Stop me when this sounds familiar. The times are uncertain, with a long-running war abroad and a sense of rising division at home. There’s violence at political events and in our streets and talk on the right of a “silent majority.” The Democratic Party is internally divided between an older, more establishment faction and a left-leaning insurgency fueled by young activists. For the insurgents, the Democratic Party’s process for nominating presidential candidates seems rigged and undemocratic.
That, in a nutshell, was 1968, when Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s support among Democratic Party insiders assured him the nomination while anti-war candidates Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy rallied young activists as they competed in primaries. But given the extended 2016 primary contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — and given much of the media narrative that surrounds it — that account of a divided Democratic Party resonates even today. In 1968, the Democratic establishment won a temporary victory by nominating Humphrey, but the insurgents won the real prize: control over the party moving forward. Theyrewrote the rules for how the Democratic Party nominates presidential candidates, and four years later, their votes made the liberal, anti-war George McGovern the nominee. The New Deal coalition in presidential politics was in decline, as civil rights and anti-war activists took the helm of the party from organized labor and Southerners. For the full article click here
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