Donald Trump Is Worse Than George Wallace, According to a Guy Who'd Know After all, he's seen them both.
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By Charles P. Pierce
Mar 14, 2016
There was a lot of talk over the weekend about the similarities between the campaign of He, Trump, and the campaign events once held during the several presidential campaigns of the late George Corley Wallace. (It's important to remember that Wallace ran for president four times; even after he was shot, the last time he ran was from a wheelchair in 1976.) Many of the themes seem identical, as does the general atmosphere in the halls. But we needed an expert opinion, so I got in touch with the great Curtis Wilkie, one of the best political reporters who ever lived (buy this immediately), and who is now warping young minds in the best possible way at the Overby Center For Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss. He also runs one hellacious tailgate in The Grove on football Saturdays.
Regular visitors to this shebeen may recall Wilkie as one of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's running buddies during the 1972 presidential campaign, and he also is a lead character in Tim Crouse's essential The Boys on the Bus, the more sober-sided account of the press coverage of that same election. (An aside: every problem with elite political journalism that Crouse identified in that book has grown worse in the ensuing 44 years.) At one point in the latter book, according to Crouse, Wilkie sees violence break out at a Nixon rally and is reminded of the kind of thing that regularly occurred when he was covering Wallace campaigns in the South. So, I asked him for his opinion about what we're seeing at rallies of He, Trump these days. He replied:
The incipient violence at Trump events, judging from TV, is very reminiscent of Wallace rallies. Wallace used the press as foils. He threatened to run over any demonstrators lying in front of his parades. I remember a rally in Boston in 1976 at the old Statler Hotel, during the busing turmoil, where a lone heckler in the balcony got the crap beat out of him while the crowd cheered. Wallace took the mic to demand attention. He said something like, "I'm the main attraction. That fellow up there, he's just an undecided voter." For all the edge, it was apparent to the press that Wallace was game-playing and he never was a real threat to win a nomination. Something about Trump seems a bit more sinister. Maybe a better comparison is Hitler.
More sinister than George Wallace, says a man who knows. If that doesn't give you pause, I don't know what will.
Poster Comment:
The country is ready for Trump. It was not ready for Wallace.