All it would take to stop a replay of 1968 is one serious urban prosecutor to charge the maximum on demonstrators who break the law, including the heightened charges available e.g. in California for wearing a mask to commit a crime. The kids won't risk their precious future careers, whether at McKinsey, Starbucks, or Walmart. And refer for deportation the ones here on a visa.
I very much doubt that the cossetted leftists of today will have the courage to create the same level of mayhem that occurred in Chicago in 1968. As to the post-election next four years, I strongly suspect the anti-Trumpers are - how shall I say this? - out of ammo. Everything they've tried has failed, including (apparently) lawfare. He's the last man standing and my guess is that the great majority of the country is sick to death of their lies, hatefulness and divisiveness and will reject anything that's not some sort of principled disagreement. I guess we'll see.
I remember watching the nightly news with my dad and the most prominent memory are the two body count silhouettes; US and NVA.
I remember the massive protests across almost the entire college landscape against the war. I also remember the protesters mostly wore Che shirts and carried Little Red Books.
Their were real, massive problems with race, religion and gender occurring, and massive changes occurring at the National and International level (USS Pueblo anyone?).
Tet happened, PLO was active, KKK was active, hell, everyone hated everyone. I remember the folk songs and the concerts protesting just about everything.
Sorry kids, not the same. Many Americans died protesting or (just living in the wrong area), and ultimately we didn't become a Facist State when the GOP won in 68 (or 80) - despite all the claims to the contrary.
AND - you aren't under the constant threat of nuclear war with the USSR.
So chill. It'll be alright. We've weathered worse (1861).
So should we be dissuaded from voting for Trump out of fear that enraged left continue to use lies , force fear,threat of violence and actual riot and violence in their anti American cause. I think not We need to vote for Trump for the sake of our country and future generations.
So we should be disuaded from voting gor Trump out of a fear for anti democratic violence by those who seek to change our country into a constant state of fear. I think not. More the reason to vote for Trump
When Trump responds, one minute after being shot, by pumping his fist in the air and urging people at the rally to continue the fight, his supporters can do no less.
WOW have things changed. I was 19 years old in June 1968. I had just driven from Illinois to New Orleans to report for work in my first oilfield summer job as a roustabout for Shell Oil (pay was something like $4 an hour, I was getting rich). I had to use a pay phone to call my parents collect to let them know I had arrived in New Orleans safely. Many of you don’t know what a collect call is. I was driving to Morgan City Louisiana to get on a boat to go to the job on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Kennedy was killed early in the morning on June 5th. I did not hear about it until about 9 am on the 6th. A 1965 "oldie" Barbara Mason’s big hit “Are you ready?” had just played on the radio when the top of the hour news was broadcast. It has been about 30 hours since Kennedy had been shot. There was no social media, no cell phones, no internet. I had just rented an apartment in Metairie LA. with no TV or radio. The only access I had to news was the radio in my car. I had it on making the 90 minute drive to Morgan City and heard the news. Pause a moment and think about how much things have and have not changed.
The riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention and the aftermath of the birth of the extreme left organizations that went around in the 1970’s blowing up things and killing cops and ordinary citizens still resonates with me today. The far left of the Democratic party has not changed (ANTIFA and others now), numerous factions back then. I suspect the aftermath of the attempt on Trump’s life will be worse than in the early 1970’s. We now have social media, a radicalized MSM and certain portions of our culture have been weaponized by the far left (education, FBI, CIA, IRS, lawfare entities and many others).
Many have forgotten or ignore the fact that Bill Ayers, an Obama mentor, was a founder of the Weather Underground. Look it up but be careful where you check, he is somewhat of a hero to many of the left sites like Wikipedia.
I wasn't alive in 1968, so I can't comment. However, I do feel like social media has added a level of complacency to this modern form of "extremism". I feel like we live in an era of intensely violent rhetoric but without the actions to match since people get the validation without much risk.
"Bill Ayers, an Obama mentor, was a founder of the Weather Underground"
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, were responsible for a bank robbery where a policeman was murdered. Ayers' father was the President of the Illinois Electric Company and got him off the hook, without even an arrest. Bill Ayers now teaches English and lives in the same exclusive neighborhood as the Obamas.
