A look back at the 1960 election says a lot about how Americans will vote in 2020

The careful public talk about Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s Roman Catholic faith contrasts markedly with the outright anti-Catholic views expressed in the presidential election 60 years ago when Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon were the major party candidates.

I turned 21 in 1960, and was eligible to vote for the first time; this was years before an constitutional amendment granted the vote to 18-year-olds.

Now seemingly forgotten was the quasi-presidential campaign of Southern Democrat Harry Byrd of Virginia, a segregationist who illustrated the significant differences between Southern and Northern political and social attitudes.

Religion a big issue

But Kennedy’s Roman Catholic religion was the big issue of the 1960 election.

Many voters, including my mother, were convinced that electing a Catholic was tantamount to turning over the executive branch to the Vatican.

I’m not making this up.

I vividly recall dining-room table discussions in which I took issue with my mother on the Catholicism concern.

But my viewpoint — that of a college student — carried no weight at that table

Mom was a White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant and an ardent Republican (at least on presidential politics).

A silly issue

In retrospect the Catholic issue seems really silly, but it surely stirred anti-Catholic emotions among Protestant voters.

And it also riled Roman Catholics; enough, in fact, to give Kennedy “the Catholic vote” in a close election.

Kennedy defeated Nixon by less than 1% of the popular vote.

And here’s the thing:

To this day I really can’t remember whether I cast my first presidential vote for Nixon or Kennedy.

I felt either would be OK as president.

In fact, that was my general view during most of the presidential elections that followed until 2016 (though I did have some reservations about the viewpoints of Barry Goldwater, the Republican challenger to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964).

A different time

It’s fascinating to compare the similarities and differences between that election in 1960 and the 2020 presidential race.

One difference: Kennedy and Nixon were younger candidates than President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

One similarity: Nixon had previously served as vice president under President Dwight Eisenhower; Biden served as vice president under President Barack Obama.

One difference: While Kennedy’s religion was a clearly polarizing issue, neither he nor Nixon were polarizing individuals — something that can’t be said of Trump.

One similarity: During the 1960 election, tensions between America and the then-Soviet Union were high; today, many Americans are suspicious and wary that Russia will attempt to meddle in the 2020 elections.

One difference: While there is no major third-party candidate who will influence the 2020 race, in 1960 two Southern senators — Byrd and South Carolina’s own Strom Thurmond - teamed up on an informal presidential ticket that managed to gain 15 electoral votes.

But this is one of the most encouraging differences between 1960 and 2020: the raw emotion we saw back then regarding Kennedy’s religious beliefs is largely nonexistent in the current debate over Amy Coney Barrett’s worthiness to sit on the Supreme Court.

It’s clearly a sign that America’s political attitudes have matured in many ways since 1960 — though it’s also clear that we still have much work to do on that front.

D.G. Schumacher is a senior writer for The Sun News Editorial Board.

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 7:30 AM.