Politics

/

ArcaMax

Martin Schram: A 1968 preview of our 2024 challenge

Martin Schram, Tribune News Service on

Published in Op Eds

So here we are, staring at our news screens and feeling like we are staring into someone else’s mirror. We don't even recognize the face that’s staring back at us.

It’s the new post-election face of America’s democracy. Kind of angry. Kind of unstable, as if fighting an enemy within.

Is that the way the world sees us? (Yes, now it is.)

We have just revealed this new face of ourselves for all the world to see. Frankly it’s not a face we want to look at here at home. But it is fixable. In one sense, it could have been a cheerful face, for we’ve just turned the last page of our epic election novel: Republican former president Donald Trump, just capped more than a year of legal and scandalous adversities with a triumph made for Hollywood – an overwhelming presidential election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

But America has been so bitterly at war within itself – and here it seems far from certain that it can ease, let alone cease. But it must. And here we must lead our leaders and each other to insist that it stop. Political adversaries must treat each other with patriotic and political respect. No more demonizing, deceiving, or disrespecting.

And here I have some optimism to share. Forging real respect among adversaries doesn’t have to be as difficult as you assume. I know because I had an astonishing and optimistic preview of that way back in 1968.

Walk back with me along the first presidential campaign trail I covered as a young Newsday correspondent. In a real sense, things in 1968 looked much like those populist Trump rallies you just saw on your smartphone news screens, in the northern and Midwest industrial states. We saw blue-collar factory workers wearing campaign buttons that bore the name of their favorite non-union populist: “Wallace.”

Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace, a southern Democrat and staunch segregationist, is the independent candidate running against labor’s candidate Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon.

Wallace’s large, cheering autumn 1968 crowds look like every Trump rally you've seen since 2015. But when you get to know those folks you find they aren't even aware of the racial strife. They just are damn tired of being disrespected by liberal Ivy Leaguers and bureaucrats. They are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

So they whoop when Wallace tells them he has two four-letter words for all those antiwar protesters – “work” and “soap.” They guffaw when Wallace calls government bureaucrats “pointy-headed intellectuals who can't even park a bicycle straight” and carry briefcases with “nothing but peanut butter sandwiches” inside.

On this autumn day I began asking Wallace’s cheering blue collar fans who they liked for president way back in January, long before Wallace decided to run. They mentioned just one name most often: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (who was assassinated in June).

 

They were surprised when I told them both liberal integrationist Kennedy and conservative segregationist Wallace would be shocked to hear that because they saw each other as political opposites. They said they didn't care about the politics or race stuff. They just knew Wallace and Kennedy were the only candidates who respected them and were talking to “folks like me.”

You should try listening to those real 1968 blue collar voters with your 2024 ears:

Hear the New Jersey postman, who proudly wore his Wallace button, but said he voted for “Bobby” in the springtime primary: “He had the same thing Wallace has got what none of the other politicians have: guts. Bobby was a good man because he was not afraid. Now Wallace is the only guy who isn't talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, trying to please everyone at once.”

Do your 2024 ears hear that as if he was talking today about Trump?

An Edison, N.J., woman explained why she liked Kennedy and Wallace: “They say what they mean and they don’t beat around the bush.”

Your 2024 ears would never hear that 1968 woman say the same thing about Kamala Harris.

Many of that 1968 populist’s crowd were decent blue-collar folks who also wanted to make America great again. Today we must strive to ease tensions in the face of America’s democracy. But the real truth is that we have no control over how America’s mercurial 45 th and 47 th president will decide he wants to shape his legacy.

Surely Trump is grateful and gleeful because his election victory is also his ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. We can only hope he is on best behavior. Maybe even checking out Mount Rushmore to see if there’s room for one more.

____

_____


©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

ACLU

ACLU

By The ACLU
Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman

By Amy Goodman
Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams

By Armstrong Williams
Austin Bay

Austin Bay

By Austin Bay
Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

By Ben Shapiro
Betsy McCaughey

Betsy McCaughey

By Betsy McCaughey
Bill Press

Bill Press

By Bill Press
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

By Cal Thomas
Christine Flowers

Christine Flowers

By Christine Flowers
Clarence Page

Clarence Page

By Clarence Page
Danny Tyree

Danny Tyree

By Danny Tyree
David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi

By David Harsanyi
Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders

By Debra Saunders
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager
Dick Polman

Dick Polman

By Dick Polman
Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson

By Erick Erickson
Froma Harrop

Froma Harrop

By Froma Harrop
Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

By Jacob Sullum
Jamie Stiehm

Jamie Stiehm

By Jamie Stiehm
Jeff Robbins

Jeff Robbins

By Jeff Robbins
Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson

By Jessica Johnson
Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower
Joe Conason

Joe Conason

By Joe Conason
Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi

By Joe Guzzardi
John Micek

John Micek

By John Micek
John Stossel

John Stossel

By John Stossel
Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

By Josh Hammer
Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Laura Hollis

Laura Hollis

By Laura Hollis
Marc Munroe Dion

Marc Munroe Dion

By Marc Munroe Dion
Michael Barone

Michael Barone

By Michael Barone
Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan

By Michael Reagan
Mona Charen

Mona Charen

By Mona Charen
Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

By Oliver North and David L. Goetsch
R. Emmett Tyrrell

R. Emmett Tyrrell

By R. Emmett Tyrrell
Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

By Rachel Marsden
Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry

By Rich Lowry
Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

By Robert B. Reich
Ruben Navarrett Jr

Ruben Navarrett Jr

By Ruben Navarrett Jr.
Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus

By Ruth Marcus
S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

By S.E. Cupp
Salena Zito

Salena Zito

By Salena Zito
Star Parker

Star Parker

By Star Parker
Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore

By Stephen Moore
Susan Estrich

Susan Estrich

By Susan Estrich
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

By Ted Rall
Terence P. Jeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey

By Terence P. Jeffrey
Tim Graham

Tim Graham

By Tim Graham
Tom Purcell

Tom Purcell

By Tom Purcell
Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy

By Veronique de Rugy
Victor Joecks

Victor Joecks

By Victor Joecks
Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

Comics

David M. Hitch John Branch Dave Whamond Drew Sheneman David Fitzsimmons A.F. Branco