1968 Redux?

[Martinjmpr]

I'm guessing most of us here are too young to remember 1968. I was 6 years old so I BARELY remember it. We were living in a suburb of Washington DC (Alexandria) and my dad worked at Fort McNair in DC as a civilian historian for the Army.

I don't remember a lot of detail but I remember a few snippets like the week or so we had to take dad to work at the Pentagon instead of Fort McNair because the rioting that followed the assassination of MLK had closed all the bridges across the Potomac. I actually toured the white house some time in the fall of 1968 as a first grader at Stonewall Jackson Elementary school (imagine a school having that name now!)

What I remember from that year and later was the palpable sense of fear and chaos and it seems like that is what Nixon used to his advantage to win election.

Of course, the democrats were in complete freefall, since the war in Vietnam had turned very bad early in the year (Tet offensive), Johnson had decided to not run for re-election and George Wallace pretty much split the democrat ticket by running as an independent (the South was still a democrat party stronghold then, I think 1968 may have been the last time it was.) So there's that factor, too. If RFK had not been assassinated, he'd have been the likely candidate but who knows whether it would have made a difference?

Normally a sitting incumbent president has an almost insurmountable advantage in a re-election (think about it: Since WWII, only 3 incumbent presidents were not re-elected: Ford, Carter and Bush 41.)

But this year, who knows? Biden is weak sauce, it's hard to imagine anybody getting excited about him. And certainly the hard-left Bernie Bros know they can torpedo his election chances by running a 3rd party candidate who will split the democrats the same way Wallace did in 68. What they will do with that power remains unknown but with all the rioting they certainly seem to be feeling their oats and its hard to imagine them shutting their mouths and obediently supporting a middle-of-the-road dunce like Biden when they think the power is theirs to take.

The Dems are going to go out of their way to try and pin COVID-19 onto Trump but I think that's only going to work with people who already hate Trump. And I think most of the other voters are going to realize that Trump was going to be excoriated for what he did in regard to the pandemic no matter WHAT he did.

It will be interesting to see if the riots continue whether there will be a "law and order" backlash the way there was in 1968. There are too many direct links between the democrats and the current demonstrators and rioters for the dems to be able to shrug their shoulders and say "it ain't me." I think there is a good potential that these riots are going to backfire against the dems in a big way.

[StagLefty]

Too young to remember 1968 !!!! Damn whippersnapper LOL

[Bailey Guns]

Yeah...you were too young at 6 to remember much. I was 7. I remember it like it was yesterday.

We left to move overseas that year for 3 years. Lived in Algiers so we missed a lot of the nonsense. Algeria had just fought for and won their independence from France in a pretty bloody war and there was still evidence of that around. We had a wall around our home with broken glass embedded in concrete on the top and about 3 feet of barbed wire above that.

I think of things like that and try to keep things in perspective. I sure as hell don't approve of what's going on here but even though what were going thru now is pretty ugly, it can always get worse. I don't need broken glass embedded in the top of my fence. Hell...I don't even lock my doors most of the time.

I can tell you this, though. Even at 7 or 8 years old I was already learning to hate what the hippies were for and what they did...like spitting on our returning soldiers and calling them baby killers. Same type of trash that's causing problems today. Then there were also the harder core leftists...just like now.

[brutal]

Yeah...you were too young at 6 to remember much. I was 7. I remember it like it was yesterday.

We left to move overseas that year for 3 years. Lived in Algiers so we missed a lot of the nonsense. Algeria had just fought for and won their independence from France in a pretty bloody war and there was still evidence of that around. We had a wall around our home with broken glass embedded in concrete on the top and about 3 feet of barbed wire above that.

I think of things like that and try to keep things in perspective. I sure as hell don't approve of what's going on here but even though what were going thru now is pretty ugly, it can always get worse. I don't need broken glass embedded in the top of my fence. Hell...I don't even lock my doors most of the time.

I can tell you this, though. Even at 7 or 8 years old I was already learning to hate what the hippies were for and what they did...like spitting on our returning soldiers and calling them baby killers. Same type of trash that's causing problems today. Then there were also the harder core leftists...just like now.

I had an older cousin killed in Vietnam in 69 and attended his service and burial and remember a lot from those years. Damn hippies.

CPL Terry Perz of the 101st ABN was killed by "Misadventure (Friendly Fire)" in Quang Nam Province at age 20 after 2 months in theater.

[Great-Kazoo]

Not only remember , but watched it on t.v

The only positive thing about our dad no longer with us is. He would have stroked out either yelling at the t.v, or getting in to a confrontation with some n.y liberal.