The Divisive President: Richard Nixon, the Silent Majority, and Divisions on the Right

Richard Nixon’s Silent Majority rhetoric of the late 1960s helped make him a popular president among many conservative activists and grassroots supporters. To these individuals, Nixon was standing up for what they believed in and opposed the hegemonic liberal protest movement of the 1960s. Nixon had promised Americans a restoration of order, structure, and most importantly, “peace with honor” in Vietnam. To many conservatives, Nixon was going to bring back the America of old. Despite this grassroots support for Nixon, in August 1971, twelve conservative intellectual leaders met in a Manhattan hotel room to officially plan their opposition to Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. They planned on drafting a dark horse candidate to run in the Republican Primary against the sitting president. This plan backfired and helped drive a brief—but understudied and very important—wedge between the grassroots conservative and the right’s leadership. This paper will explore how the Silent Majority rhetoric helped draw grassroots conservatives into Nixon’s sphere of influence, against the wishes of the right’s intellectual leaders. It will also explain why this change is important for historians of the conservative movement to understand.