Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
What 1968 and 1972 Can Teach Us About 2020
I’m old enough to remember 1968 vividly. I remember watching the nightly newscasts with my family in our San Jose home showing college campuses like UC Berkeley in turmoil and Viet Cong-sympathizing rioters and Black Panthers throwing bricks, Molotov cocktails, mixing it up with police, and storming college buildings. The images were not good for my father’s blood pressure.
I remember the 1968 Democrat Convention in Chicago where planned rioting in the streets broke out and physical clashes occurred on the convention floor out for all America to see. Rioting that fractured the Democrat Party with the emergence of Alabama Democrat Governor George Wallace as a third-party candidate. Yet all of that chaos and mayhem wasn’t nearly as widespread as it is today. And I remember how that election turned out.
In that ’68 election, Democrat Presidential candidate, incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was at odds with the emerging more progressive and anti-Vietnam war faction of his party initially led by Bobby Kennedy before he was assassinated and then the banner was picked up by “Clean Gene” Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern (who four years on would lose in a landslide to Richard Nixon).
Chicago rioters, who had morphed the appellation ‘hippies’ into ‘Yippies’ shouted into bullhorns outside the convention center that “The world is watching!” A rather feeble attempt to shame the more level-headed stalwarts of the party. Well, much of the world was indeed watching and in particular, Americans who had witnessed successive months of rioting on their small television screens and now in the streets of Chicago had seen enough.
Blue-collar Democrats, Nixon’s “Silent Majority,” turned out in substantial numbers to deliver him a decisive electoral victory — 301 to Humphrey’s 191 and even a slight win of the popular vote by some 500,000 votes. The other factor, it should be noted, that hurt the Democrats that year was the third-party candidacy of Wallace who took with him some of the old-guard segregationist Dixiecrats, who had for decades been a substantial force in propping up the party. Without Wallace, it would have been doubtful that Nixon would have won.
After their 1968 loss, the Democrats licked their wounds and pruned the Lyndon Johnson/Hubert Humphrey, and even the Henry “Scoop” Jackson and Sam Nunn branches, of the party and in 1972 nominated George McGovern to be their nominee. This time, there was no third-party candidate from a disenchanted Democrat or Independent. Instead Richard Nixon, probably in large part to Henry Kissinger’s efforts to break a logjam in the negotiations for peace with the North Vietnamese and accept a cease-fire in May before the US Presidential election, trounced McGovern, who was at the time the most “liberal” or progressive candidate the Democrats had put forth. Nixon garnered an unheard of 520 electoral votes and 60% of the popular vote. It should be noted that Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, given their extreme policy pronouncements, are even more radically to the left of George McGovern.
Now, let’s fast-forward to this election year. The year 2020 may go down as this century’s and America’s annus horribilis. The COVID crisis has given Americans a glimpse of how authoritarian and dictatorial their elected and non-elected local and state officials can be – even sadly a few Republican ones. It has exposed their desire for control, often with unsubstantiated science even as they lay claim to the scientific high-ground. Their dictates closed beaches and prohibited surfers and paddleboarders, for example, from catching waves because, somehow, these solitary people in the fresh air and warm sunshine could easily spread the coronavirus.
Bicycling, sailing, and golf, all outdoor sports that by their very nature are conducted out in the warm sunshine in fresh air and feature a good measure of social distancing also were deemed dangerous to the general population. All this while Democrat Governor Cuomo and other governors were sending COVID-infected elderly patients into nursing homes that enhanced the proliferation of the virus resulting in thousands of needless deaths.
Americans today have become so spooked, that they snap at each other in public if a face mask has slipped off of one’s nose and so spooked that many people have been spotted wearing gloves and masks while driving convertibles in the warm summer sun because, after all, the virus is everywhere in the atmosphere…like nuclear fallout.
The COVID pandemic and collateral often very unscientific hysteria over it aside, the rioting, mayhem, violence, and looting of 1968 pales in comparison to what we’ve been witnessing in 2020. And unfortunately for Democrats and their ludicrous attempts to blame the rioting and looting perpetrated by fascist and Marxist groups like Antifa (many of whom are convicted sex offenders and pedophiles and some who are youth counselors or teachers) and Black Lives Matter on the supposed “fascist” Donald Trump, they know, and Americans know, that virtually all of the violence and mayhem is occurring in cities that have been controlled by Democrat politicians for successive decades, sometimes more than 60 or 70 or 80 years.
