Part 3: From political show to the realities of war
Editor’s note: Is now much different than then? We worry about polarization in the U.S., but haven’t we lived in even more polarized eras? This series of stories by a Washington Post senior editor does some comparison, now and then. The Appeal-Democrat would like to hear from readers -- what do you remember of the times? Were there divisive issues locally as well as nationally? Are the issues that divide us more important now than they were in 1968? Comment online on our website or via Facebook, or email us your thoughts at Adnewsroom@appealdemocrat.com.
The line between political show and the far harsher realities of war, poverty and racial discord blurred in 1968.
The Yippies danced in the streets, and those same streets ran with blood at the Democratic convention in Chicago and in riots in Washington and other big cities. In Chicago, in front of a Hilton hotel, protesters chanted “pigs are whores,” and a line of police officers waded into the crowd, shouting “kill, kill, kill” as they sprayed Mace and whacked demonstrators with
“I felt that I was being chased on all sides by a giant stampede coming at me from all directions.” President Lyndon Baines Johnson
their billy clubs.
The scale of the confrontation was hard to fathom – thousands of police officers beating thousands of unarmed young people – but what was most novel, what oddly made it all so painfully real, was that the entire encounter, 17 excruciating minutes, was broadcast on network television.
“The whole world is watching,” protesters shouted, collectively hoping that the nation was still capable of shame.
A Gallup Poll that fall found that 56 percent of Americans approved of how the police “dealt with the young people who were registering their protest against the Vietnam War at the time of the Democratic convention.”
Throughout the year, in Chicago and across the country, demonstrators chanted, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” The power of the crowd was palpable. President Lyndon Baines Johnson faced jeers wherever he traveled; he ended up making many of his speeches on military bases because they were the only places where he could avoid the anger of the people.
“I felt that I was being chased on all sides by a giant stampede coming at me from all directions,” he said.
In March, Johnson announced he would not stand for a second term.
The kids on the streets – who had provided the energy for Sen. Eugene Mccarthy’s insurgent antiwar campaign against his own party’s president – had won one, but nothing was settled.
On the left, activists boasted of sowing chaos, which they believed would force the end of the war and the beginning of a new society. At Columbia, after student occupiers finally left the administration building, a sign was found taped to a wall: “We Want the World and We Want It Now!”
On the right, a vengeful anger elbowed out old debates about policy. “If any demonstrator lies down in front of my car when I’m president, that’ll be the last car he lays down in front of,” said George Wallace, the segregationist who was running for president as a third-party candidate.
The Alabama governor told crowds that “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats,” a message that clicked with disaffected, frustrated white voters. He won 13.5 percent of the vote and five Southern states with an appeal – railing against elites, government and the media – that would become a mainstay of Republican campaigns from Nixon to Donald Trump.
CONTINUED IN TUESDAY’S EDITION