And let us not forget that the now recalled Soros DA of San Francisco, Chesa Boudin, was raised by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn, the leaders of the Weather Underground, because his parents were in Federal prison for killing two policemen and the armored car driver due to a botched bank robbery.
There's so much filth rooted with Bill Ayers that one forgets it all...
Chesa Boudin worked for Venezuelan Communist dictator Hugo Chavez, who transformed one of Latin America's few true democracies (since 1958) into a Cuban colony, with Cuban security officers embedded throughout the police and army.
At least in 1968, you had a mayor of Chicago who was willing to use force to stop radicals from disrupting events, heavy handed maybe, but it stopped the city from burning. Sadly today, you have a mayor of Chicago who believes in radicalism, and likely will sit idly by while more violent elements of the protesters will attempt to invade the convention and will attack businesses and residents nearby, then this same mayor will make excuses and blame someone else for the chaos. Leadership matters, especially when you have to make tough decisions for the greater good; I can only hope the citizens of Chicago who live and work near the convention site are prepared for what is coming; if it is obvious that police have no support, you may need to take up arms; hopefully cooler heads prevail and protests are peaceful but vigilance is critical as well especially if the anarchists show up.
You left out the burning of the inner cities and the police violent responses. The killing of civil rights activist in the south, the jailing of activists, the FBI agent provocateurs, the CIA involvement in all (look at the Church Committee Findings) sorts of transgressions, the draft, the environmental movement as a response to rivers burning and bay's dying, the book/record burnings by evangelicals, the abortion movements domestic terrorism, the KKK, AIM, Chicano farm workers movement, Huey Newton (Black Panthers), Malcom X (Nation of Islam), Earth First, The Biker gangs (Hells Angels, etc.), Berkeley Free Speech Movement, Anti-Nuclear Movement, Hippies back to the land movement, Psychedelic Drugs, Stonewall/Gay Rights, etc.
I think the cure is simple: lower the temperature on rhetoric, but show no mercy on those who disrupt the democratic process. Especially the likes of Antifa. They are a terrorist organization and need to be neutralized. They are emboldening those that want to terrorize politicians and normal Americans alike.
Who would follow the brain dead Biden, with his disastrous economic, regulatory and trade policies and his deranged Orwellian propaganda and his corrupt tyranical justice department and his antisemitic stooges? No one who is young and worried about a future for this country of ours. This must end and the jan9th political prisoners must be freed.
If the DNC devolves into a violent riot like in 1968, it will bookend that generation's coming of age with its waning of power. Desperate to hold onto power, the "Old Guard" is using the only tools and techniques it has and knows to hold onto power. They're exposed now, and the country knows it.
The article is spot on. I am already convinced that, outside the convention in Milwaukee, there will be a mess while outside the convention Chicago there will be shocking violence and destruction. Beyond that I could easily predict a leftish version of the Jan 6 riots with fewer federal buildings involved, but far greater damage to property.
People are lashing out because the change has become unsettling. Old institutions are fading and new ones are fading faster. As an example, DEI was born, suffered through life despite being loud and direct, and then died in the course of about 36 months! Some people deeply the tenants of DEI and now it rests in the dustbin next to Jim Crow - and that must hurt. The idea of genuine conservatism, as Eisenhower might espouse, is dead. The idea of genuine progressivism, as Teddy Roosevelt might espouse, is equally dead. For now, personality and individualism are propped up not by self-reliance but an odd form of digital tribalism that genuinely has no roots and no real path.
Yes, it could be 1968 again, but my absolute hope is that we get over fast so we can enjoy the next American era.
All it would take to stop a replay of 1968 is one serious urban prosecutor to charge the maximum on demonstrators who break the law, including the heightened charges available e.g. in California for wearing a mask to commit a crime. The kids won't risk their precious future careers, whether at McKinsey, Starbucks, or Walmart. And refer for deportation the ones here on a visa.
Beautifultrouble.org and progressive international.org are two organizations actively planning “disruptions”
Progressiveinternational.org
Thanks to those of you posting about your memories of 1968. It helps to hear what you think is similar and different.
