THE MAKING OF A NATION 221 - Election of 1976

THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 28, 2002: Election of 1976

By Jerilyn Watson

VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history
of the United States.

(THEME)

Today, we tell about the presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six.

VOICE ONE:

When Vice¹ President Gerald Ford² became president in nineteen-seventy-four, he took office during a crisis. For
the first time in American history, a president -- Richard Nixon -- had resigned.

He resigned as a result of the case known as Watergate. It involved the cover-up of illegal activities. Officials in
Richard Nixon's administration had lied about Watergate. They also had misled the public about the war in
Vietnam.

VOICE TWO:

After Vietnam and Watergate, many Americans no longer believed their public officials. At this difficult time,
Gerald Ford dealt with the public calmly and honestly. In one speech, for example, he said, "The state of the
Union is not good."

One political observer said President Ford brought respect back to the government. Yet just a
little more than two years after Ford became president, American voters rejected him. In the
presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six, they chose the Democratic candidate, Jimmy
Carter, instead. Why?

VOICE ONE:

One reason was that Ford had pardoned Nixon. He announced a
presidential pardon for any crimes for which Nixon might have
been responsible. This made many people angry. Another reason
was that Ford refused to give federal money to New York and
other cities with special needs. Many voters felt this showed that he was not
concerned about poor people and their problems.

Others believe that unemployment and inflation defeated Gerald Ford. He was not
able to deal effectively with these problems during his short presidency³.

For these reasons, there was competition for the Republican Party nomination⁴ in

nineteen-seventy-six. Ford's chief opponent was Ronald Reagan, governor of
California.

VOICE TWO:

The Democratic Party thought that voter anger about Watergate would help the Democratic candidate become
president. Eleven Democrats⁵ campaigned for the nomination. Two well-known politicians did not campaign. But
they said they would serve if no other candidate won the party's support. They were former Vice President Hubert
Humphrey and Senator Edward Kennedy.

September 8, 1974: Ford
announces pardon of Nixon.

VOICE ONE:

One of the lesser-known candidates was the former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Political experts gave
him little chance of winning the nomination, because most Democrats did not know him. Whenever his
supporters talked about him, others always seemed to say, "Jimmy, who?"

Carter used this problem to help win more recognition. Whenever he met voters, he would say, "Hello! I am
Jimmy Carter, and I am running for president."

VOICE TWO:

People liked Jimmy Carter. Before becoming governor of Georgia, he had been a nuclear engineer and a peanut
farmer. Again and again, he told people that he was not part of the established political power system in
Washington. He also had strong religious beliefs. This appealed to a lot of Americans.

Many voters supported Carter in the local Democratic primary elections before the party's nominating
convention. His victory in the Florida primary was especially important. He defeated another southern politician,
Governor George Wallace of Alabama.

VOICE ONE:

Carter represented what was called the "New South" in the United States. He made it clear that he opposed ideas
of the "Old South". These included racial separation and mistreatment of black Americans.

George Wallace spoke⁶ of creating a better life for both blacks and whites. Yet he had strongly defended racial
separation for most of his political life. Many people remembered pictures of Governor Wallace at the University
of Alabama in nineteen-sixty-three. The pictures showed him blocking the door to prevent two young blacks
from attending the school.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

The Republican primaries had mixed results for President Ford. In New Hampshire, he won only fifty-one
percent of the vote. Ronald Reagan won forty-nine percent. It was a poor showing for a president in office. But in
Massachusetts he got two votes for every one vote that Reagan got.

Reporters said Ford and Reagan debated about issues that were not very important or interesting. The campaign
did show, however, that Reagan was more conservative than Ford.

For example, Reagan talked strongly about United States control of the Panama Canal. "We built it," he said.
"We paid for it. And we are going to keep it." In his campaign speeches, Ford denounced extremism. It was clear
he was speaking about Reagan.

VOICE ONE:

Ford and Reagan won almost the same amount of support in the Republican primaries. Yet many convention
delegates remained undecided. This was a dangerous situation for the Republican Party. Party leaders did not
want a fight over undecided votes at the nominating convention. Such disunity could damage the chances of the
party's candidate against the Democratic candidate in the general election.

VOICE TWO:

The situation was similar in the Democratic Party. As support for Jimmy Carter increased, Democrats who did
not like him began to say, "Anybody but Carter." But Carter was not to be stopped. He kept repeating that he did
not have ties to groups that tried to influence government policies. He would be different, he said. And that
sounded like what the people wanted.

VOICE ONE:


Carter won the Democratic primaries in Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana. The other candidates fell hopelessly

behind.
At the party convention, he was nominated on the first vote. In his acceptance speech, he repeated the line he had
made famous: "I am Jimmy Carter. And I am running for president." Carter said there was a fear that America's
best years were over. He said the nation's best was still to come.

The Democratic convention chose Walter Mondale, a senator from Minnesota, to be the party's vice presidential
candidate.

VOICE TWO:
A month before the Republican Party convention, Ronald Reagan made a costly⁷ political mistake. He said that -
-
if he won the nomination -- he would want Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be the vice presidential
candidate.

Conservatives were angry, because Schweiker was a liberal Republican. Some political observers say this is why

Reagan lost the nomination to President Ford. Ford won by one-hundred-seventeen votes.
Many of the delegates then wanted Reagan to be the party's vice presidential candidate. But Reagan was not
interested. Instead, the nomination went to Senator Robert Dole⁸ of Kansas.

((MUSIC BRIDGE)
)
VOICE ONE:
The general campaign started in September nineteen-seventy-six. In one speech, President Ford said, "The

question in this campaign is not who has the better vision of America. The question is who will act to make the

vision a reality.
"
Political experts said that what happened during the next two months was uninteresting. One newspaper said the
campaign left the voters feeling sleepy.

Ford and Carter agreed to debate each other on television. Nobody had done that since Nineteen-Sixty, when
Richard Nixon and John Kennedy held several television debates.

VOICE TWO:
Many people thought Ford did a little better than Carter in the first debate. In the second debate, however,
President Ford made a mistake. He said the Soviet⁹ Union did not control eastern Europe -- and never would in
a
Ford administration. For some voters, the statement added to their belief that President Ford was not very
intelligent.

The third debate did not have a clear winner. Public opinion studies showed that many voters were still
undecided.

VOICE ONE:
The race for the presidency was very close. Jimmy Carter won with fifty-one percent of the popular vote.
President Ford won forty-eight percent.

Two years before, most Americans had not known Jimmy Carter's name. Now, many of those same people had
elected him the thirty-ninth president of the United States.
(THEME)
VOICE TWO:
This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written nu Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson.


This is Richard Rael.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history

of the United States.

 

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1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

4 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

8 dole   

n.救济，（失业）救济金；vt.（out）发放，发给

参考例句：

• It's not easy living on the dole.靠领取失业救济金生活并不容易。
• Many families are living on the dole since the strike.罢工以来，许多家庭靠失业救济金度日。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。