The long awaited beginning of my 70th year has arrived (commonly known as the 69th birthday). I guess the wait has been about 70 years but it’s not that it has been on some list of great things to do it’s just better than the alternative.
Because we live with a base 10 numbering system the divisible by 10 things seem to have more meaning and so the next birthday will be one of those and this coming year is the one that will bring us to that point. So as I live the 70th year I’ll try to have a year that represents the heightened expectations. Maybe I’ll start by trying to use the much neglected 9 key on the microwave more often.
As we are 3 days away from an election day (it should be noted that my birthday always seems to be near an election day for some reason) and with the horrible state of our political system and government I can’t help but think back 50 years to 1968. 2 days after my birthday that year good old Dick Nixon got elected president which should have never happened just like the current guy. As I noted last year on this date, 1968 was a major fricking year and people that study these things, I think, could make the case that it was the catalyst that got us to where we are now. Without any actual knowledge I would say that Chaos Theory would support that. (Chaos theory is presented to us non mathematical masses that if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil Vinny Bonnavamuchi takes a crap in Queens.) We had one brief brush with this here with and how old Joe equaled what he did to the efforts of Benoit Mandelbrot. I put forth that 1968 was the flapping butterfly wing of recent US history. I’m not sure but I think other people have suggested the same thing.
During the first half of that year the Tet offensive was launched by the North Vietnamese and a couple months later Walter Cronkite and other news reporters, after going to Vietnam and seeing what was happening started reporting with a more anti Vietnam war basis which strengthened the antiwar supporters in the US. Nixon declared to be running for President after being tossed on the dust bin of history just 6 years before. Eugene McCarthy running as an anti war candidate runs against LBJ in the early primary in New Hampshire and almost beats him. 3 weeks later LBJ announces he is not running for reelection. That causes Robert Kennedy to enter the race. Meanwhile Hubert Humphrey the VP has now entered but will not directly run in the primary elections but will rely on the old boy party bosses to generate his support within the party system. It should be noted that only 14 states had a primary so the system was all at the convention anyway. Three days before LBJ said he would not run Martin Luther King was leading a march in Memphis that turned violent and of course was all over the news which helped stock fear in a lot of people. 4 days after LBJ’s announcement MLK was shot and killed in Memphis. The King killing sparks riots in most major cities. Kennedy and McCarthy are fighting it out on the campaign trail and while their followers are highly critical of the other group there is at least some recognition that both groups are anti war supporters while the Humphrey camp is viewed as more of the same (as VP he had to support the LBJ agenda and while campaigning did nothing to change that opinion) Going into the last primary Kennedy and McCarthy were more or less tied and Humphrey had a delegate count lead over either but not both combined by working the state delegate party system. Kennedy won California but after giving a victory speech in a hotel was shot and killed. This put the Democratic party into chaos. The Kennedy delegates for the most part would not support McCarthy and without the Kennedy persona to work the convention the anti war group was shut out of having any influence and the nomination was left to Humphrey which for both Kennedy and McCarthy supporters was unacceptable. This brought on the demonstrations and the violence that the 68 convention is remembered for. Humphrey was nominated on the first ballot and Nixon ran on among other things being the law and order guy and kept feeding America the fear line just as the current guy is doing with the few thousand women and children walking through Mexico toward the US. Of course Nixon won and the rest is history.
But had that butterfly that wildly flapped it’s wings at the hotel in California in June of 68 not done so what could have happened. Well… Kennedy and McCarthy would have likely kept Humphrey from winning the nomination on the first ballot and a brokered convention would have ensued with any of the 3 emerging. The riots may not have happened, or at least not been anywhere as bad. Nixon would not have had as strong a law and order platform to work from and very possibly would have lost the election. This would have changed the course of the war,(no Kissinger as Sec. of State) no Agnew to stir the masses, and maybe a continuation of the programs started under LBJ on the domestic front. Without Nixon to resign and pass the presidency to Ford the continuation from there would have been something different. Carter may not have been able to effectively run as an outsider and most importantly a B list actor would never have been able to disrupt the Republican party and win their nomination. And that would have been a major change as he was the source of all the ill that we suffer today. The growth of inequality, runaway corporate control of government, monopolization of key industries, union busting, rise of religious intolerance all started during his 8 years. (12 if you count the continuation under Bush 41). We probably wouldn’t have seen Lee Atwood and his style of campaign marketing that continues today only at orders of magnitude worse. We may not have had Clinton to sell out the Democratic Party to Banks and Wall Street. There is no way Bush 43 would have ever got close to the White House and as a result we never would have totally destroyed a totally screwed up but more or less stable Middle East causing millions of displaced people trying to flee to safety that has given rise to racist authoritarian leaders across eastern Europe, and increasing hate crimes across the globe. And of course to think that our current president would have been anywhere but prison for tax evasion would be unthinkable.
So for going into 70 years I’ve been lucky enough to live through the worse string of Presidents since before and a couple after the Civil War with a Lincoln in the middle. Yes historians and political scientists that study this stuff rate Reagan and Clinton in the top third but I disagree, with no facts, which is allowed nowadays. But maybe this election in 3 days will be the beginning of another flapping butterfly event that will benefit someone 70 years down the road of future history.
1968 also seemed to be the beginning of the end for never ending great music. Yes there was music but it just didn’t seem to be the same. Probably Nixon’s fault.
But November 1968 only had one album released that had any major music.
Joe Cocker released an album that had a cover of a Beatles song. So you see you had to reach for music.
So as I start year 70 it should be interesting and I’m sure it will be significant, hopefully in a positive way. Also be aware that I think all there is to look back at next year is Woodstock and a moon landing. Big deal.