I very much doubt that the cossetted leftists of today will have the courage to create the same level of mayhem that occurred in Chicago in 1968. As to the post-election next four years, I strongly suspect the anti-Trumpers are - how shall I say this? - out of ammo. Everything they've tried has failed, including (apparently) lawfare. He's the last man standing and my guess is that the great majority of the country is sick to death of their lies, hatefulness and divisiveness and will reject anything that's not some sort of principled disagreement. I guess we'll see.
This in not '68 at all.
I remember watching the nightly news with my dad and the most prominent memory are the two body count silhouettes; US and NVA.
I remember the massive protests across almost the entire college landscape against the war. I also remember the protesters mostly wore Che shirts and carried Little Red Books.
Their were real, massive problems with race, religion and gender occurring, and massive changes occurring at the National and International level (USS Pueblo anyone?).
Tet happened, PLO was active, KKK was active, hell, everyone hated everyone. I remember the folk songs and the concerts protesting just about everything.
Sorry kids, not the same. Many Americans died protesting or (just living in the wrong area), and ultimately we didn't become a Facist State when the GOP won in 68 (or 80) - despite all the claims to the contrary.
AND - you aren't under the constant threat of nuclear war with the USSR.
So chill. It'll be alright. We've weathered worse (1861).
So should we be dissuaded from voting for Trump out of fear that enraged left continue to use lies , force fear,threat of violence and actual riot and violence in their anti American cause. I think not We need to vote for Trump for the sake of our country and future generations.
MAGA! Vote President Trump in!
So we should be disuaded from voting gor Trump out of a fear for anti democratic violence by those who seek to change our country into a constant state of fear. I think not. More the reason to vote for Trump
Agreed my comment was to Eli last few sentences in his post.
When Trump responds, one minute after being shot, by pumping his fist in the air and urging people at the rally to continue the fight, his supporters can do no less.
Hey Eli, you seen this doc? I figure you are right and I have felt similarly, I consider this the preview of what could be next, and something we could all watch and try to avoid. https://wgvu.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/35840006-71b6-4d45-a728-e7d6a924453b/the-day-the-60s-died/
WOW have things changed. I was 19 years old in June 1968. I had just driven from Illinois to New Orleans to report for work in my first oilfield summer job as a roustabout for Shell Oil (pay was something like $4 an hour, I was getting rich). I had to use a pay phone to call my parents collect to let them know I had arrived in New Orleans safely. Many of you don’t know what a collect call is. I was driving to Morgan City Louisiana to get on a boat to go to the job on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Kennedy was killed early in the morning on June 5th. I did not hear about it until about 9 am on the 6th. A 1965 "oldie" Barbara Mason’s big hit “Are you ready?” had just played on the radio when the top of the hour news was broadcast. It has been about 30 hours since Kennedy had been shot. There was no social media, no cell phones, no internet. I had just rented an apartment in Metairie LA. with no TV or radio. The only access I had to news was the radio in my car. I had it on making the 90 minute drive to Morgan City and heard the news. Pause a moment and think about how much things have and have not changed.
The riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention and the aftermath of the birth of the extreme left organizations that went around in the 1970’s blowing up things and killing cops and ordinary citizens still resonates with me today. The far left of the Democratic party has not changed (ANTIFA and others now), numerous factions back then. I suspect the aftermath of the attempt on Trump’s life will be worse than in the early 1970’s. We now have social media, a radicalized MSM and certain portions of our culture have been weaponized by the far left (education, FBI, CIA, IRS, lawfare entities and many others).
Many have forgotten or ignore the fact that Bill Ayers, an Obama mentor, was a founder of the Weather Underground. Look it up but be careful where you check, he is somewhat of a hero to many of the left sites like Wikipedia.
I wasn't alive in 1968, so I can't comment. However, I do feel like social media has added a level of complacency to this modern form of "extremism". I feel like we live in an era of intensely violent rhetoric but without the actions to match since people get the validation without much risk.
The youngs can't even remember 9-11, let alone the Weather Underground. And you can bet their commie teachers aren't passing on the information.
"Bill Ayers, an Obama mentor, was a founder of the Weather Underground"
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, were responsible for a bank robbery where a policeman was murdered. Ayers' father was the President of the Illinois Electric Company and got him off the hook, without even an arrest. Bill Ayers now teaches English and lives in the same exclusive neighborhood as the Obamas.
It's called "Justice for all".
