Politics
Political parallels between 1968 and 2024 as the Democrats return to Chicago
![Political parallels between 1968 and 2024 as the Democrats return to Chicago Political parallels between 1968 and 2024 as the Democrats return to Chicago](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/KAMALA-HARRIS-DNC.jpg)
The whole world is watching.
They want to see what unfolds this week in Chicago as Democrats convene their quadrennial political convention and anoint Vice President Harris as their 2024 standard-bearer.
But, the mantra “the whole world is watching” is from 1968.
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That was a battle cry from demonstrators who descended on the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968. They brawled with delegates, reporters and police. The war in Vietnam raged. And anti-war protesters wanted the world to know how they felt. So what better opportunity to converge on the Democratic convention and air their grievances – often within the view finder of a television camera.
The 1968 Democratic convention was the most volatile in American history.
Democrats hope to avoid such controversies this year. But with raucous, anti-Israel protests raging on college campuses and across the nation all spring, that may be tough to avoid. Moreover, this highlights the schism in the Democratic Party over the Middle East.
As they said in 1968, the world is watching.
Long before the demonstrations, political observers were already making comparisons between 2024 and 1968. After all, Democrats announced plans to hold their convention in Chicago. Parallels between 1968 and 2024 intensified.
1968 was the year where American society changed. The year featured massive disintegrations in political order. Meantime, social disarray reigned in the streets. 1968 was a temporal storm. A set of months and days on a calendar – metamorphosed into indelible and at times horrific images for history.
2024 might not rival 1968 yet. But its tumult stands out – even against other recent years of bedlam and chaos.
Kamala Harris is pictured over a view of the United Center, as preparations are made for the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for Aug. 19-22. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Vietnam besieged President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968. Republicans won three Senate seats and an attention-grabbing 47 House seats in the 1966 midterms. Johnson may have lost political support. But he never lost his political acumen. Johnson barely won the 1968 Democratic primary in New Hampshire and knew what to do.
Like President Biden in 2024, Johnson didn’t formally contest New Hampshire, Johnson ran as a write-in. Mr. Biden’s only true competition in the primary was Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. Much of the party upbraided Phillips for even challenging the President, lashing out at suggestions that the President wasn’t fit enough for another term.
In 1968, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., held Johnson to just under 50 percent of the vote in New Hampshire.
Flustered, but keen to the political stakes, Johnson bowed out in late March 1968.
“I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year,” declared Johnson in a legendary Oval Office address.
In fact, President Biden’s words echoed those of Johnson when he made the decision to drop out after his disastrous debate performance with former President Trump in late June.
“I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation,” said the President.
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Political violence was a hallmark of 1968. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. fueled riots across the nation.
Two months later, Robert F. Kennedy celebrated his victory at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California and South Dakota primaries.
“My thanks to all of you. And now it’s on to Chicago and let’s win there,” presaged Kennedy – an ominous namecheck of what lurked ahead for Democrats.
Sirhan Sirhan – a pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist who popped out from behind an ice machine in the kitchen of the hotel – pumped multiple, point blank shots into Kennedy. Sirhan Sirhan opposed Kennedy over his support for Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
The current Middle East conflict rocks the country today – taking the place of the Vietnam conflict of the 1960s.
But there are other similarities.
In 1968, former Alabama Gov. George Wallace (D) ran as a third party candidate.
In 2024, Kennedy’s son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wages a challenge to Vice President Harris and former President Trump.
![Trump after his was shot](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/trump-assassination-attempt.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
And there’s political violence in 2024, too. A gunman nearly killed Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month.
Once President Biden abandoned his re-election bid, Democrats quickly pivoted to Harris.
This mirrors what Democrats did in 1968. Democrats switched their allegiances to another vice president to be their nominee: Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Democrats formally rally around Harris this week in Chicago – home of the most-ignominious convention on record.
“Unless they were looking for this comparison, the Democrats are going back to Chicago for what’s expected to be an unusually turbulent convention,” said Luke Nichter, a professor at Chapman University who has written about 1968.
While protesters scuffled with police outside the hall, reporters tangled with security guards inside. Guards roughed up CBS correspondent Dan Rather on the floor.
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Unflappable CBS anchor Walter Cronkite was none too pleased with how authorities manhandled his colleague.
“I think we’ve got a bunch of thugs here, Dan,” said Cronkite on the air.
Tension gurgled between Democratic delegates over Vietnam.
“With (Sen.) George McGovern, D-S.D., as President of the United States, we wouldn’t have to have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago,” said Sen. Abe Ribicoff, D-Conn., of the anti-war senator.
McGovern would have to wait until 1972 to secure the Democratic nomination.
The echoes of 1968 worry Democrats ahead of this year’s convention.