In 1974, Randy Newman, an otherwise brilliant songwriter and film composer, but also very left-of-center in his politics, released the song, “Rednecks,” which seemed to make fun and expose the hypocrisy of Northern Democrat liberals who looked down on Southern Democrats from the perspective of a clueless Dixiecrat cracker and Democrat Lester Maddox fan. It had the following lyrics:
Now your northern n——‘s a “negro”
You see, he’s got his dignity
But down here we’re too ignorant to realize
The north has set the n—— freeYes, he’s free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City
And he’s free to be put in a cage in the South Side of Chicago and the West Side
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he’s free to be put in a cage in East St Louis
And he’s free to be put in a cage in the Fillmore San Francisco
And he’s free to be put in a cage in the Roxbury in Boston
In each case, the cities Newman cites were run by Democrat mayors and predominantly Democrat city councils or boards of supervisors. Boston, for example, hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1930 … 90 years! Such has been the abject failure for decades of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program and the welfare state that resulted in generations of dependency on the federal government. And throughout the years, the Democrat Party has dishonestly perpetuated that the African-American community has been victimized, not by the Democrat Party which has maintained control over these urban areas, but by greedy capitalists and the Republican Party … and now by the “racist” Donald Trump.
It’s abundantly clear, that the Democrat Party, by any fair historical assessment has, in the last several decades, shifted radically to the left-embracing Marxist/Socialist policy solutions for the economy and the environment, smothering any dissent within and beyond its own ranks, promoting the most extreme applications of abortion up until and after the moment of birth, and the appeasement of radical jihadist regimes and factions. I wouldn’t be the first to comment that this ain’t JFK’s or Harry Truman’s party.
In light of this radical Marxist shift, Joe Biden, a pandering, aging, and mentally-feeble career politician with a history of PDA (public displays of affection) issues, who has used his various offices to enrich himself and his family members through blatant graft with Ukraine, China, and elsewhere has been nominated to lead his party and laughably or alarmingly meant to run the greatest nation on Earth.
But the change-agent on the Democrat presidential ticket and for the nation isn’t Biden. It is Kamala Harris, who has a voting record in Congress that’s even more radically left than self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders. Harris and other more radical elements of the party are already having influence on Biden’s positions and perhaps even his thinking, much as a parasitic worm that invades the body of a snail and begins directing its behavior. As the nation continues to witness Biden’s cognitive decline, there may come a time if he becomes president that it will be clear that his erratic moods and confusion will prove too dangerous and pressure will mount on his family to get him to resign.
Over the last several months, thanks ironically in large measure to the COVID lockdown, America has been watching what’s been happening on the streets and sometimes in their own cities and neighborhoods beyond the blinders that networks like CNN and MSNBC attempt to put on them. And in the last few days, after both parties’ conventions, in real-time we are now witnessing a downward slide in Joe Biden’s polling numbers. As The Federalist reports, so many Democrat viewers of C-SPAN on the last night of the Republican Convention expressed their commitment to vote Republican that C-SPAN felt compelled to relabel their phone lines:
Before the Republican National Convention, C-SPAN’s open phone lines were labeled as open for “Democrats,” “Republicans,” and “Other” viewers to call into and share their opinions on-air. After Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, however, C-SPAN received an influx of callers who identified as Democrat but said they would be voting for Trump in November.
Due to the increasing nature of these calls, the network adjusted the phone lines to encompass those who “Support Trump,” “Support Biden,” and “Support Others.”
Yes, an anecdotal example but perhaps a barometer of what may happen on November 3. A shift is occurring in Democrat electoral ranks. Democrats uncomfortable with the radicalization of the party and Antifa anarchists that the party has deliberately attempted to downplay or in Democrat Congressmen Jerry Nadler’s case dismissed as a “myth” are expressing their dismay with their own party and willing to vote Republican.
Additionally, the Trump administration’s record of helping the African-American community and the testimonials from prominent and less-celebrated African-Americans during its convention, rather than the decades of pandering from the Democrat Party, appears to have played very well and should be factored into a notable shift in support.
When you also see videos on Twitter and YouTube of black Americans standing up and preventing predominantly white Antifa thugs or BLM fascists from entering their neighborhoods, it may be an indication that a sizable number of African-American votes will shift into the Republican column and to Donald Trump on Election Day.
“Who gave LeBron James permission to speak on the behalf of the black community?!”
Must Watch & RT!! 🔥👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/AglVKzPAGQ
— TONY™️ (@CAMO__17) August 28, 2020
The ongoing violence has even frustrated many black Democrat state politicians who have openly complained that their party is giving anarchists a free pass without condemning them and that their own constituencies are increasingly facing harm. That also doesn’t bode well for the Democrat Party and may well indicate more votes and vocal support for the Trump campaign from these lawmakers in the coming weeks. It may even result in some party reaffiliations after the election is over.
