With two popular candidates, a lame-duck incumbent, and an unpopular war as a backdrop, this year’s race for the Democratic presidential nomination feels like déjà vu all over again; an unwelcome flashback to the days leading up to the violent five-day battle during the Democratic Party’s 1968 national convention in Chicago.
Though no one is expecting this year’s convention will result in the massive civil unrest that marred its 1968 counterpart, there are many unsettling similarities — racial tensions, war fatigue, a reviled president, and two combative candidates fighting to the bitter end. There are also some significant differences.
“There were much smokier rooms in those days, where deals were made out of the eye of the American people and that is certainly not the case now — at least that we know of,” says Peter T. Alter, curator at the Chicago Historical Museum. “Obviously being in a war that seems to have no end is like the Vietnam War, but American involvement had been much longer by the convention in 1968 in comparison to our direct involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. And there is certainly a different feel to protest movements these days. They don’t have the chaos that we think of in association with the demonstrations of the 1960s. And perhaps there are more culturally diverse issues — and ethnically diverse people discussing those issues — nowadays.”
In spite of the unpopularity of the Iraq war, there are other issues that have pushed their way to the forefront in advance of the 2008 convention, including the weakening economy, global warming and immigration. Historians also say that Americans simply aren’t sick enough of the Iraq war to protest in the same way as 1968.
By the time the Democratic National Convention hit in late August of 1968, the nation had already experienced the trauma of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. In the wake of King’s assassination in April, a violent spasm of riots erupted in cities across the country. Cultural icon and artist Andy Warhol had been shot earlier that year, and protesting students had shut down New York’s Columbia University for the entire academic year by April.
Dissension within the Democratic Party reached a peak during the convention as politicians argued over civil rights issues and the Vietnam War, which Democrats had initiated. The fighting spilled into the streets of Chicago as police continuously tussled with the convention’s anti-war and civil rights demonstrators. It was all broadcast live on television. Things got personal inside the convention when Massachusetts Senator Abraham Ribicoff made note of the rioting and violence between police and protestors by saying, “With George McGovern as president of the United States we wouldn’t have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago.” In response, an enraged Mayor Daley reportedly waved his fist at the senator and called him a derogatory name.
Violence ensued as protestors faced close to 28,000 city police officers, Illinois National Guardsmen, FBI agents and Army troops during the five days of unrest. The fighting was most ugly and brutal on the fourth day of demonstrations, which has come to be known as the “Battle of Michigan Avenue.” Close to 600 people were arrested and 100 protesters and 119 police were injured, according to Chicago police figures. A large number of journalists were also injured.
The presidential nominating system changed in the aftermath of the 1968 convention. Today’s primary system exposes delegates to the public, making some feel hard-pressed to vote in the manner according to their constituents’ wishes.
“The 1968 race is usually seen as a watershed election because you get Nixon in office and then the Republicans win five of the six following elections,” says Peniel Joseph, associate professor of African and African-American studies at Brandeis University. “This year we have a significant election because one of the major parties, the one that caused such dissention in 1968, is going to nominate a black man... . Certainly there was no way that either of the parties would have done that 40 years ago.”