“You have to re-do the right things from the legal point of view. And also from a political point of view. We want everyone to be safe. And I’m holding my breath,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “We have law enforcement at every level, local, state and federal, give me their assurance that they’re ready for this. And I pray that they are.”
But it’s unclear whether disturbances and civil unrest could supersede the convention narrative.
![President Bill Clinton raises his hand to the crowd before g](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/CLINTON-DNC.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Former President Bill Clinton raises his hand to the crowd before giving his acceptance speech Thursday night at the 1996 Democratic National Convention at the United Center. (Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
“As in 1968, a lot of it will depend on how the media covers the protesters,” said Nichter. “A lot of it, like ’68, is going to come down to (whether) the cameras glorify the violence and turn the protesters into the stars during the convention.”
However, 1968 wasn’t the last time Democrats convened in Chicago.
Democrats nominated former President Clinton for a second term in Chicago in 1996. And that isn’t even what most people remember.
In 1996, a pop cultural phenomenon consumed the convention.
Every night, the bopping, electronic tones of Los del Rio and the Bayside Boys would echo inside Chicago United Center. And within a few moments, tens of thousands of Democrats were gyrating to the unmistakable rhythm of the Macarena. On the floor. On the stage. In the aisles. The Democratic National Committee even published an animation on their official webpage, showing people the moves to do with the song.
The Macarena spent an astonishing three-and-a-half-months at number one on the Billboard chart. It was the number one song in the nation for 1996.
By the time the Macarena began to slip on the pop charts that fall, former President Clinton handily vanquished late Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and returned to the White House.
In 1968, President Richard Nixon defeated Humphrey.
Democrats hope the end result of their 2024 convention is a lot more like 1996 than 1968.
But win or lose, they probably won’t perform the Macarena.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Politics
How a ‘game-changer’ child tax credit for families became a priority for Harris, Vance
![How a ‘game-changer’ child tax credit for families became a priority for Harris, Vance How a ‘game-changer’ child tax credit for families became a priority for Harris, Vance](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/17e4d9a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6720x3528+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F89%2F1e%2F62e7d0aa427c9a485d247a88c63b%2F1338147-la-me-home-infant-home-visits-05-fo.jpg)
A child tax credit is quickly emerging as a major family-friendly issue and a possible bipartisan point of agreement in this year’s presidential campaign, touted by both Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
During a speech Friday in the battleground state of North Carolina, Harris proposed restoring the popular pandemic-era child tax credit of up to $3,600, and offering an additional $6,000 credit to families with newborn babies.
“That is a vital, vital year of critical development of a child, and the cost can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else, and we will do this while reducing the deficit,” Harris said.
And in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” last Sunday, Vance said he supported an increase to the child tax credit.
“Look, I’d love to see a child tax credit that’s $5,000 per child,” he said. “But you, of course, have to work with Congress to see how possible and viable that is.”
Engage with our community-funded journalism as we delve into child care, transitional kindergarten, health and other issues affecting children from birth through age 5.
What is the child tax credit?
The child tax credit was first enacted in 1997 as a way to give middle- and upper-income families an extra $500 nonrefundable tax credit per year for each of their children. The credit has been expanded several times under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
In 2017, President Trump signed into law an increase that raised the credit up to a maximum of $2,000 per child. The lowest-income families received a smaller credit than middle-class families — currently, up to $1,600 per child.
Then in 2021, during the height of the pandemic, President Biden signed into law a temporary, fully refundable increase that expanded the child tax credit to $3,600 per child under 6, and $3,000 for older children. This expansion allowed all families — even those earning the lowest incomes — to receive the full amount and have it deposited in monthly allotments directly into their bank accounts. The one-year expansion cost an additional $105 billion.
A historic drop in child poverty
This regular, monthly payment of $250 to $300 each month was a “game-changer” for families, said Christy Felling, director of communications for the nonprofit First Five Years Fund. “That’s really what had a dramatic impact on child poverty.”
The policy had an immediate and enormous impact. In 2021, the child poverty rate dropped by nearly half compared with the year before, from 9.7% down to 5.2% — a historic low.
“We know this works and has a direct impact on so many issues, including child poverty,” Harris said Friday.
Elyssa Schmier, a vice president at the advocacy group MomsRising, described the credit as “life-changing for a lot of people” and “wildly popular.”
Research has found that families spent the money on food and housing, as well as children’s clothing, books and toys. Some stay-at-home parents were able to afford the child care they needed to return to work. The biggest impacts were seen felt Black and Latino families, said Christopher Wimer, director of the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. “Its hard for me to pinpoint another policy that would be as effective at lifting kids out of poverty,” he said.
But when the expansion of the child tax credit expired at the end of the year, Congress did not extend it, and the child poverty rate skyrocketed to 12.4% — even higher than pre-pandemic levels.
