The legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill titled the first volume of his World War II memoirs The Gathering Storm. In it he recounted the buildup of events that finally exploded into the war.
For those around in the year that was 1968, the thought is inevitable: “Here we go again.” Hop in the time travel capsule and journey back to the political Gathering Storm of 1968.
A personal memory. In July of 1968, I was a young page at the Republican National Convention on Miami Beach. It was my first time at one of these quadrennial political circuses, and it was fascinating to watch one of these closeup and see how the machinery of formally nominating someone for president worked.
In that case, the GOP nominee, not unlike today, was inevitable going into the convention. The winner of the primaries was clear — former Vice President Richard Nixon. The convention had drawn a decidedly small but decidedly peaceful protest, but since Republicans didn’t hold the White House, the protest was small and barely drew any attention. The GOP was unified, and the nation watched on TV as the convention went peacefully about its task of nominating Nixon and his chosen running mate, Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew.
Then it was the Democrats’ turn.
Gathering a month later in mid-August, the Democrats had selected Chicago as their convention city. There were the usual political reasons for selecting Chicago: The Democrat nominee needed to carry Illinois in the fall election, and one of the central players needed to accomplish this was the boss of the Chicago Democrat machine — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
But there was an unrecognized fly in the political convention ointment.
By 1968, incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Johnson’s conduct of the Vietnam War had become a major issue inside the Democrat Party. LBJ was so controversial that he had been challenged for renomination by Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who was eventually joined by New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (father of today’s RFK Jr.)
By March 30, LBJ was so besieged by McCarthy, Kennedy, and their youthful anti-war legions that he shocked the political world by withdrawing from the race. He was replaced as the party Establishment favorite by his vice president, longtime party lion Hubert Humphrey.
Then, the night of the California Democratic primary, primary winner Kennedy was shockingly assassinated moments after accepting his victory.
Suffice to say, by the time Democrats gathered in Chicago to nominate Humphrey, the Gathering Storm of 1968 had arrived.
The city erupted into a riot, with far-leftist anti-war demonstrators on one side and the Chicago police on the other. All of this was captured live and in color on television.
In the aftermath, an investigation of what had quickly emerged as a massive disaster for Democrats was held, headed by former Illinois Gov. Dan Walker, a Democrat. The Walker Report, as it quickly came to known, reported this in its summary:
During the week of the Democratic National Convention, the Chicago police were the targets of mounting provocation by both word and act. It took the form of obscene epithets, and of rocks, sticks, bathroom titles, and even human feces hurled at police by demonstrators. Some of these acts had been planned; others were spontaneous or were themselves provoked by police action.
The police fought back. What was called a “police riot” was the response.
There was more — so much more. The report, as described by Chicago68.com, had “over 20,000 pages of statements from 3,437 eyewitnesses and participants, 180 hours of film, and over 12,000 still photographs.”
Taken together, between the rioting of the leftist anti-war protesters and the iron-fisted response of the police, the Democrats — and nominee Humphrey — simply could not recover from this televised chaos that was brought about, without doubt, by the thousands of youthful anti-war protesters — and the response that came from the Chicago police.
Moving ahead to today?
The 2024 Democrats will gather from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22 in Chicago’s United Center — by pure coincidence in the same city as 1968’s convention. There they will renominate President Joe Biden, who is not at all unlike 1968’s Humphrey: the party Establishment’s favorite.
And, just as in 1968, there is, to say the least, internal turmoil in the 2024 Democratic Party as it prepares to gather for its nominating convention in Chicago.
Watching the repeated chaos swarming America’s elite universities as far-leftist anti-Israel protesters turn law and order inside out and upside down is to see a vivid reminder of what happened at the 1968 Chicago DNC, a long 56 years ago.
The “cause” was Vietnam in 1968. In 2024, the cause is hatred of Israel and Jews, a decidedly divisive issue in a political party whose history includes Democrat President Harry Truman’s being the first to recognize the creation of the state of Israel when it took place in his administration in 1948.
With all that is unfolding on these elite university campuses, it takes no imagination to envision these protesters swarming Chicago in August as the convention delegates gather. Indeed, it takes no imagination to see that inside the convention hall, there could easily be delegates who have been involved in these protests and are all too willing to raise un-shirted double-L on the convention floor itself as the howl goes up about “Genocide Joe.”
All of which is to say that the nation is engulfed in far-leftist protests right this minute on the campuses of America’s seriously left-leaning universities.
It takes no imagination to see more of the same turning the 2024 Democratic National Convention into exactly the same kind of riotous chaos that faced the 1968 Democratic National Convention. And — irony of ironies — all of it is taking place in the very same location: Chicago.
Note to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — today’s successor to 1968’s Chicago Mayor Richard Daley: There is a Gathering Storm headed Chicago’s way.
Buckle in.
