Paula lugones
08/19/2020 - 12:00
- Clarín.com
- World
"A group of rebels nominated a pig they called 'Pigasus the Immortal' as president of the United States and the animal was confiscated. Policemen smashed cameras and heads of journalists who tried to relate the violence. Members of the National Guard beat and fired gases Tears thousands of activists and passersby outside the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, where the only live camera in the city broadcast the violence to the entire nation for 17 minutes. " This is how Michael Kazin described what happened in the streets those days of August 1968, during the most disputed and violent Democratic Convention in history.
Those events took place in a climate of enormous tension due to the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and that of one of the presidential hopefuls, the young senator Robert Kennedy. Decades later, Democrats today seek to avoid the ghosts of chaos and division of those turbulent times.
Kazin is now a professor at Georgetown University and tells Clarín that he was arrested those days while protesting in the streets of Chicago as a member of the radical group Students for a Democratic Society.
Police crack down on an angry crowd in Chicago. Photo: AFP
"That convention was special because the violence in the streets of the city, committed mainly by the Chicago police, did much to widen the divisions in the party and tarnished the campaign of Hubert Humphrey, the presidential candidate, before it actually began." , said the professor, who is a co-author of the book "America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s."
The Democratic Convention was held between August 26 and 28, 1968 . As more than 4,000 delegates from all states gathered at the International Amphitheater to nominate the candidate, tens of thousands of protesters crowded the streets to protest mostly against the Vietnam War.
But in addition, the months leading up to this convention had already been stained with blood and tension: the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King in April had left the country in shock, as had the crime of Senator Robert Kennedy, who was competing to be the Democratic candidate.
A party in crisis
The Democratic Party in 1968 was in crisis. President Lyndon Johnson had decided not to run for re-election, haunted by the specter of Vietnam, and backed his vice- president Hubert Humphrey. Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy and Senator Kennedy had already launched .
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Photo: AFP
The murder of the candidate in the kitchen of a hotel in Los Angeles on June 4, after having won in the state of California, not only shocked society but also the party, which sought to rearrange its ranks very shortly before the convention .
Kennedy's delegates were divided, with some supporting McCarthy and others supporting Senator George McGovern , another candidate. Thus, the Democratic convention would begin without a clear favorite. Anything could happen.
In protest of the American leadership in the Vietnam War, a pacifist group called "yippies" chose a solution in the streets: they nominated a pig as a candidate for president who they called "Pigasus the Immortal", who actually had a short life because it was confiscated while the protest leaders were incarcerated.
The National Guard was summoned amid great tension. Photo: AFP
The mostly peaceful demonstrations lasted for several days. People camped in parks, organized dances, and practiced martial arts in places that were not allowed to protest. The National Guard was summoned amid great tension.
Meanwhile, inside the convention the climate was also thick because the delegates in favor of the end of the war crossed with those that supported Humphrey, who was favorable to continue in Vietnam. There were also huge disputes between the white and biracial delegations in full effervescence of civil rights. They even fought over seats in the amphitheater.
Everything got out of hand when the delegates approved on the platform that they supported continuing in Vietnam . There the protesters outside marched in fury towards the Hilton hotel, where Humphrey was staying, and clashes with police began that lasted for several hours and ended with more than 600 arrested and hundreds injured.
A photographer bleeds during the violent crackdown on the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Photo: AFP
Larry Sábato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and author of "The Kennedy Half Century" , told Clarín that "it was the only national convention of the party in the television era in which the nomination for the presidency was was overshadowed by riots in the streets, mainly by young people protesting the Vietnam War. It was a disaster for Democrats and put candidate Hubert Humphrey in a deep voting hole. In the end, the elections were very close, so without what happened in Chicago, Humphrey might as well have won. "
Democrats learned that lesson well. It is almost impossible to win without a united party . That is why at the current convention they are all shown together supporting Joe Biden to try to retain the most leftist votes of Senator Bernie Sanders.
"Biden has done a good job of approaching the Sanders wing of the party. Hillary Clinton did not do it four years ago. Today we see which candidate is having the most success. The lesson of 1968 is that you can lose races that you can win if you don't find the right one. way to bridge the gap between the factions of your party, "added Sábato.
Everything got out of hand when the delegates approved on the platform that they supported continuing in Vietnam. Photo: AFP
On that Kazin agrees: "The main lesson of 68 is one that almost all Democrats (at least those who participated in the convention this week) have learned: when divisions in the party dominate the news of the convention, the prospects of victory of the party in the fall diminish a lot , if they are not destroyed ".
Sábato gives an example: "In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost because a total of 77,700 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin put Trump at the top of the Electoral College. (137 million total votes) If the Sanders wing had aligned and the Green Party would not have been on the ballot, Hillary Clinton would be running for reelection right now. "
Washington, correspondent
AP