George Wallace at the end of his life

[Adlai Stevenson]

I'm not sure where to post this thread but in any case, I know that after his national career ended in 1976 Wallace was Governor of Alabama until 1979 then elected again in 1982 with support of black voters.  My question is does anyone know what his views on the national scale were from the 1980s onward?  For example, most of his supporters would have voted for Carter in 1976 and then gone onto become Reagan Democrats in the 1980s.  Wallace supported Carter in 1976 but did he support him in 1980?  How did he respond to Reagan/Bush and then Bill Clinton? 

He was still quite socially conservative and against big government wasn't he?  Did he ever endorse anyone after 1976 or campaign for them?  Wouldn't he have eventually felt more at home in the GOP as his son eventually did? 

[Rob]

He endorsed Carter in 1980.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

George Wallace was never anti big government.

[Adlai Stevenson]

Well his campaigns focused primarily on that in 1972 and 1976 at least.  Do you know how he voted in the 1980s and whether he was still a Democrat at the time of his death?

[True Democrat]

In Clinton's biography he talks about how Wallace "apoligized" to the black community at the end of his life (skepticism added by me not Clinton).  I don't buy it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In Clinton's biography he talks about how Wallace "apoligized" to the black community at the end of his life (skepticism added by me not Clinton).  I don't buy it.

In the early '80's or late '70's (I can't recall the exact date) Wallace said that he had been "wrong on race" or words to that effect. In his (successful, o/c) 1982 run for Governer, black voters went for him overwhelmingly IIRC.

[Gustaf]

Wallace was more of an oppotrunist than a racist. He lost a race running as a non-segregationist, and therefore switched his views. He eventually switched back in the 70s, following his failed primary run in 1976.

And no, he was never anti-big government. He was probably against high taxes though. I would expect that he wouldn't have found it too hard to support Mondale. Dukakis might have been harder, but then again he wouldn't have liked Bush either. Clinton he probably supported.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Clinton he probably supported.

Doubt it; IIRC they never got on on a personal level.

[jokerman]

Wallace held a lot of progressive positions too.  He wasn't exactly conservative on many economic and fiscal issues.  Interestingly enough, he was a strong supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment for women.

[WalterMitty]

is it true or false that wallace endorsed jesse jackson for president in 1988?

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

George Wallace was an opportunist and was probably not a racist at heart.  That being said, it isn't that much more excusable to be a hypocritical racist than just a racist.

Calling Wallace "progressive" is.....well... sadly appropriate for today's Democrat Party.

[Rob]

is it true or false that wallace endorsed jesse jackson for president in 1988?

I can't say, but I did find this from the New York Times:

But as a measure of the changes that have occurred since 1965, leaders of today's march, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Coretta Scott King, Dr. King's widow, had only praise today for Gov. George C. Wallace, a man they once vilified, after a private hour-long meeting this afternoon. ''George Wallace is a man whose attitude has changed, whose behavior has changed,'' Mr. Jackson said after the meeting. ''I only wish that Ronald Reagan had the kind of sensitivity now being expressed by George Wallace.''

Calling Wallace "progressive" is.....well... sadly appropriate for today's Democrat Party.

That's Democratic Party- at least use proper grammar when you're hacking it up. The Repub Party got all the segs who never changed their views... like, say, the vile racist Jesse Helms. Or Trent Lott, who accurately said that "the spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform."

Your GOP isn't the Party of Lincoln, and it hasn't been for half a century. It's the neo-Confederate party. I hope you feel at home with your fellow partisans.

[Colin]

Well yes I believe Wikipedia states that by the late 70's he had become a born-again Christian and recanted his early rascist tendencies though I doubt he ever actually believed anything he said.

As Gustaf said in 1956 Wallace ran in the primaries as the anti-segregation candidate and after he was defeated he utter his famous "I'll never be outn*ggered again" line. So he acted like a strict segregationist for what is was worth. Once the whole Civil Rights battle was fought he then went back to his old positions in order to gain African-American support.

Really Wallace was a political chameleon more than anything else but he wasn't an economic conservative, not by a long shot. The man was an old Populist Law and Order Southern Democrat.