And let us not forget that the now recalled Soros DA of San Francisco, Chesa Boudin, was raised by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn, the leaders of the Weather Underground, because his parents were in Federal prison for killing two policemen and the armored car driver due to a botched bank robbery.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/parents-guilty-murder-raised-radicals-chesa-boudin-san-francisco-s-n1101071
If I remember correctly, Obama launched his political career in the living room of Bill Ayers. And we wonder WTF is the matter with this country.
Will the radical left accept Trump when he is elected? Not as long as the Democrats can use them as their "useful idiots."
There's so much filth rooted with Bill Ayers that one forgets it all...
Chesa Boudin worked for Venezuelan Communist dictator Hugo Chavez, who transformed one of Latin America's few true democracies (since 1958) into a Cuban colony, with Cuban security officers embedded throughout the police and army.
At least in 1968, you had a mayor of Chicago who was willing to use force to stop radicals from disrupting events, heavy handed maybe, but it stopped the city from burning. Sadly today, you have a mayor of Chicago who believes in radicalism, and likely will sit idly by while more violent elements of the protesters will attempt to invade the convention and will attack businesses and residents nearby, then this same mayor will make excuses and blame someone else for the chaos. Leadership matters, especially when you have to make tough decisions for the greater good; I can only hope the citizens of Chicago who live and work near the convention site are prepared for what is coming; if it is obvious that police have no support, you may need to take up arms; hopefully cooler heads prevail and protests are peaceful but vigilance is critical as well especially if the anarchists show up.
You left out the burning of the inner cities and the police violent responses. The killing of civil rights activist in the south, the jailing of activists, the FBI agent provocateurs, the CIA involvement in all (look at the Church Committee Findings) sorts of transgressions, the draft, the environmental movement as a response to rivers burning and bay's dying, the book/record burnings by evangelicals, the abortion movements domestic terrorism, the KKK, AIM, Chicano farm workers movement, Huey Newton (Black Panthers), Malcom X (Nation of Islam), Earth First, The Biker gangs (Hells Angels, etc.), Berkeley Free Speech Movement, Anti-Nuclear Movement, Hippies back to the land movement, Psychedelic Drugs, Stonewall/Gay Rights, etc.
Still think this is 1968 all over??????
Just because history doesn’t repeat, doesn’t mean it can’t rhyme.
I think the cure is simple: lower the temperature on rhetoric, but show no mercy on those who disrupt the democratic process. Especially the likes of Antifa. They are a terrorist organization and need to be neutralized. They are emboldening those that want to terrorize politicians and normal Americans alike.
If you want me to go with you, you have to condemn Jan. 6th as well. It’s on both sides.
Never happen as long as the Left considers Antifa their shock troops.
Who would follow the brain dead Biden, with his disastrous economic, regulatory and trade policies and his deranged Orwellian propaganda and his corrupt tyranical justice department and his antisemitic stooges? No one who is young and worried about a future for this country of ours. This must end and the jan9th political prisoners must be freed.
If the DNC devolves into a violent riot like in 1968, it will bookend that generation's coming of age with its waning of power. Desperate to hold onto power, the "Old Guard" is using the only tools and techniques it has and knows to hold onto power. They're exposed now, and the country knows it.
The article is spot on. I am already convinced that, outside the convention in Milwaukee, there will be a mess while outside the convention Chicago there will be shocking violence and destruction. Beyond that I could easily predict a leftish version of the Jan 6 riots with fewer federal buildings involved, but far greater damage to property.
People are lashing out because the change has become unsettling. Old institutions are fading and new ones are fading faster. As an example, DEI was born, suffered through life despite being loud and direct, and then died in the course of about 36 months! Some people deeply the tenants of DEI and now it rests in the dustbin next to Jim Crow - and that must hurt. The idea of genuine conservatism, as Eisenhower might espouse, is dead. The idea of genuine progressivism, as Teddy Roosevelt might espouse, is equally dead. For now, personality and individualism are propped up not by self-reliance but an odd form of digital tribalism that genuinely has no roots and no real path.
Yes, it could be 1968 again, but my absolute hope is that we get over fast so we can enjoy the next American era.
Well stated...I hope for the same but am prepared for the ugliness and how to deal with it!!
That Gene McCarthy song is a banger.