Lubbock Left

Because I was traveling again this weekend sans internet, I’ve gone dark like Palin (but not hiking the Appalachian Trail like Sanford). I’m back once more.

I had some time to catch up on reading while traveling. One of the books that has fascinated me is No One Was Killed: The Democratic National Convention, August 1968 by John Schultz. It’s an on-the-ground account of the unrest in the streets and in the convention hall at one of the most historic moments for the Democratic Party.

The reason I’m fascinated with the 1968 Convention (and the 1968 election in general) is that the leadership of the Democratic Party failed at pretty much every level it could fail. Every major presidential candidate — or almost-candidate in the case of LBJ — had critical flaws in their campaign. The Party insiders who ran the convention clearly got it wrong by deliberately thwarting the will of the electorate. Even the activists from all corners of the Left got their method wrong in some important way.

But, in the aftermath of that failure, the seeds were sown for a better, more “little-d democratic” Democratic Party. More primaries, more elected positions, and more people-powered participation became the trend after 1968. It wasn’t a quick or easy process, but 40 years later look where we are.

In the 2008 Democratic Primary, pundits predicted a terrible split in the Democratic Party, even a showdown in Denver. But this time, the process worked; the Party leadership worked. The ‘08 primary was grueling and lengthy, but we ended up uniting behind a winning candidate who reflects the values of the Democratic Party.

In their own way, the GOP has their own 1968-Chicago problem in miniature. They have a winner-take-all delegate allocation system in the state primaries. And remember the parallel convention held by Ron Paul supporters in St. Paul? Today’s GOP has a long way to go to make their Party more “little-d democratic.”

I was born over a decade after the events of the 1968 convention, so it’s important to me to study this history to see how we got where we are today. I believe strongly that Obama’s Grant Park celebration in 2008 would make the demonstrators in that same park 40 years ago very proud. The hippies and the yippies and the Mobe and the SDS and all the rest of the New Left may not have won the day in 1968, but they started a process through their actions and through their discussions with delegates (after finally getting their attention!) that allowed the Democratic Party to evolve to a higher level of representation and effectiveness.