At least 15 states, including California, have child tax credits of their own, in addition to the federal credit. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Harris’s running mate, signed into law a credit of $1,750 per eligible child, among the most generous state policies.
![A mom kisses her her 4-year-old daughter's cheek from behind, laughing as she pushes her away.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2bb6fd2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5095x1608+0+171/resize/510x161!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffc%2F85%2Fb0f701844f848e045006d2b0cbf7%2F1445877-me-standardized-tk-testing-mdb-tkprogramstandarizedtest04.jpg)
Are you a SoCal mom?
The L.A. Times early childhood team wants to connect with you! Find us in The Mamahood’s mom group on Facebook.
Share your perspective and ask us questions.
Where does the child tax credit stand today?
The current child tax credit of up to $2,000 per child is set to expire in 2025. Because it is not fully refundable, 24 million low-income children receive a smaller credit than middle-class families.
Legislation to increase the credit again has recently garnered bipartisan support in Congress. In January, the House passed a smaller version of an expansion, but the legislation ran up against Republican opposition in the Senate earlier this month and failed. Despite his stated support for an expanded child tax credit, Vance did not show up for the vote.
“It’s really, really hard to get legislation passed right now. It got swept up into the chaos,” said Felling, of The First 5 Years Fund.
So far, Trump has not mentioned the child tax credit during his speeches and rallies.
Harris’ focus on raising the child tax credit is among her first economic policy proposals of the campaign — and has advocates optimistic about another expansion.
“There are so many hot-button issues facing the United States right now, that just to get the spotlight and attention on child-related issues from both sides is half the battle,” said Felling.
Wimer said Harris’ proposal to provide an extra $6,000 to infants in the first year of life was particularly exciting.
“Our research that the birth of a child is quite often like a poverty-inducing event,” he said.
All of the costs of a newborn — including a crib, diapers, formula — add up quickly and can cause real economic stress for a struggling new family. An influx of money during one of the most developmentally sensitive moments of a child’s life has the potential to make a real difference, he said.
This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.
Politics
Youngkin takes victory lap against 'losing states' as Virginia marks $1B surplus: 'The playbook works'
![Youngkin takes victory lap against 'losing states' as Virginia marks B surplus: 'The playbook works' Youngkin takes victory lap against 'losing states' as Virginia marks B surplus: 'The playbook works'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/GettyImages-2158172958.jpg)
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a public victory lap this week, claiming credit for managing the Old Dominion’s budget into a $1 billion surplus.
In his annual Joint Money Committee Address before the Commonwealth’s relevant legislative committees, Youngkin, a Republican, laid out how, in recent years, most of the surrounding states’ growth had become attractive to longtime Virginians.
Youngkin began by greeting the Democratic committee chairs: House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian of Prince William, House Finance Chair Vivian Watts of Fairfax and Senate President L. Louise Lucas, who serves as the upper chamber’s finance chairwoman.
“Our neighbors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida have been rapidly growing,” Youngkin said. “Many Virginians were choosing to go there instead of here.”
VIRGINIA DECLARES ‘INDEPENDENCE’ FROM CALIFORNIA AS YOUNGKIN EXITS NORTHAM-ERA EMISSIONS PACT
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Faith & Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on June 22. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Most of those states shifted toward lowering taxes, he said, while Virginia had been “falling behind” since the year Gov. Robert McDonnell — its last Republican governor — left office, he said.
“Across the country today, there are winning states, and there are losing states,” Youngkin said.
The governor, seen by some as presidential timber in future cycles while facing the Old Dominion’s one-and-done term limit, said there are economic winners and losers state-to-state.
“States that are winning with job growth, population growth, opportunity growth — and others that are not,” he said.
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![Glenn Youngkin campaigning in Oct. 2021](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2021/11/1200/675/youngkin-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin holds a campaign event in Amherst, Virgina, on Oct. 28, 2021. (Charles Creitz)
Youngkin said such “winning states” are “domina[ting]” the national map in terms of economic growth and fiscal stewardship.
Most of the “losing states,” he said, are running with budget deficits, while Virginia and the other Southeastern states he mentioned — all but one of which are Republican-led — are faring better.
In remarks to Fox News Digital, Youngkin said that Virginia proves tax relief is a “catalyst for record job creation [and] business growth.”
“The playbook works,” he said. “We are demonstrating in Virginia that a state, once falling behind, can lead when we ‘invest’ in tax relief and understand that money belongs to the people who work for it, not the government.”
![wide shot of Virginia State Capitol](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/02/1200/675/Virginia-Capitol.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
The Virginia Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, is seen on Feb. 9, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“We’ve already delivered $5 billion in tax relief for Virginia families, and by the end of my administration, we will have delivered at least $8 billion in tax relief to help Virginians keep more of their hard-earned money,” he added.
