Could NYC 2004 be another Chicago 1968 ?

[syzygy]

the 1968 chicago rnc was monumental in shaping our political culture. what remained of the left's
conservative image was destroyed on the streets of chicago, doomed the candidacy of h. humphrey,
and radicalized the left into the still loony form we bear today. bombings, kidnappings, revolutionary
armies, murders, were all spawned in the wake of the left's performance.

i think the nyc 2004 convention can be a chicago redux with less fall-out over the long-term. if those
wonderful anarchists and hapless socialists manage to embarrass themselves on a mass scale and the
police exercise restraint then the public could be frightened again to turn a very close race in favor of
bush. the only sad part to this equation is the harm they may cause to police officers, bystanders, or
property is whats needed to jolt the public.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: syzygy
the 1968 chicago rnc was monumental in shaping our political culture. what remained of the left's
conservative image was destroyed on the streets of chicago, doomed the candidacy of h. humphrey,
and radicalized the left into the still loony form we bear today. bombings, kidnappings, revolutionary
armies, murders, were all spawned in the wake of the left's performance.

i think the nyc 2004 convention can be a chicago redux with less fall-out over the long-term. if those
wonderful anarchists and hapless socialists manage to embarrass themselves on a mass scale and the
police exercise restraint then the public could be frightened again to turn a very close race in favor of
bush. the only sad part to this equation is the harm they may cause to police officers, bystanders, or
property is whats needed to jolt the public.

Correction: the still loony form we bear today. bombings, kidnappings, revolutionary armies, murders, were all spawned in the wake of the right's performance.

You think people are get that upset for no particular reason???

It's called oppression and it is something not supposed to be in the U.S.

The Country is already "jolted", we'll just see how much.

 

[Thump553]

Not a chance. For all the passion against the war (and moreso against Bush himself), these are a pale shadow of the situation in 1968. Secondly, the police are far better prepared and trained to handle demonstrations (or riots) today. In 1968, Chicago's Mayor Daly (one of the last old-line strong ward bosses) was mortified that people were demonstrating at his moment in the sun and basically ordered the police to quell all demonstrations with essentially unbridled force. This backfired enormously, causing great television for the opposing side. Especially when so many of the delegates were inclined to agree with the demonstrators, which decidely will not be the case at the NYC GOP convention.

NYC will have vehement demonstrators, for sure, (every major political event these days does) but they will be cordoned off miles away. I predict the GOP convention will reference 9/11 and this Bush's "sterling" leadership thereat approximately every 30-45 seconds. The whole purpose of having it in NYC is to drape Bush in the cloak of 9/11 again.

 

[rextilleon]

Karl Rove and the other Nazis in the White House have already indicated that even if violence is precipitated by anarchists, communists etc they will blame it on the Democrats.

 

[Jhhnn]

What we've seen so far is much like the 60's, where violence was precipitated by agent provocateurs planted by the govt, and, in the case of 1968 Chicago, by the police themselves. The Grant's park incident is a classic example of the latter- surround the park, tell everybody they have to leave, don't let 'em out... Attack, blaming the demonstrators because they didn't obey a police order...

Nice Catch 22.

Accounts from the recent violence in Miami read much the same...

Anybody who thinks such a display would benefit the Repubs is sadly mistaken, if history is any clue. The incident fractured the Dems, giving Nixon victory.