In 1968 - horribly - Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down by white supremacist James Earl Ray in April. Riots followed. Robert F. Kennedy was murdered by Palestinian militant Sirhan Sirhan in June. The Democrats' convention was marred by riots in August.
In reaction to bombs' being set off by domestic terrorists and violent protests by the Far Left, offended (and possibly frightened) Americans lurched rightward. The "silent majority" was repulsed by the foul-mouthed, head-banded, fringe-wearing anarchists, hippies and Yippies whom they blamed for violence and disorder. They also blamed Democrats.
The White House was handed over to Richard Nixon. Republicans held it for most of the next 40 years.
I barely recognize the country being described in some of the historic accounts I have read of the year, and the period. There was violence, yes, but it didn't touch the average American whose exposure to it came through TV, which was becoming the shaper of the national psyche.
Nixon won the presidency in 1968 because the Democratic Party tore itself apart during its Chicago convention. Crazies waving Viet Cong flags marched through the streets, some throwing epithets and excrement at cops, who overreacted and waded into crowds with clubs swinging.
The crowd chanted, "The whole world is watching."
America was watching, too.
The Hard Left was in rebellion against a convention at which the "old boys network" would hand the nomination to Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey even though he'd sidestepped the primaries, preferring to corral votes in non-primary states. (The residue of the "old boys network" today are called "super delegates.")