With the surplus, the governor said, his budget plans to see hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements to the heavily trafficked Interstate 81, which serves as a 323-mile backbone of the state for much of mid-continent commerce as it connects the Northeast’s trucking hubs with several cross-country highways.
About $90 million of the surplus will also go toward a Virginia military survivors and dependents fund.
However, Youngkin warned against profligately spending the new windfall, saying that what befell Virginia in the past “will happen again.”
Politics
New poll shows most California voters want to see tougher punishment for theft, fentanyl crimes
![New poll shows most California voters want to see tougher punishment for theft, fentanyl crimes New poll shows most California voters want to see tougher punishment for theft, fentanyl crimes](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a503e7b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3984x2092+0+466/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb7%2Fa9%2Fc253aaa94f8e82a30339ccf583f8%2F1202702-fi-retail-theft6-mam.jpg)
A majority of likely California voters support stiffer penalties for crimes involving theft and fentanyl, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times.
The results of the poll released Friday showed that 56% of Californians would support Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl.
The proposition has been at the center of a battle in the state Capitol this year as Republicans and law enforcement advocates call for the undoing of Democratic reform policies that downgraded some felonies to misdemeanors, which they blame for an increase in organized retail theft and “smash and grab” robberies.
The poll also gauges how voters feel about initiatives designed to respond to California’s high cost of living. According to the poll, a majority of likely voters support a measure to increase the state minimum wage to $18 per hour, though those surveyed were more divided over a measure that would embolden local governments to expand rent control but still lean toward “yes.”
The broad support for Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime measure, comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats try to balance frustrations about crime among Californians with criminal justice reform goals that voters once supported.
The initiative aims to overhaul parts of Proposition 47, a measure approved by voters a decade ago that downgraded some crime penalties in an effort to reduce the state’s prison population and offer nonviolent offenders more chances at rehabilitation and freedom.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, a nonpartisan survey of California public opinion, noted the “great visibility” of retail theft crimes — caught on camera or witnessed by voters in their communities — as a possible reason why more than twice as many voters said they support Proposition 36 than those who don’t.
“It’s kind of outrageous to voters, what they’re seeing, and they’re linking it to the approval of Proposition 47,” DiCamillo said.
Becky Warren, a spokesperson for the Yes on Proposition 36 campaign, said that the poll “confirms that Californians want real solutions to address our homelessness and drug crises” and that the measure will ensure that “repeat offenders face accountability and consequences.”
While advocates of the GOP-backed measure — which has garnered support from some Democrats including San Francisco Mayor London Breed — see it as a solution to some crime, opponents said it will lead to a costly rise in the state’s prison population.
Newsom and Democrats attempted to craft a rival ballot measure this summer that would have addressed crimes like shoplifting with a less punitive approach than the prosecutor-driven Proposition 36. That measure, though, was abruptly abandoned by the governor last month amid chaotic deal-making in the Capitol.
Anthony York, a former spokesperson for Newsom who now serves as a spokesperson for the No on Proposition 36 campaign, said he’s confident that as election day nears, and voters better understand the nuances of the initiative, they will change their minds.
“It’s really about bringing back the war on drugs; re-criminalizing drug possession and wasting billions of dollars on prisons and jails with zero way to pay for it,” York said. “Quality-of-life issues are important, understandably. People want and deserve to feel safe in their own communities. But they also don’t want bad policies that are going to ruin lives and take us backward.”
Likely voters also support Proposition 32 to increase the California minimum wage to $18 per hour from the current rate of $16, with 52% inclined to vote “yes,” according to the poll, and 34% intending to vote “no.” The remaining voters polled are undecided.
The measure is backed by Joe Sanberg, a wealthy Los Angeles investor and anti-poverty activist, and comes as unions have won raises for individual industries, securing $25 an hour for healthcare workers and $20 an hour for fast-food workers.
Several cities including West Hollywood and Berkeley have moved ahead of the state minimum and already pay more than $18 an hour. Proponents of the measure say that pay should be more uniform across the state, while business groups oppose it over concerns that it will collapse companies that are already struggling financially.
On Proposition 33, a measure that could expand rent control, 40% of likely voters said they would support the initiative, while 34% are opposed. The measure would give local jurisdictions in California more power to regulate rent and would repeal a law that bans localities from capping prices on some properties.
The measure is sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles nonprofit that has backed similar rent control initiatives in the past, and is opposed by the real estate industry, which warns it could cause developers to build less — a problem that could worsen California’s housing crisis.
Ten measures in total will be on the November ballot. DiCamillo said that with a high-stakes presidential election, political excitement could trickle down and draw record attention to propositions that could significantly change California policy.
“I’m expecting a big turnout, and usually that is beneficial to the issues lower down on the ballot,” he said.
Times staff writers Anabel Sosa and Andrew Khouri contributed to this report.
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