in a dual sense: strength of purpose and attentiveness to public will. Unlike what is commonly assumed, Nixon’s “law and order” ploys were limited in their success.