American Independent Party?

[Fuzzy Bear]

One of the problems with the American Independent Party was that they weren't a party; they were a vehicle for Wallace and little more.  They did represent a different viewpoint from the major parties, however, and if they had fielded Congressional candidates in the South that were serious they may have had significant impact.

The biggest difference was NOT race; it was Wallace's super-hawkish viewpoint on the Vietnam War.  It was part of Wallace's appeal beyond the South; that, and a strong posture against the counterculture.  The 1968 Wallace campaign involved racists and Wallace had been an avowed segregationist (or at least taken that posture), but the 1968 Wallace campaign was not about segregation; it was about winning in Vietnam, ending crime and civil disorder domestically, and challenging the counterculture that many Middle Americans who were not necessarily conservatives or reactionaries were offended by.  This is not an endorsement of Wallace's campaign, but Wallace in 1968, unlike Thurmond in 1948, was truly a national campaign.