The recent article on conservatives at Princeton correctly noted that 1964 was the first election in which a Democrat prevailed in the Daily Princetonian polling. Four years earlier, at least some cracks emerged in the Republican hegemony. As a senior, I watched the candidates’ debates in the TV room at Quad. During the second one, Nixon went on in his sing song voice about children being held up to see the president, and I heard repeated cries of “Ugh!” and “Shut up, Nixon!” Those weren’t coming from the small Democratic minority. I was hearing votes change; one friend, a diehard suburban Chicago Republican, told me later that he couldn’t stop himself from voting for Kennedy. Straws in the wind.
The recent article on conservatives at Princeton correctly noted that 1964 was the first election in which a Democrat prevailed in the Daily Princetonian polling. Four years earlier, at least some cracks emerged in the Republican hegemony. As a senior, I watched the candidates’ debates in the TV room at Quad. During the second one, Nixon went on in his sing song voice about children being held up to see the president, and I heard repeated cries of “Ugh!” and “Shut up, Nixon!” Those weren’t coming from the small Democratic minority. I was hearing votes change; one friend, a diehard suburban Chicago Republican, told me later that he couldn’t stop himself from voting for Kennedy. Straws in the wind.