‘The Whole World Is Watching’: The 1968 Democratic Convention, 50 Years Later

Ahh....the good old days. Back when people still cared. Back before brainwashing had fully kicked in. Back when we still had a fighting chance.

A more complete 1996 Carlin video which btw , is still relevent today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLuZjpxmsZQ

I find it sort of amazing at the small number comments to this well written essay about an event that had a very negative effect on an entire generation in a year of multiple terrible negative events, each of which would never be forgotten. After all that occurred at that most undemocratic convention in 1968, not much has changed for the majority of people in this country.

I was a republican in 1968, having voted for Nixon in 1960. However, by 1968 I had started moving to the left and I found that even Hubert Humphrey was too far to the right for me. I ended up voting for Eldridge Cleaver, in NYC, Dick Gregory was a stand-in for Cleaver. But the closeness of the election, and my WASTED vote, haunted me long after. In 2016, with the Bernie Sanders voters splitting the Dem votes because they felt the lesser of 2 evils between dj trump and Hillary Clinton made "her" a vote not to be given. trump won based upon previous lies and barely enough votes to almost elect him legally (plus, given his now obvious collusion with Russia and other illegal and unethical tricks), he barely won 4 states that put him ahead in the electrol college and he was sworn in as president, after taking an oath that he broke within seconds of taking it. The emoluments clause forbids taking monies from foreign sources and this never bothered him. As a matter of fact, dj trump did not even bother to dispose of his investments, many of which were impacted by decisions he would make in the presidential capacity. From that day on, the least qualified thing to ever take the presidential office was in that office making decisions based upon his gut feeling and his mood and whatever today's revenge would cause him to decide. Now, for you who still can not see the difference between trump and Hillary Clinton, I ask you. Was the vote for Bernie Sanders worth it to you?

Thank you for continuing to mark the 50 year anniversaries of 1968, the most tumultuous of my young life. If the assassinations of King and RFK represented a crushing blow to the ideas of justice and compassion, the events in Chicago shortly thereafter did indeed mark the beginning of a counter-revolution. I am 60 now, and still hoping that someday the pendulum will swing back. There are the occasional rays of sunshine, but for 50 years the forces of reaction have always come back stronger. As hard as it is to accept, I am starting to feel that I will not live long enough to see justice and compassion prevail over the white nationalism and dysfunctional politics of our current time. I hope I’m wrong, but it appears things must get worse still before they get better. Vote in the midterms!! Or we’ll be seeing more Chicago 1968s in our future.

The talking heads on television are reflecting on 1968 and encouraging "us" to be optimistic. ... optimistic that the country became a better place despite the trauma of a year ...optimistic that racism, misogyny, and sexual religious and other forms of discrimination have improved in the 50 years since ...optimistic as if the trauma and counter-revolution wasn't necessary for change.... But those people encouraging optimism tend to be wealthy, over 50, and privileged. They can afford to be optimistic. Until they can empathize (not merely sympathize) with what it feels like to on the ground, to struggle under the weight of systems gone awry ---- they should put away their nostalgic and mollifying admonishments to optimism. Now is not the time for mythology. Now is real. We aren't climbing a mountain. There is no permanent progress. There is no peak. We are living in a garden; and the weeds are always dormant. Without perpetual work, the weeds are certain to encroach and strangle the plants. If you want to be optimistic, be optimistic about the perpetual requirement of work. Work will always be relevant. There is always something to be done.

"The whole world is watching. More like: "The whole world doesn't care." A bit of arrogance on the part of the hippies back then, as if the world really cared. "Politics is local." The corrupt outfit of Richard Daley only cared about maintaining control. Daley was to Chicago what Trump is to this country today- a wannabe king. Democrat or Republican, it doesn't matter. Thugs are thugs, crooks are crooks. But the human sheep care not who leads them or where they are led, as long as they are led.

Here's what George Carlin thought about the hippies back then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTZ-CpINiqg

These Boomers waxing nostaligic are indeed right they changed the world, but certainly not for the better. The legacy of 1968 is to make any issue a life-or-death, fate-of-the-union issue no matter how trivial. This has imbued a sense of virtue to people protesting causes that are patently mindless and giving moral cover to disproportionate tactics. Trump voters will not storm your place of business demanding you change your work environment to be more white. Trump voters won't barricade your university demanding it invest in whatever companies it deems "committed to justice". But the heirs of these Boomers will. And they will feel perfectly justified turning our world upside down to temporarily ameliorate their white middle class guilt.

I wasn't convinced at the time and am not now that this was a significant political event, certainly nothing like Paris and the genuine threat students and workers posed to overthrowing the French government. No. Chicago was a riot. Some participants were politically motivated, some were merely drugged goofballs playing their disruption games, more privileged youth wanted to party and hangout hence objected to getting shipped to Vietnam (they could care less about politics or the Vietnamese), some kids who were attracted to the mayhem and potential violence (a la sporting events riots & many of the race riots), some interest groups like Latinos and black activists saw an advantage in showing up. There never was a meaningful "counterculture" or leftist insurgency in America, just a melange of interests, mostly selfish, and a lot of entitled kids. On the other side, there was, and still is, massive official repression of any form of dissent, trades union, student, minority. That's always been true of America -- no tolerance for views that don't align with the Patriot-Christian-Capitalist consensus.

