history help greatly appreciated?

Question

The 1970's were a time of political apathy. What caused this political apathy and malaise? Why had the American voters lost confidence in their leaders and government?

Answer 1

After JFK was shot, America was totally sick and tired of violence on the heels of the worst war ever. Assassination after assassination led to movements that to this day have had some interesting yet serious and even harmful repurcussion. Yet great things happened too (the Chicano movement participated in by my father led to my rights as an Hispanic citizen to be secured and I have not suffered the racism that happened to him).

"Apple pie Americanism" was certainly down in the 1970s but the above poster was right in that there was definitely not political apathy. The youth were concerned about their future. They knew that could be drafted at any time to go fight and didn't know what to do. In the 1970s, 18-year-olds got the right to vote, Watergate took down a president for the first time in American history and "outsiders" from Washington like Carter and Reagan began to take over.

Think of the 1970s as the "hippie movement" of the apple pie Americans who were so disgusted with the hippie movement itself. Grass-roots politics emerged in the 1970s and our society has not been the same since.

So although voting turnout may have gone down somewhat, political involvement went way up.

Answer 2

Apathy is the wrong term- basically, apathy is to not give *bleep*... The American people became very disenchanted with the government during the 1970's due to MANY things, but the two main complaints were Vietnam and Watergate.

Answer 3

Apathy? Hardly. I was there. There wouldn't have been such an outcry for Nixon's resignation if people were apathetic. I don't think there was ever a decade that so many people, especially young people, were involved in politics and political action. Voters lost confidence in corrupt leaders, sure, but not an interest in leadership and the political process.

Answer 4

After the sixties -- when college anti-war protestors were shot, some to death, by military "peace keepers" and with the Watergate scandle of the Nixon administration, all things government became suspect (not to mention the Jane Fonda incident in which she publically endorsed Socialism and condemned the American goverment as oppressive, misguided and dishonest). Add to that a movement in Hollywood that produced such films as THE DAY OF THE CONDOR, CATCH 22, MASH, THE RUNNING MAN, and a plethora of others, all dealing with the double dealing of
American government, people lost both faith in the democratic process and the importance of individual contribution.

Answer 5

~Ok, we had George McGovern and the fiasco with Tom Eagleton. We had Spiro Agnew resign in disgrace in '73, a year ahead of his boss in '74. We had Woodard and Bernstein and, thankfully, Deep Throat, chasing down the truth about Watergate and CREP, we had John Dean, we had Archibald Cox, we had Ramsey Clark, we had Jimmy Carter, we got the 26th amendment and the 18 year old vote, we had the SDS, the Weathermen, the SLA, the Panthers and AIM. Apathy? Malaise? What planet are you from?

Answer 6

Watergate

Vietnam

Answer 7

Vietnam,the ramping up of the drug war,Spiro and Tricky Dick