Urban riots and the counterculture boosted the appeal of law-and-order politics

Evidence

An increasingly militant civil rights movement (and the 1965 Watts riot that erupted in the backyard of southern California evangelicals) enhanced the allure of “law and order” politics across the nation, as did the growing disruptions caused by the antiwar movement and the emergence of an unruly counterculture. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 105