Why the 2024 Chicago convention is not the 1968 convention
And the war in Gaza is not Kamala Harris’s Vietnam
Democrats plan to convene in Chicago next week to celebrate as their presidential candidate a sitting vice-president who did not win a single primary vote. The candidate, a former senator, has a good record on civil rights but is tied to the White House’s support for an unpopular war. Kamala Harris may be no Hubert Humphrey, but the parallels with the Democrats’ calamitous Chicago convention of 1968 have sharpened since she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. Party insiders ordained her, as they did Humphrey to replace Lyndon Johnson, and like Humphrey she has yet to distance herself from the president’s handling of a war that has infuriated her party’s left.
Explore more
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Why 2024 is not 1968”
United States August 17th 2024
- America prepares for a new nuclear-arms race
- Can Kamala Harris win Michigan without Arab-American voters?
- Our new forecast for America’s presidential election
- Pious pupils in America perform better
- Studio flats are now affordable in many more American cities
- Donald Trump plays with fire in Atlanta
- Why the 2024 Chicago convention is not the 1968 convention
More from United States
A protest against America’s TikTok ban is mired in contradiction
Another Chinese app is not the alternative some young Americans think it is
How Joe Biden wound up serving Donald Trump
In some ways, his administration will look less like an interregnum than like MAGA-lite
How bad will the smoke be for Angelenos’ health?
Expect more sickness and disrupted schooling
Should you have to prove your age before watching porn?
America’s Supreme Court weighs a Texan law aimed at protecting kids
Tulsi Gabbard, Sean Penn and the hunt for an American hostage
A controversial trip to Syria in 2017 produced a possible sighting of Austin Tice, an imprisoned journalist
How flush Americans feel depends on their views of Donald Trump
Republicans expect a Trumponomics boom, Democrats dread a bust