Democrat President Biden dropping out and backing Vice President Kamala Harris, is eerily similar to Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson withdrawing to back Vice President Herbert Humphrey in 1968. The Marxist wing at the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention engaged in Days of Rage to take over the Democrat Party in just four years.
The National Democratic Committee announced on October 8, 1967 that Chicago had been selected to be the site for the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the week of August 26,1967. The Village Voice in November 1967 reported that Youth International Party (“Yippie”) Marxist leader Jerry Rubinwas globally organizing groups such as the National Mobilization Committee to End the War (“MOBE”) and Students for a Democratic Society (“SDS”) to conduct revolutionary action in Grant Park facing the Chicago Hilton where the convention was being held. Rubin’s written invitation stated:
“See you next August in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. Bring pot, fake delegates' cards, smoke bombs, costumes, blood to throw and all kinds of interesting props. Also football helmets.”
The “battle of the century” organizing committee” led by David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden and Jerry Rubin announced by mid-1968 that about 85 organizations were scheduled to move into Chicago before the convention. Revolutionaries published their objectives to disrupt the convention and paralyze the city.
Dellinger and Hayden held a press conference in New York on June 29th and were quoted by the magazine Guardian as saying:
“We are planning tactics of prolonged direct action to put heat on the government and its political party. We realize that it will be no picnic but responsibility for any violence that develops lies with the authorities, not the demonstrators.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Barron's Magazine commented:
“In New Left rhetoric ‘direct action’ can include street barricading, fire-bombing, seizure of buildings and massive confrontations with the police . . . Hayden means, of course, that Chicago police must not stop his shock troops if they invade the convention hall, block traffic, or make exits and entrances impossible. Such tactics, refined at Columbia were tested first at the Pentagon . . . ten of the 'peace protesters' actually managed to penetrate the Pentagon. With their ranks greatly swelled in Chicago, how many more might gain access to the convention floor, even physically taking it oved More than a hundred anti-war groups mustered for the march on the Pentagon produced a mob force estimated at 55,000. For Chicago that number easily could double or triple. On June 29, both Dellinger and Hayden stated that most of the organizations present at the Pentagon will return for the Convention. The Yippies marshalled 5,000 at Grand Central ... All told, the motley crowd converging on Chicago could number a quarter-million.”
City agencies were aware of the planned disruption and adopted plans designed to deal with the expected tactics of the ‘radicals.’All police officers were placed on 12-hour duty, the Illinois National Guard was activated and readied in case of emergency, and Federal troops were located in readiness at O'Hare and Glenview air stations.
Psychological warfare was waged by the dissidents in the city for weeks, and several violent outbreaks occurred during the week of the convention, with the most serious incident being in front of the Hilton Hotel on August 28.
Despite wearing protective clothing during the confrontations, 198 Chicago Police Officers and dozens of National Guard personnel suffered injuries and received medical treatment for human bites, kicks in the groin, and objects thrown by the protestors. There were only 60 civilian injuries, and many of those injured were struck by protestors in the back throwing bricks that accidentally hit front line protestors.
Although main-stream media coverage was wildly negative due mostly to 4,000 out-of-town reporters. The arrest and injuries were moderate; the convention was not disrupted; the city was not paralyzed; no shots were fired; and no lives lost. But the protestors were successful at publicly ridiculing and embarrassing the Democrat Party social, educational, and governmental establishment that they called corrupt.
Four years later the realignment was complete with George McGovern as the Democrat Party’s presidential nominee running on a platform to end the Vietnam War, abolish the draft, amnesty for war resisters, guaranteed jobs for all Americans, guaranteed income substantially above the poverty line and to breakup capitalist monopolies.