2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Philadelphia Freedom Summer [View all]Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)and we were not far from the convention. The adults would have been and had been supporting Bobby but he'd been murdered. The adults, they were decidedly not Hippies or Yippees, they were working class, middle aged and really hated Nixon.
It was the conduct of the authorities toward the protesters and perhaps even more toward the press that made those adults furious at the Party, at Hubert, at Daley, Chicago the Police and Richard Nixon. They were pissed off at the United States for the first time probably ever. WW2 Veterans. Their wives. I remember seeing a TV reporter I recognized being assaulted by the police on air. That's when the elders really lost it. That's when the Party lost them. That night, they all knew Nixon would be elected. I thought they were being hugely cynical. I was but a boy and know better now.
Of course all of those relatives showed up in November and voted against Nixon to no avail, save for one and that's a whole different story.