Todd Gitlin's closing comment is right on the mark. I was in my early 20s then, and one of many who fatally underestimated the power and the resolve of the Right and corporate America. I would also like to say, to those who do not know it, that at that time the role that big money and mega-donors would come to play in national and local campaigns was was not even imagined. That form of rot was still in the future. It did not happen by chance. By the way, I was outside the Hilton, pinned against the wall, watching folks unable to move being clubbed right in front or me, hearing the blows and the screams. It stopped before they got to me. I don't remember how I got home.

Chicago is and always has been a perfect representation of the unacknowledged dark side of Democrat Party politics. For all the party's talk of people-power and the democratic process, that Democrat machine-run city is still run by neighborhood bosses, corruption, waste, and big corporate dollars. The problems at that convention were the exact same as those in 2016 - the front-runner co-opting the entire party's delegates against a potentially more popular challenger who could actually beat the Republican candidate.

Dear “The Man,” Fighting is about as desirable as fascism. Nevertheless, we common folk outnumber you. We’re more devoted to our cause than you are, since yours is just a job. And we have learned from our history. Have you?

Fascinating! Thank you. I was flying back from a summer (selling books door to door--dreadful experience). Quick stopover in Chicago. Airport festooned with banners--WELCOME DEMOCRATS. Who could have foretold? Two things: (1) Kids that went there for POLITICAL reasons? Protest the war in Vietnam? Fine! Go with it, guys! The kids that were "clean for Gene"? They had their First Amendment rights. Just like me. Or anyone. Kids that went to the park to make love. Strip off some clothes and do a jolly little dance. No. My hat is NOT off to those guys. Go home. You're doing precious little good here. (2) My hat is off--WAY off--to . . . .of all people. . . . Mr. Hubert Humphrey. Give the man his due. He has it coming! He was STILL--VP of the United States. He had STILL to answer to President Johnson. He COULD NOT--with any decency--break with the policies of his chief. So it seems to me anyway. And there he was! Dauntless liberal warrior from way back. Sickened--horrified by the carnage in the streets of Chicago. And that feisty campaign!. He was a fighter, was Hubert Humphrey. He LAID INTO Mr. Richard Nixon. No,not with the vileness--the bitterness--the insults that blight our political landscape nowadays. Nothing like that. But he was vigorous and hard-hitting. And the polls inched up. . inched up. ;inched up. . He came within a whisker of winning that election. But he didn't. Mr. Nixon won. The rest is history.

It’s eerie. I am 68 years old. As I watched events unfolding during the 1968 democratic convention I was stunned by the polarization in this country. People who shared my political beliefs (and were peacefully protesting) were brutalized by the Chicago police. I remember many discussions at the time with my college classmates. It was clear that our nation was composed of two groups with irreconcilable differences. But then I went to graduate school, which led to postdoctoral studies, which led launching my career as a biomedical scientist and then starting a family and worrying about paying the mortgage and funding college for my daughter and my 401K balance. I stopped thinking about politics. But when I retired a couple of years ago I began to rekindle my political involvement and discovered that nothing has really changed. There are still two groups with irreconcilable differences. In the late 1960’s I was accosted in public because of my long hair and hippy clothing. Now, through the miracle of the internet, I am instead confronted on social media. There is still violent, over aggressive policing. The same types of people who thought that the Vietnam War was justified now want to build up our military. Those who thought I was crazy pursuing social justice want to deport the Latino immigrants living among us. Those who thought that concern over air pollution was nutty now feel that global warming is a hoax. It's a mess.

From Chicago in '68 through Nader in '00 and Berners staying home rather than vote for Hillary in 2016, the self-destructive "idealism" of the left is ever present. Republicans have been laughing at us the whole time.

That night is still seared in my memory. A newlywed in Connecticut, I watched the carnage unfold on TV, the protests, the Chicago Seven, the foul language of Mayor Daley, the kids being arrested outside the convention hall, the end to the peaceful, gentle anti war campaign of Eugene McCarthy. That spring my husband and I had campaigned in our state for McCarthy, and to the utter surprise of the establishment Democratic Party, McCarthy won Connecticut’s delegates. The McCarthy anti war candidacy was one factor in LBJ announcing on TV that he would not seek re-election. After that, Robert Kennedy threw his hat in the ring and in June, after winning the California primary, he was assassinated. The Chicago Democratic convention can be relived through the eyes of one of our most passionate, gifted, yet divisive writers, Norman Mailer, in his book “Miami and the Siege of Chicago.” No one captured the roiling emotions and factions better. I wonder what Mailer would think of what has been happening in our country under the Trump administration. I think his would have been one of the loudest and most articulate in response to the carnage of 2017-18.

"The police are not here to create disorder; they're here to preserve disorder." Mayor Richard J. Daley on police action during the convention

Sound familiar? How many voters from 2016, who stayed home rather than vote for the 'lesser of two evils,' as was the mantra of so many BernieOrBusters would have felt perfectly at home on Michigan Avenue in 68' throwing the very party that supported their cause under the bus? All the protesters in 68' accomplished was to guarantee Nixon's ascendancy to the White House. Humphrey would have ended with war, promoted civil rights, and advanced the liberal cause, but these people made it all about Johnson and Vietnam. I remember Richard Rodriguez's biographical account of where all the protesters went when the war ended. They disappeared...all the marchers and protesters suddenly became grade grubbing yuppie-wanna-be's who paved the way for Reagan and the obliteration of union's and the middle class.