Trump's Second Coming: Chapter #6
The Summer of 68 Rerun
Does anyone else see the uncanny irony of the upcoming election, the political friction leading up to it, with the cultural crisis during the Summer of 1968? Since that all took place over 50 years ago, most folks today have no recollection of that series of events.
I clearly remember the period from April thru August, culminating in the rioting in the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That was my final year of High School, and upon graduation in June, I was be exposed to the draft. I got my letter and went in for a physical exam. The War in Vietnam was in it's 13th year, and President Lyndon Johnson was unable to bring it to a close, so young males were still being conscripted and sent off to the jungles in Southeast Asia.
I knew if I went on to college I would most likely receive a deferral, but the issue for many Americans in my generation was top-of-mind. Most of us opposed the war, for many reasons, not the least of which was the threat of being killed in action in some God-forsaken jungle in Southeast Asia.
Lets review the events that brought the nation into a state of anxiety similar to what is happening right now in America.
President Johnson had won a landslide victory in the 1964 election, after assuming the office with the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963. But his popularity quickly declined as he continued to believe the US would win a solid victory in Vietnam, even though all of the signs pointed against it. It didn't help that Johnson seemed beholden to the Military Industrial Complex.
Joe Biden, riding a wave of popularity after defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 election, decides to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, thinking it would be popular with his Progressive supporters and solidify his image as a strong leader. But it goes badly and he is humiliated. Meantime the "Build Back Better" themed economy is suffering high interest rates and high inflation, eroding American buying power.
Both Democrat Presidents, Johnson and now Biden, are tone deaf to their own malfeasance. They arrogantly dismiss critics as "extremists".
After peace candidate Eugene McCarthy won 40% of the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary in early March 1968, it was obvious there was a crack in the party unity. Soon thereafter, Robert (Bobby) Kennedy threw his hat in the ring. During the year of 1968, 16,592 Americans were killed in Vietnam, more than any other year during the war. Johnson's popularity plunges and he decides not to run again.
Biden is confronted with the same scenario in 2024. After a series of legislative victories, Biden once again believes he has regained his political edge, so he pursues legal attacks against his opponent, Donald Trump. But a majority of Americans see this as election interference and misuse of power. Then he agrees to debate Trump on live TV. Once again, Biden is humiliated as he appears frail and unfocused. Many Democrats are calling for him to resign his office at the end of his term allowing a different candidate the chance to mount a campaign with only a few months left before the 2024 election.
In April 1968, Martin Luther King is assassinated. Though some positive things were happening in the racial arena, there was an enormous amount of residual tension in the black community. Because of their generally lower economic status, black men were disproportionately dying in war. Jobs were scarce, and the increasing usage of illegal marijuana was sending inner city blacks to prison by the thousands. In June, the country is subjected to another state of chaos when Bobby Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, just as he assumes the lead in the Democratic Party nominating process. RFK had given a voice to the young and restless anti-Vietnam War segment of the Democrat Party and also attracted some disenfranchised young Republicans too.
When Trump won in 2016, he collected more black votes than any Republican in history. Though it was still a relatively small percentage, it indicated a weakening of dominance by Democrats. During Bidens first three years, more and more blacks as well as young Republicans are complaining that both party's promises of improving the lives of inner city blacks, uniting the country and ending foreign wars were nothing more than political pandering. Polls show Trump once againing drawing more support from mainstream black and conservative Republican voters looking for alternatives to the Beltway Fraternity that continues to seek hegemony through war. As did Johnson, Biden loses significant support from the black community.
By July 1968, the Vietnam War rages on and the Tet Offensive, which was supposed to bring it to an end, made matters worse instead. Both political parties promised to obtain peace but too many young people resented being ignored and lied to. When Johnson surrogate Hubert Humphrey jumps into the ring, young Democrats are enraged because they see him as a party apparatchik attempting to suppress the Anti-war Movement.
As Joe Biden continues to feed billions to support an authoritarian government in Ukraine, and print new money to underwrite his colossal spending on pandemic relief, minority civil rights legislation, the never ending war in Ukraine and his obsession with climate change and building a fossil fuel free economy. Americans are coming to a reckoning: Can we stand another term of Bidenomics and endless spending on a war that appears to be unwinnable, just like the war in Vietnam?
