Remembering 1968 and Why It Matters For Biden Vs. Trump in 2024
There are similarities—and of course, many differences—from the election year of 1968 and this election year of 2024:
The Democratic National Convention took place in Chicago in 1968; the Democratic National Convention returns to Chicago in 2024.
Both years feature an RFK for President campaign. Robert F. Kennedy ran in the Democratic primaries in 1968; his oldest son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is running as an independent in 2024. Polls in 1968 predicted a close general election race between Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey and Republican nominee Richard Nixon; polls in 2024 are predicting a close general election race, especially with the all-important electoral college map, between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.
Even the dates on the calendar are exactly the same, with Election Day occurring on Tuesday, November 5 in each year.
We know about the historic events of 1968: An unpopular President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection on March 31; four days later on April 4, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis; two months later in June, Kennedy was shot to death in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic primary; the following month in July, riots broke out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; in November, Nixon defeated Humphrey and several third party candidates to win the presidential election.
What are the differences between the presidential campaigns in 1968 and our current presidential campaigns in 2024?
I will never romanticize the past (especially with the absence of women and people of color journalists on the airwaves 56 years ago) but the major media outlets at that time—CBS, NBC and ABC—were more substantive at covering insurgent Democratic and Republican primary candidates and independent general election candidates.
This enabled voters to make more informed decisions, despite the technical limitations of five and a half decades ago.
In 1968, it was media coverage of Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy’s insurgent Democratic primary challenge against Johnson which led to his impressive 42% of the vote versus incumbent Johnson’s 48%. Three weeks later, a stunned Johnson dropped out of the race.
In 2024, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson and Kennedy were the three candidates who challenged Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. Instead of taking these candidates seriously, Biden refused to debate them, the Democratic Party establishment ridiculed them and the Democrats in the media ignored them.
The Democratic primary environment was so toxic for insurgent candidates that Kennedy left the Democratic campaign and announced he was running as an independent.
If there was an open Democratic Party primary in 2024—with Biden debating his Democratic opponents and the media covering the opponents’ campaigns—perhaps we could have learned in January or February if Biden or someone else should have been the standard bearer against Trump.
The Democrats have only themselves to blame for this current fiasco where they are asking in July—one month before their convention— “what is the process for replacing a candidate?” The process for replacing and choosing a candidate was the Democratic primaries, which they shut down before it really began.
Since 1968, the two major parties—with the complicity of their allies in the major media—have been aggressively closing primaries and locking out insurgents and independents from the ballots, the debates and the airwaves.
This excludes many Americans who are trying to actively participate in our democracy and offer their voices to help solve our many serious problems such as the financial hardships of the working class; violent crime; the border crisis; reproductive rights and women’s health and so many other important issues.
We are in a “break the glass” moment in our history where we need all hands on deck, principled Republicans, principled Democrats and principled independents, who will commit to honest dialogues in open primaries and expanded debates to create a better future for all Americans.
Let 2024 be remembered as the year we began to reclaim our democracy for all of our people.
David Cherry is President of the Leaders Network, an organization of faith and community leaders on the west side of Chicago; Founder of the All Stars Project of Chicago, a youth development organization; and is Senior National Organizer for Open Primaries, a national advocacy organization working to enact and protect open and nonpartisan primaries.
David Cherry
(312) 399-3166
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Defender.
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