This was something genuinely new, and raw. Even jaded viewers tuning in to the network news on May 8, 1970, must have been shocked to see helmeted construction workers waving enormous American flags and chanting “All the way, U.S.A.” as they tore through an antiwar demonstration in Manhattan’s financial district — all of it just days after four students had been shot dead by National Guardsmen during a peaceful protest at Kent State University in Ohio. …
The “Hard Hat Riot,” as it came to be known, created new visibility and possibilities for a right-wing populism that shaped American politics for decades to come. As the ground of white working-class identity shifted from economics to culture, it appeared that the new class war would be waged not against the old corporate robber barons but the impudent snobs of the cultural elite. CONT.
Jefferson Cowie (Vanderbilt), New York Times
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