Just prior to the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention's opening ceremonies, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley decided to enforce an 11pm curfew on protestors camped out in a large municipal park. They had asked for and received permits to do so. They were restive, cooking out, making music and not interested in going to bed that night at 11pm. When police moved in and started using tear gas, all hell broke loose. There was bloodshed and arrests. Television viewers were shocked by the police violence and blamed Mayor Daley for over reacting. Later that night, candidate Hubert Humphrey is overcome with tear gas in his 25th floor hotel room as chaos ensues between protesters and police down below. After the antiwar platform submitted on the convention floor was defeated, Police were seen pummeling young people and sending many to the hospital .
Both Democrat Presidents mishandled war efforts and are viewed as puppets of the Military Industrial Complex.
In November 1968, Richard Nixon was elected President largely due to his promise to end the war. In the Summer of 2024, the Democrat Party is torn in two over Bidens rapid loss of popularity and increasing physical decay.
On January 6th 2021, when Congress met to count the electoral ballots from the November 2020 election, an estimated 1 million protesters showed up around the Capitol Building. They marched into the Capitol Grounds chanting "Stop The Steal" intending to influence Republicans to demand an investigation of unusual and possibly illegal election anomalies before the Senate confirmed the electoral college's selection. But then Capitol Police waded in, tossing shock grenades into the crowd, and eventually using tear gas, to break up an increasingly aggressive and hostile crowd. There was bloodshed and arrests, and President Trump was accused by the press for starting what they deemed an "Insurrection".
During their terms, both Johnson and Biden preside over protests where authorities use tear gas and make hundreds of arrests of Americans. Television cameras show Americans fighting with Americans. The nations is, once again, coming apart at the seams.
In June of 2024, during the first of two scheduled Presidential debates, Joe Biden stumbles through ninety minutes before an estimated 78 million worldwide viewers. He is roundly criticized by both sides of the political isle, and confronts demands for him to stand down because it is increasingly obvious his mental acuity and physical strength have deteriorated dramatically since he took office.
Meantime, former 45th President and current opposition leader Donald Trump continues to face legal persecution in New York courts, after he is convicted for 34 felonies on charges of obstruction of justice for paying a woman to conceal her relationship with him fifteen years ago. He is still involved with the "Top Secret" documents case that will probably get dismissed but has already had a strong deterrent effect on Trumps ability to travel and campaign, not to mention his checkbook.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It is increasingly obvious Democrats hate Republicans. In early July, Orange Is The New Black TV series actress Lea DeLaria said, " Trump is Hitler and this is 1940. Take him the fuck out!" Suggesting Biden could take advantage of the Supreme Court’s newly defined executive immunity rules and assassinate Donald Trump. We all remember so-called comedian Kathy Griffin, who back in 2017 held up a makeshift prop of Trump's bloody severed head. Remember when pop-star Madonna said she'd like to "blow up the White House" presumably while Trump was still in it?
In the Summer of 1968, Robert "Bobby" Kennedy is shot to death right after delivering a rousing anti-Vietnam War speech in Los Angeles. Five decades later only one man, Sirhan Sirhan, has been convicted of his murder. The circumstances of which are no less complex and misunderstood than those surrounding his brothers murder in 1963. Many people are convinced both murders were patsies used by some shadowy figures performing"inside jobs".
Biden has been relentlessly directing lawfare against Trump, mostly to discourage any substantive investigations of the crooked election. But also to legally, financially and publicly tie his hands behind his back. Trump is the Disruptor the Democrats Fear the Most because he makes no pretense he will play along with the Beltway Brotherhood.
Trump may not know where the bodies are buried, but he knows when the smoke cleared after the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Conventions riots, Richard Nixon won 290 electoral votes to Hubert Humphrey's 203.
On July 13th, while addressing an adoring crowd on a farm in Butler Pennsylvania, Donald Trump barely escapes an assassins bullet. It is seen worldwide because major media, that rarely, if ever, covers his campaign rallies, happens to be there. Controversy erupts because the traditional protections provided ex-Presidents vanished. His popularity explodes when he stands up, bloodied, but alive, and raises a clenched fist, hollering, "Fight, fight, fight!"
On Thursday, July 24th, Joe Biden drops out of the campaign, and endorses Kamala Harris. His speech is self serving and slurred. He shows signs of bruising, perhaps from a fall. It is a rather sad day for America because it demonstrates the total breakdown of traditional methods of selecting our leaders.