In 1968, the nation lost several significant political leaders, which caused great civil unrest in the months leading up the election.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, causing tremendous problems in many American cities where residents of poverty-stricken intercity communities expressed their loss of hope by rioting. Many cities were under martial law during the summer of ‘68.
Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was himself assassinated on June 6 as he campaigned for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The Democratic National Convention was disrupted by war protesters (the sitting US president who had gotten the nation into the Vietnam conflict was a democrat), and without Kennedy, the party chose Hubert Humphrey to run against the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.
No matter who is in office, one party rejoices, the other moans and encourages their constituents to wait until the next election. Liberal or conservative, the pendulum swings both ways. Unfavorable cartoons and protests follow every president.
~ Timothy Mullin
