Will Philly '16 = Chicago '68?

[TheSarcastinator]

Remember, the GOP won that election because the Democrats nominated a corporate, pro-war candidate. Hillary has already started using armed police to enforce the status quo, so don't expect things to grow more civil.

[Ferd Berfel]

1. ALmost made it to Grant Park that day

My friends and I were heading down there but we only made it to The beginning of LSD at Hollywood. The cops already had LSD completely blocked. Stopped every car that wanted to get on to head south. They weren't about to let a car full of 18 yrolds make it down there. We were pissed.

[NuclearDem]

2. "Remember, the GOP won that election because the Democrats nominated a corporate, pro-war candidate.

Actually, the chaos was caused by the DNC nominating a candidate who hadn't even run in the primary process, much less won any contests, in addition to RFK's murder.

Hillary Clinton, however, has won more votes, delegates, and contests than her opponent, and is highly preferred by Democrats to be the party's nominee. Chaos would certainly come if Sanders supporters got their way and had him nominated instead of the person the voters have chosen.

[grossproffit]

3. Facts created by oligarchs! Therefore, they do not apply.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Who will play the Mayor Daley part?

The Republicans won because the Democrats offered "more of the same" and Nixon offered the ridiculous, but saleable, vision of "peace with honor".

Revolution was in the air in '68. The French students/workers came within inches of overthrowing the French government, people were fleeing this country to avoid the draft, campuses were exploding.

This time there is plenty of people fed up with the corrupt system and there is certainly be some dissent at the convention which may be rowdy and loud. But, with the advent of (notso) "Free Speech" zones (cages), the cops won't need to have another riot.

I expect this convention to be more Showbiz than politics.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Orwellian disinformation

Nixon won the GE because Eugene McCarthy, a prototype for Bernie Sanders, never united behind the first-ballot nominee, Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy allowed his supporters to "protest" at the convention, drawing 6,000 federal troops and 18,000 Illinois National Guard to try (unsuccessfully) to keep the peace.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy_presidential_campaign,_1968

Is this what you Bernie Bots want to replicate, throwing the GE to Trump to further your phoney "revolution"?

[Punkingal]

12. Nixon won because of George Wallace.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. And Humphrey wasn't all that inspirational

Heck, even the son of my county's Democratic Committee chairwoman expressed only lukewarm support for Humphrey when a poll was taken in our class. Most of the Kennedy supporters I knew in May 1968 had migrated to Wallace by September 1968.

[YouDig]

6. Not unless they overturn the will of the voters and nominate Bernie.

But that won't happen. Hillary has won by such a large margin that Bernie's people won't be able to pull any dirty tricks.

[apnu]

7. No.

Apples and Oranges.

[PATRICK]

8. But it is all the fruit

of division. This idiotic and crassly arrogant presumption of achieving unity through blind and I* mean blind dominance will loise millions of votes, the soul of the platform, and yes drive to opposition what normally happens when warring factions make peace for the common good. When I mentioned 1968 I didn't mean riots. We have successfully squelched the ability of any street "uprisings" to make any contribution to public pressure for the common good(Iraq War protests, Occupy Wall Street). However the media will lap it up if the Democrats make any waves at the now trashed love fest of 2016. They will of course ignore all of the content of the Sanders ideas and focus on the drama of "Clinton's woes". Can she win, can she unite the party? Already headlines and the obituaries already written- as they have been for all past Dem Conventions which is why we have succeeded so well in tamping them down to coronations.

All I am saying is that I am seeing very bad storm clouds ahead that the "winning" side is not only doing nothing to prevent but is trying with vast joy(masochiosm or sadism?) to make infinitely worse. Until it can be dismissed no longer.

Then of course the "insurgents" will be blamed. You can only hope to God things remain as obdurate at the GOP circus grounds.

[apnu]

9. Divisiveness will hurt us (Dems, Liberals and Progressives). Yes

I think both sides are bitter and negative right now. For every shitty thing I see a Hillary person say or do, I see a shitty thing from a Bernie supporter.

Both camps have come to a place where the other is the devil incarnate. Especially Bernie people. Look at their language here, Reddit, Facebook and Twitter. Everything is absolute. Its "all" or "nobody", "black" or "white", "the most" or "the least", "0" or "1", "Good" or "Evil". When your arguments come from one or the other end of the spectrum and ignore everything else, conversation, debate, discussion stops.

Hillary people need to drop the holier-than-thou attitude and in-your-face gloating over Hillary's lead. That does not win friends or influence people. Snark never helps, no matter how frustrating or obtuse the other side might be at the time, snark never helps.

I too see bad storm clouds a head. Its the same storm clouds Democrats have known for years: the circular firing line. Its not Hillary or Bernie, we are doing this to ourselves... again.

[HereSince1628]

10. I don't think Sanders supporters are SDS and in '68 the party's establishment leaders

Last edited Mon May 16, 2016, 06:06 PM - Edit history (1)

weren't most similar to moderate republicans of the 1980's as suggested by Barak Obama for himself, or as Norm Chomsky suggested for the majority of the remainder.
.
And there is no one who is going to be in Philly who will parallel The Chicago 7.

[brooklynite]

11. Big difference...nobody voted for Humphrey...

[speaktruthtopower]

13. No comparison to those times is valid...

then we had an ugly war with a draft, civil rights leaders and Presidential candidates being killed, students being massacred by the National Guard...etc.

Things right now are very calm in comparison, at least until the final reckoning of the national debt and QE comes along...

[PATRICK]

14. Missing the point will be on our gravestone

Of course it isn't the same! All comparisons to 1912 are invalid too. The point is achieving party unity is the first test of a winning party nominee not the last hurrah of a one-upping winning primary constituency. The point is there is trouble because of the large delegate count of the so-called loser added to the giant thumb on the scale of the truculent party establishment. That it also is not just a dual of personalities but of concrete visions and directions for the whole party. Such is the stuff of complete party splits which can only happen if you pooh pooh away even a modicum of common sense.

It is also extremely difficult- whether Hillary wants to or not- to embrace any of the the directions of the Sanders opposition because of the donors sword she has over head as well as over the head of the rest of party suckered into embracing big money and blowing off the people.

Past Democratic corruption heavily involved doing things for the people that were personal and tangible and even progressive. Now the common people are almost totally devalued in the good old money for influence process. Such is centrist progress and it has to be changed or it will be self devoured.

The current collision is not the same, just as human nature is in a world where it may not be able to survive its own ancient vices. But collision it will be with or without respectful dialogue.