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How 1968’s Chaotic DNC Mirrored This Year’s Campaign Upheavals
The events at the 1968 DNC in Chicago have endured as a moment of political chaos and social change for America, with parallels to 2024's election.
Law enforcement’s heavy handed tactics sparked nights of rioting at the Democratic fete (see Haskell Wexler’s incredible 1969 docu-drama “Medium Cool” for more detail) that cast a soft-on-crime/soft-on-defense pall on the party for decades to come. It was a chaotic year that had already been a roller coaster of assassinations (including Martin Luther King Jr on April 12), escalating war in Vietnam, riots in major cities and political instability across the country. In that turbulent year, President Johnson caught the news media flat-footed when he disclosed during a Sunday night live TV address on the war in Vietnam that he would not run for re-election.
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