Now, after all of this, I’m not saying that a landslide on the scale of Nixon’s in 1972 is likely this November but I think given what I’ve spelled out, especially the ongoing violence and rioting, President Trump and the GOP could be on track for a decisive and uncontestable victory in November. That is, of course, barring any blatant attempts by Democrats to flood voting precincts with millions of fraudulent ballots that may take weeks to sort out. Like that would ever happen.
Published in General
It’s those mail-in ballots that scare me.
Great post, Brian.
I have only one objection. I recommend against describing the radical Left with the term that they prefer for purposes of propaganda – “progressive.”
Never let the enemy define the terms of debate.
I told my daughter that the 1970’s were much worse as there bombs going off all the time. I have checked for the record.
Those were bad times: 5 bombings a day, riots, serial killers, … Leftists have been evil for a long time.
Good find. Thanks. I think when things settle down, we’ll have to assess how severe and extreme the violence has been in 2020 but as a comparative exercise since the book you cited covers a span of multiple years, we could include the 8 years of the Obama presidency when the Baltimore, Ferguson riots and Occupy Wall Street riots occurred and some of the first Antifa and campus riots ensued like at UC Berkeley when all hell broke loose when some conservative speakers were scheduled to speak.
I would hazard a guess that the rampant looting we’ve witnessed just in 2020 exceeds what occurred in 1968 or 1972 if we’re comparing election years.
Bottom line: the stark similarity of each era’s violence is more relevant than the precise level of violence as it influences a possible similar outcome for another Republican presidential election victory.
A US Senator can’t walk DC streets even with a police escort without being surrounded and theatened by an angry mob.
As I recall, various revolutions have started with mobs storming capitol buildings. The overwhelming power of US defenses don’t matter if half the politicians and most bureaucrats support the revolution and defenses stand down while most major media hide truth with hateful fantasies. The mobs are not limited to the US capitol, but are seen in many major cities which act as political centers of power.
Mail-in voting has been approved by so many states and virus fears have so distorted public participation that the voting fraud will be immense. Trump would have to win by a landslide in fact to win by a hair in effect. If Trump wins, Democrats will treat it as illegitimate. If Biden wins, Trump will justifiably point to the avalanche of voting fraud. What then?
Meanwhile, it is clear that public life will not resume for another 5 months, at least. Such widespread and fundamental disruption of society is another common condition of revolutions.
I saw another advertisement of Black Lives Matter and similar groups by a major corporation yesterday with links to “donate” to these hatemongers. Millions if not billions of dollars are being funneled into the hands of domestic terrorists. Media cheer them and Democrats, including leaders, refuse even to criticize them.
I don’t know if revolution is coming. But I do not believe America is immune from that danger.
George McGovern also flew bomber missions over Nazi Germany in WWII. If he could be taken in you could see how many have fallen in with the rioters and looters.
Although I hope that your thesis ends up being the reality on Election Night 2020, I have a great fear about this election being stolen.
One of the great benefits that Donald Trump received in having Hillary Clinton as his opponent was that she went out and purchased the polling results that she thought she needed. Surely if the legacy media announced day and night that on Nov 8th 2016, she was going to win by 89% in a landslide victory, people would realize that not only was she a woman, she was a popular woman. Then they would vote for her.
What better way than purchasing the polling results to encourage the public to see her as the model human being who deserved the award of becoming our first female President?
Never mind her Uranium One deal with Russia. Never mind her theft through the Clinton Foundation of hundreds of millions of dollars that were collected on behalf of the Haitian people, but somehow never made it to them.
Never mind Benghazi, never mind her support of a philandering man who quite possibly was the first ever serial rapist who sat and held court in the Oval Office.
So the DNC was quite sloppy. Both Hillary and her Party began to believe the evidence they had paid to “be prettied up” as far as her standing in the polls.
Although I am sure that in California and other liberal areas like NYC, they shaved ballots away from third party candidates and away from Donald Trump, they neglected to steal much in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan or Wisconsin.
The DNC will be much more careful this time around.
It is no longer a matter of “neglecting” to bring in a few ballot boxes from some conservative precinct. Now the Dems have mail in ballots as a way to illegally adjust the vote count to their liking. Some cynics have put the number of mail in ballots as high as 51 million ballots!
Also, these days ballots, even paper ballots, are counted on the polling places’ electronic machinery and then the physical computer equipment is hauled off to a central area where its vote count can be “adjusted” via a flip of a bit of code.
