The withdrawal of the American president, Joe Biden, from the race for the White House throws the country into a dizzying election year, which has not been seen in the history of the USA since 1968, which was an “annus horribilis” full of surprises, marked by violent protests, two assassinations and a presidential retreat similar to the one on Sunday and which brought with it one of the biggest electoral failures for the democrats, writes EFE on Monday.
The series of bad luck that led Biden to withdraw from the electoral race on Sunday brings to mind the situation of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969), who surprised the world by announcing that he would not seek re-election just a few months before a party conventions.
The parallels are many: Lyndon B. Johnson, with two active heart attacks and in a delicate state of health, decided in March 1968 not to run for re-election due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, which led to a open party convention, in August of the same year, and which, like this year, took place in Chicago.
“The biggest similarity, when I look back in American history, is the 1968 primaries in which my father participated and was assassinated,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of Robert F. Kennedy, who ran to the presidency in that fateful year and was assassinated in June.
1968, “annus horribilis” for mankind
1968 was a tumultuous year in US history. The widespread dissatisfaction with the war in Vietnam (1955-1975), to which were added the concerns of his allies about his delicate state of health, left their mark on Johnson.
On March 31, 1968, he gave in to the pressure and in a televised speech announced his exit from the electoral race: “I will not seek nor will I accept the nomination of my party for a new presidential mandate.”
That surprise speech set off a race against time to find a Democratic candidate capable of taking on Republican Richard Nixon, who had a spectacular lead over his rivals in the polls.
The brother of former President John F. Kennedy (JFK), Robert (RFK), who ran for the Democratic nomination alongside Eugene McCarthy, an anti-war activist, took up this task and came out on top.
After Kennedy’s assassination, which shocked society, not two months after announcing his candidacy, McCarthy faced Hubert Humphrey in the primary elections of the Democratic Party for the designation of the party’s candidate for the White House, at the convention held in Chicago. Humphrey won the nomination, angering factions opposed to intervention in Vietnam.
Between that violent year, also marked by the assassination of the activist Martin Luther King, and 2024 there are certain similarities, including if you take into account the assassination attempt against Republican candidate Donald Trump, during a rally in Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Chicago, a cursed bastion for Democrats
Coincidence or destiny, this year’s Democratic convention will be held in Chicago. That of 1968 was a turning point for the Democrats and will go down in the annals of history as one of the most violent, after clashes between anti-war protesters and the police resulted in mass arrests in an atmosphere of chaos.
“It was chaos that exploded and destroyed the Democratic Party for a decade,” said independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
