Stephen B. Cohen: Democratic Party's split may lead down a path similar to 1968's
[Stephen B. Cohen is a Georgetown University law professor who worked in the 1968 presidential campaign of Sen. Eugene McCarthy.]
Consider the stunning parallels between the contest for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2008 and the same contest 40 years earlier in 1968, which ended in a party divided. Both contests feature insurgent political campaigns, and the catalyst for the insurgency in both cases is opposition to an unpopular and misconceived war: in 2008 in Iraq, in 1968 in Vietnam.
In both contests, there are senators from Midwestern states: in 2008, Barack Obama from Illinois; in 1968, Eugene McCarthy from Minnesota. Both candidates denounce the usual ways of doing business in Washington and call for a new politics.
Both campaigns draw millions of younger voters to embrace political activism. The masses of young people flocking to Obama recall the hordes of students who became "clean for Gene" and canvassed door-to-door for McCarthy in the early 1968 primaries in New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
Moreover, both draw tens of thousands of supporters to their public events. During the summer of 1968, leading up to the August Democratic convention in Chicago, McCarthy spoke to crowds of 15,000 in downtown Pittsburgh, 30,000 at Look Park in Houston, Texas, and 50,000 at Fenway Park in Boston.
There are of course, differences. ...
The reason for Humphrey's convention victory was that a majority of the convention delegates were unelected, and it was these unelected delegates who determined the outcome. The result was a Democratic Party split asunder. This split between anti-Vietnam War Democrats and pro-Vietnam War Humphrey Democrats helped elect the 1968 Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon.
The past is not necessarily prologue. Yet 40 years later, the Democratic Party faces the possibility of another self-defeating split caused by the selection of the less-popular presidential candidate by unelected convention delegates....
Read entire article at Philadelphia Inquirer
Consider the stunning parallels between the contest for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2008 and the same contest 40 years earlier in 1968, which ended in a party divided. Both contests feature insurgent political campaigns, and the catalyst for the insurgency in both cases is opposition to an unpopular and misconceived war: in 2008 in Iraq, in 1968 in Vietnam.
In both contests, there are senators from Midwestern states: in 2008, Barack Obama from Illinois; in 1968, Eugene McCarthy from Minnesota. Both candidates denounce the usual ways of doing business in Washington and call for a new politics.
Both campaigns draw millions of younger voters to embrace political activism. The masses of young people flocking to Obama recall the hordes of students who became "clean for Gene" and canvassed door-to-door for McCarthy in the early 1968 primaries in New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
Moreover, both draw tens of thousands of supporters to their public events. During the summer of 1968, leading up to the August Democratic convention in Chicago, McCarthy spoke to crowds of 15,000 in downtown Pittsburgh, 30,000 at Look Park in Houston, Texas, and 50,000 at Fenway Park in Boston.
There are of course, differences. ...
The reason for Humphrey's convention victory was that a majority of the convention delegates were unelected, and it was these unelected delegates who determined the outcome. The result was a Democratic Party split asunder. This split between anti-Vietnam War Democrats and pro-Vietnam War Humphrey Democrats helped elect the 1968 Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon.
The past is not necessarily prologue. Yet 40 years later, the Democratic Party faces the possibility of another self-defeating split caused by the selection of the less-popular presidential candidate by unelected convention delegates....