And the DNC will not hesitate to do as they did in San Diego County during the 2016 Primary. In Jan 2017 it was decided in court that the DNC had flipped the ballots Bernie Sanders had garnered, and offered them to Hillary, handing her the Primary victory in that county.
I hope my cynicism ends up being misplaced, but I won’t be confident we’ve won until the moment Trump is taking Melania out for a re-elected spin in the WH ballroom, the night of Jan 20th, 2021.
When a Senator and his wife are almost physically mauled by a mob, while other individuals who were coming from the White House are missing their eye glasses, punched in the back, and manhandled, I am not sure that the revolution awaits us in the future. It seems to me it is already here.
I want to go back further than 1968, to the year before that. It was Detroit’s Long Hot Summer. Racism was definitely more in the open those days. Redlining was rampant.
But whatever the righteousness of the cause, the violence was counterproductive. The late Coleman Young, who was mayor of that city for 20 years, wrote this in 1994:
By the way the pre-1967 exodus that Young referred to was led by the automobile industry. They had slowly been moving production out of the city and into the suburbs for years. Today, Covid-19 may be the same precursor, showing companies that they don’t need expensive office space in downtowns, or whatever is left of them after the riots.
Surely a piece of what makes people so violent now is that they are primed to be angry and have nothing better to do.
They have no jobs and no purpose and are without hope; it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, but arson gives you the best of both worlds.
The saving grace of 1968 was that the center held. I keep wondering if it will again, and I have grave doubts.
Light a fire for a man and you keep him warm for the night. Light a fire ON the man and you keep him warm for the rest of his life. – Terry Pratchet (paraphrasing)
The center is not the answer. They are generally mush-minded, I think, as inclined to go along with bad Leftist ideas until the Leftist mask is pulled off.
It was a good thing that the center came to its senses, for a while. It pretty much lasted through 1992, and then Clinton fooled them, and they figured it out in 1994 and gave us a Republican majority in the House for the first time in decades.
Ah, 1994. The “time to put Hillary into the White House attic” election.
It’s not cynicism if you keep seeing the same corruption again and again. Still, you’re much more sanguine than I can hope to be at this point. Because of voter fraud and subsequent chaos, my prediction is that Trump is the last GOP president ever.
The center largely held in ’92 – they didn’t think they were getting a radical in Clinton. The center revolted in ’94 by rejecting the Clinton power grab when he did go radical with Hillarycare.
It is incorrect to call the center “mush minded”, unless you have a distorted view of who the center actually is. We’re not talking the sliver of undecideds over which the parties battle, but those who traditionally vote for one party, but can be persuaded to vote for another if the times warrant it. These are people who reject the extremists at both ends, and will flip parties if they think the other party has veered outside the bounds of normal. They stuck with Bush, but they saw little to distinguish between Bush and Gore.
They don’t want radical change. They don’t want revolution. It is imperative they see that the Left today is deeply revolutionary.
The irony of mail in ballots is that staunch Democratic states like NY, NJ and CA are pushing for universal mail ballots but I don’t hear much from rust belt states pushing for mail.
Also, the NBA agreed to use basketball stadiums as polling stations, a demand from the players union — this made me laugh for so many reasons
1968 had a serious influenza problem. I believe over 120,000 Americans died that year from Hong Kong (or Asian) flu.
GDP in US surpassed 1 trillion for the first time.
1972 was the first election in which 18 year olds could vote. Nixon attacked McGovern campaign as “acid, abortion, amnesty”. Only MA voted for McGovern. Says a lot about MA.
1976 Carter defeated Ford in a close race. Ford won 17 percent of the black vote.
I think Trump can get to 17 percent if not higher.
The 1972 Presidential Election Night coverage from ABC News…what to watch for…mention of a young Joseph Biden running for the Senate in Delaware who won by 3,162 votes…George Wallace expressing why Southern Democrats voted Nixon…Sammy Davis, Jr. talking about his support for Nixon. Also to note: The Watergate break-in occurred in June but the Woodward-Bernstein investigation into the break-in and subsequent cover-up didn’t gather steam into well after the election.
Incomprehensible why so many college-aged students are violent anarchists…or maybe not:
That properly should be “garotted,” not “strangled.”
The professor must not be much into reading.
I will make a practical demonstration. Give me that grade book. I am giving myself an “A.”
Try to stop me.
Q. E. D.
Eventually there is going to be a push back on this. I wonder how he feels if somebody takes him up on his offer and strangles him with his own intestines.