Tuesday, November 21, 2023

56 Years Later...

 Heading into next year’s election, several factors remind me of the situation 14 political cycles ago in 1968. Like now, it was a tumultuous time.

We had an incumbent Democrat in the White House (LBJ) who had proved to be effective at winning important legislative victories (the Civil Rights Act), but who faced growing opposition to America’s involvement in an unpopular war overseas (Vietnam).

The Republican challenger (Nixon) was a figure deeply feared and despised by progressives, but the rising anti-war sentiment among the young (my generation) opened up deep fissures within the Democratic camp.

Challengers to LBJ soon emerged from the left (Eugene McCarthy, RFK, George McGovern) and after a poor showing in the first primary, LBJ chose to withdraw from the race for re-election. 

This set off a mad dash for the Democratic nomination, which ultimately was decided by party insiders, who selected a weak option, the incumbent V-P Hubert Humphrey over the anti-war candidates.

And how did that work out? Nixon won, and the country subsequently suffered one of its worst political crises ever with the Watergate scandal.

I’m not yet predicting or advocating that Biden will or should withdraw his candidacy, necessarily, but it seems a definite possibility that he may have to eventually given his low approval ratings and the tragic situation in the Middle East.

Should history repeat itself a la 1968, that could saddle our country and the future of democracy with Donald Trump.

On the other hand, if Biden does pull out sooner rather than later, that could help Democrats get a stronger candidate, like Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer into the fight against Trump — and give our children and grandchildren a better chance to preserve their democratic future.

HEADLINES:

No comments: