"VISION AND HOPE"

 “VISION AND HOPE”

The Democratic Convention begins today in Chicago, and as I wrote last week, it calls me back to the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.  That convention was a total mess, as Mayor Richard Daley took over the convention inside and sent his police power outside to beat up and push back the 10,000 demonstrators against the Vietnam War.  I was at my home in Helena, Arkansas, after my college graduation, waiting to go to Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville.  I watched that convention with my mother and her brother Bud, who was visiting from Chicago on vacation.  Bud was a conservative, “boot-strap” guy, but he was always loving to Mother and me.  During that 1968 convention,  we had tremendous clashes because he felt that Mayor Daley was great, and I felt that Daley was a repressive tyrant.  We held it down because Mother felt caught in the middle. 

I looked back at my journals and found many phrases about that 1968 convention – here is one that catches my thoughts on it: from Tuesday, August 27: “I just saw a sickening and disgusting display at the convention.  A motion to adjourn was made by Donald Peterson from Wisconsin, but he was ruled down. Then the god of the old politics, the mayor of Chicago, said that the gallery should be quiet or that it would be cleared.  However, the delegates were tired of being pushed around by Daley and the other machines.  If that is Humphrey’s way, then **** it.  The police have clobbered about 20 reporters and no telling how many protesters.”   

The convention careened along until Hubert Humphrey received the nomination to run against Richard Nixon.  One highlight of a lowlight convention – Julian Bond, a delegate from Georgia was nominated from the floor to be Vice-President by a Wisconsin delegate.  Since he was only 28, he was ineligible, but he was the first Black person to be nominated on the presidential ticket of either major party.  And, speaking of that,  here’s a little trivia quiz – who were the vice-presidential nominees for the two major political parties in 1968?  (Answer at the end).

All of that intro is to say that I hope that this year’s Democratic convention does not follow the pattern of the 1968 one.  It should not, though there are plenty of anti-war demonstrators coming to protest the Israeli war in Gaza.  A ceasefire seems close, so maybe that will help.  And, the positive energy released by President Biden’s decision not to seek re-election should give the delegates a wave to ride.  Though she was not my first choice (Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan was my first choice),  Vice-President Kamala Harris has so far demonstrated maturity, vision, and energy in her road to the nomination.  If she can stay near this level, she has an opportunity to defeat the Trumpster.  She seems to have genuinely flummoxed Trump, and has him so off balance that he has returned to his hyperbolic ways and personal attacks.  May that continue throughout the campaign.

So, here’s hoping for a substantial and unifying Democratic convention.  The world has changed a lot since 1968, but as I have noted before, the historical parallels are striking.  Here’s hoping also that the parallel ends on November 5 – Harris needs to be president rather than Trump.  It would be so great to send Trump back to TrumpWorld as a loser once again, and it would be so great to change the conversation from grievance and grumpiness to vision and tolerance and hope.  The main issue, of course, is on us – getting the vote out.  Register to vote and ask everyone you meet if they are registered to vote – it they are not, get them motivated to do it.  Because of the Chicago fiasco in 1968, I chose not to vote in the presidential election that November - I joined thousands of other anti-war protestors who sat out the 1968 election.  And, as a result, we got Richard Nixon.  I won't make that mistake again - and please don't you do it either this year.

{The vice-presidential candidates were Edmund Muskie of Maine for the Democrats and Spiro Agnew for the Republicans.  Both Nixon and Agnew would resign from their offices after being elected – Agnew in 1973, and Nixon in 1974.}