ThoughDoc Brown, Marty McFly, and that wonderful DeLorean are not readily available to take usback to Chicago again,there are more than a few similarities between our nation, the Windy City today, and that bloody DNC Convention of 1968. Admittedly, PresidentBill Clintonalso returned to Chicago for his second DNC gathering in the summer of 1996, before steam-rolling the campaign of GOP standard- bearer and longtime U.S. SenatorBob Doleof Kansas.However, that ‘90s swing along the Great Lakes was much more benign.
In 1968, an aging and increasingly unpopular president in declining health (Lyndon Baines Johnson) decided he would not seek re-election.His significantly more progressive VP from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey, would become the party nominee in a less-than-smooth manner, and that contest would not command the attention of viewers and voters during a very controversial week in the City of Big Shoulders.
At thattime as well, ournation was deeply divided over the Vietnam War, as well as the implementation of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act.An insurgent thirdparty candidate, Alabama GovernorGeorge Wallace, would break away from the Democratic Party, and later win more than a handful of Southern states in the fall.
The divide today may be more varied in substance, but the chasm is just as stark.Johnson’s approval ratings were dropping, largely due to the ongoing Vietnam War, as Biden’s have been similarly impacted by conflicts in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza, as well as by intractable inflation. The assassinations of civil rights giant Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. in April ‘68, and then Democratic frontrunner Robert Kennedyin June, fomented fear and tension, not unlike the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.
Johnson did not attend the DNC in 1968 while maintaining strong control of the floor and bunkered away down in Texas.Biden is viewed as much more fragile and much less in charge, but he will speak this time to the DNC on its opening night.
In both elections, younger voters were/ are critical to the Democrats. Clashes between young protesters and the Chicago Police were frequent and at times violent during that hot ‘68 summer. Titanic MayorRichard Daley labeled the protesters as “hippies and yippies,” labels which stung and stuck, and even though 18 years old was then enough to go to war, it was not yet the universal voting age, contributing to Democrats losing the critical youth voting bloc in that contest.
Only one vice president since the days ofHarry Truman has won election to the White House while serving in office.Vice President Hubert Humphreylost the contest in a landslide to former VPRichard Nixon, “tanned, rested and ready” from a stint back home in California, following his own brutal loss as Eisenhower’s VP to young SenatorJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy.
While Nixon had his flaws, he generally was more of a globalist and forward-looking. The GOP’s current nominee pitches a more backward view and touts a return to American greatness, more than implying it does not exist today.
While the GOP held a unifying convention in Milwaukee, it did not yet clinch the votes in Wisconsin, one of the critical seven battleground states in this cycle.Illinois is a safely Democratic bastion, part of the DNC’s Blue Wall, yet one has to wonder with Atlanta being the host city second choice if that might have been a better strategic path, as both campaigns seem to agree their road to victory must include a win in Georgia.
Of course, similarities do not make for identical outcomes ... yet perhaps offer some cautionary advice and guidance. Young college-aged voters and protesters are expected outside Chicago’s United Center, where the DNC main events and prime-time programming will take place, as well as at the larger McCormick Convention Center.One mighthope that they will be met by a kinder, gentler version of Chicago P.D.
LBJ rejected Humphrey’s plea for a peace plank in the DNC platform.Biden is not calling these shots, but Democrats still must walk a fine line between European and Middle Eastern allies and younger voters and nationalists who desire to see peace treaties and less focus on foreign affairs of all kinds.
Lake Michigan is incredibly beautiful, and few cities have as many incredible dining and food choices as Chicago.Here’s to wishing Chicago and the DNC their fill of good times and civil debate, versus ill winds and blood again in the streets during this trip back to America’s Windy City.
