By Steve Thomas
Observer Nevis Editor
(Charlestown, Nevis) – Forty years ago today, America started to explode. For those too young to remember or those not too interested in history, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. His murder drastically raised the temperature in an already-overheated nation, setting off shock waves that carried on through November, when a shattered Democratic Party was unable to pull itself together and narrowly lost the presidential election, giving the U.S. and the world Richard Nixon in the White House and all the wretchedness that resulted from that administration.
Today Democratic leaders are watching the continuing battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with increasing dread, fearing that a nomination battle that lasts until the August convention will fracture the party beyond repair and pave the way for John McCain to enter the White House – a possibility that drives party leaders to despair in a year when economic troubles, unresolved social challenges and the Iraq War should usher a Democrat into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
1968 casts a long shadow in American politics. Things began to spin out of control, completely off the charts, on Jan. 31, but the events didn’t happen in America. They happened in South Vietnam, where fighting had slowed down for several months and Americans thought the war was nearing its end. It wasn’t. On the last day of January, South Vietnamese Communist Guerillas – the Viet Cong – and the units of the North Vietnamese Army launched a surprise offensive across the south, destroying the myth that the war was headed for an end on U.S. terms. Although the offensive turned into a military defeat for the Communists, the attack drastically undermined the faith of the American public in the war effort, marking the point where the goal of “winning” the war was replaced by the idea of “ending” the war.
Some of the highest American casualties were sustained during Tet. In one week during mid-February, the U.S. had 543 soldiers killed and 2,547 wounded.
Anti-war sentiment energized the presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who was challenging the Democratic incumbent, Pres. Lyndon Johnson. The shocker came on March 12, when McCarthy came close to defeating Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, signaling that displeasure with the war and Johnson was cresting.
On March 16, Sen. Robert Kennedy, brother of the late Pres. John Kennedy, announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for president on an anti-war, unite-the-nation platform.
Pres. Johnson made a televised address on March 31, calling for new talks with North Vietnam and announcing a major reduction in bombing. At the end of the address, he dropped a political bombshell of his own: “I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office—the Presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
So Pres. Johnson was out and the race was on for the Democratic nomination.
Kennedy rolled up an impressive string of primary victories, but Johnson’s favored candidate, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, had the backing of most of the party’s bosses and favorites. McCarthy hung on, yet only managed to win one primary, in Oregon.
The murder of Dr. King set off riots across the country, raising the specter of race war or revolution. On the Democratic side, many saw Kennedy as the one who could do the best job of bringing together the splintering party.
On the Republican side, Richard Nixon methodically eliminated his rivals in the primaries and was set to take the party’s nomination while the Democrats, riven by Kennedy vs. McCarthy vs. Humphrey, seemed ready to come completely apart.
And they nearly did.
Robert Kennedy died on June 6 after being shot the night before. Although controversy still rages over whether he would have won the nomination – it would have been a tough convention fight – there is no doubt that his murder devastated the ranks of the party.
In the last week of August, the Democratic Convention opened in Chicago, Illinois. Thousand of anti-war protesters showed up on the streets, while inside the convention hall politicians argued viciously over the direction the party should take. While this was happening inside, the Chicago Police – at the urging of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a prominent Democrat – attacked the protestors outside, arresting and injuring hundreds, all on live television, to the horror of many Americans.
Hubert Humphrey emerged as the Democratic nominee. He was far behind Nixon in the polls when he started his campaign in September.
A third candidate, Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, also entered the race.
Despite his early deficit, Humphrey campaigned tirelessly, but the party was too divided to every give him the needed support. The divisive primaries, the assassinations, the police riot – all had shaken the Democratic Party to its core.
On Nov. 5, the results were in and Richard Nixon was president, but only in a squeaker. The Republican received 43.4 percent of the vote. Humphrey got 42.7 percent and Wallace got 13.5 percent.
Since 1968, Democrats have constantly called for unity behind the party’s nominee. In 1972, George McGovern, perceived by many in the Democratic Party as being too liberal for their tastes, was ignored by many party heavyweights and went down to historic defeat, losing 49 states.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter, a surprise competitor, put together a string of primary victories and riding the wake of post-Vietnam, post-Watergate anti-Republican fervor, won the White House. It was the last time a Democrat held it starting for 12 years.
When Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996, he was widely perceived as a centrist and able to call on all factions of the Democratic Party for support.
Now, after eight years of George Bush, the Democrats want the White House again, but many party leaders fear that a nomination fight that lasts to the convention will prevent Hillary supporters from backing Obama in the general election and vice-versa.
According to the New York Times, “a Gallup poll last week found that as of March, 28 percent of Clinton backers would vote for Mr. McCain over Mr. Obama, and 19 percent of Obama supporters would vote for Mr. McCain over Mrs. Clinton.”
That could be fatal to the Democrats’ chance for success. Since 2000, the party has virtually chanted, “Every vote counts” and in this year, when more people are more interested in the American presidential election than in a generation, division, anger or an unwillingness to unify could give Democrats that feeling that they’ve been there and done that: 1968 all over again.
