A few months ago, when my APUSH class was on the 1970’s, my textbook talked about how instrumental Phyllis Schlafly was to making the Equal Rights Amendment fail. I never heard of Schlafly before reading about her in my textbook.
This got me to wonder: not including Civil Rights Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr* (and keeping this post as away from the 20 year territory and being soapboxy), why are political commentators from this time period (1950’s-70’s) obscure in modern acknowledgement and not talked about anymore, as opposed to 1990’s commentators like Rush Limbaugh who are still in memory? And as a followup question, who were notable political commentators from this age and how famous were they?
Thanks in advance!
*The reason why I’m not including Civil Rights Activists like MLK here because though they obviously had political opinions and voiced them, their main focus was achieving a political goal through civil disobedience, not simply promoting a political ideology through debating on the radio or on TV.
It’s not clear that American political commentators and public intellectuals from that era are obscure for any reason other than the passage of time.
Obviously contemporary political commentators are going to be discussed more than historical ones. Both figures you mentioned- Limbaugh and Schlafly- have been heavily influential in recent politics. Limbaugh is still host of talk show with approximately 15 million regular listeners and has considerable influence. Phyllis Schlafly died in September of last year, but shortly before that she controversially voiced her public support for Donald Trump’s campaign. Her last book, about why conservatives should support Trump, was published almost immediately after her death. Among evangelicals and social conservatives she was still an important figure up until her death.
Many of the leading political commentators from 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, are still often discussed today. William F. Buckley, who founded the National Review in 1955, is probably better known than many contemporary conservatives thinkers. For example there was a 2015 documentary, “Best of Enemies,” that explored his debate with liberal Gore Vidal.
PBS recently aired a documentary -“An American Conscience”- about theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr’s writings about Christian Realism have been influential on modern politicians in both parties. Conservatives appreciate Niebuhr’s condemnation of idealism in foreign policy, while those on the left tend to emphasis his warnings about the dangers of excessive nationalism. President Barack Obama noted that Niebuhr was his favorite philosophical thinker. James Comey, the former FBI director, used “Reinhold Niebuhr” as his private twitter handle and was apparently also a fan.
Journalist Edward R. Murrow is fondly remembered now for standing up to Joe McCarthy in 1954. The 2005 film “Good Night, and Good Luck” dramatized this and was nominated for several academy awards. Murrow is often cited by modern journalists as a role model.
Ayn Rand continues to be an influential thinker, exerting far more influence on policy makers over three decades after her death than she did while alive. Paul Ryan’s devotion to Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism was a minor issue in the 2012 Presidential campaign when he was the Republican Vice Presidential nominee.
These figures are probably more widely known than public intellectuals from earlier eras. Cultural commentator Walter Lippmann for instance was hugely influential from the 1920s through the 1940s, but he’s rarely cited now.