Any Predictions On What The Two National Conventions Will Be Like Next Year ???

[WillyT]

I don't think we will get Chicago 1968, yet the way the political winds are blowing, one never knows.

:shrug:

[demodonkey]

1. I hope not. 1968 was a mess. And it brought us Tricky Dicky. Ugh. nt

On edit... I think (hope) the Occupiers have learned a little from the history and are committed to nonviolence and smart, productive organizing (not that the 60's protesters were all unproductive or misguided, many if not most were NOT!)

Now if they can just keep out the infiltrators, provocateurs, general n'er-do-wells, and other problems that reared their heads in the 60s.....

[Ken Burch]

3. It was a mess because LBJ and Daley made it a mess

If LBJ had let Humphrey let his delegates vote for the peace plank(which the primaries proved the majority of the party wanted, and which Humphrey begged LBJ to allow him to do)and if Daley had given the Yippies the permits they were constitutionally entitled to have for their protests, or if he'd even just had his cops leave the kids in the streets alone, Humphrey would have been elected.

It was the party leaders' fault that Nixon got in...not the dissenting voices.

[demodonkey]

11. Agree in part.....

...after that sadly many thought of Humphrey as a pro-war LBJ puppet.

I was really little at the time but remember my mother (a strong HHH supporter) crying over this.

Maybe my "little kid" memory is wrong, but nonetheless I think the free-for-all that developed was a combination of many things, and groups, as I said on edit in my other post.

[Ken Burch]

13. You need to find a copy of the video of "Conspiracy", the excellent HBO production

where the Chicago Seven trial was re-enacted.

It included some of the last interviews Abbey Hoffman and Jerry Rubin gave before their unexpectedly early deaths. And in it, John Froines, a lesser-known Yippie figure, pointed out that, according to information received after a Freedom of Information Act request, one out of six people in the streets of Chicago that week was either a police provocateur or an FBI informant.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. My folks and I watched the press get beaten at Chicago

and it was clear to them and to my other family that the cops started the violence and relished it, and they were furious with all the Democrats for being asshats and supporting the violence. That same year they shot RFK. Then they attacked the young people.
I think you should read the transcripts of the Chicago 7/8 trial and think on what you learn.

[Ken Burch]

18. The sickest thing was that, after the convention

the polls showed most voters supported the police thugs. I will NEVER understand that.

How can a decent human being support the middle-aged guy with the club against the kid with the head wound that was just inflicted by that club?

[PoliticAverse]

21. Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all– the policeman isn't there to create disorder,...

the policeman is there to preserve disorder." - Mayor Richard J. Daley.

[jwirr]

30. I agree. That is exactly what happened. It was a police action from

start to finish.

[monmouth]

2. Repubs will be a mess, Dems will enjoy and Obama will give a

great rousing speech.

[taterguy]

4. DNC will be hot as hell. Traffic will be a nightmare

If there are beatings they won't be as severe as '68.

Charlotte's more difficult to get to than Chicago so I doubt the #s of people in the streets will be as high, and there's no equivalent of Lincoln Park.

[Ken Burch]

6. Probably half the reason Obama wanted it there

He clearly went in planning to cut his base loose and wanted a bland, soulless corporate "production" of a convention-an event that no one who cares about this country would actually WANT to attend.

[PoliticAverse]

5. How far away from the conventions will the 'free speech zones' be ? n/t

[Ken Burch]

8. The one at OUR convention will probably be in Tennessee.

n/t.

[WillyT]

10. LOL !!!

So true...

:D

:hi:

[nc4bo]

24. !!

:rofl::rofl:

[marmar]

7. Massive protesting at both......with huge militarized police forces.

The potential is there for a lot of ugliness.

[vi5]

9. One thing I can guarantee...

Obama will give a rousing speech where he points the fingers at "both sides", blaming ideologues from both ends of the spectrum for the gridlock in Washington.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. That 'both sides' routine is so tired.

It means he thinks he's the only person with an honest opinion, he is some sort of Congressional Umpire rather than President.

[vi5]

32. I fucking hate it...

I seriously do. The whole last honest man thing just reeks of Joe Lieberman's playbook and it disgusts me.

It would be one thing if it was actually working and he were winning over all these independents that he seems to think he is wooing with that tired routine. But he's not.

[MedleyMisty]

12. I live in Charlotte

And it's true that the city was not exactly planned and laid out with massive protest in mind.

I plan to be there for any demonstrations if at all possible.

[TBF]

15. I'm hoping they will both be occupied. nt

[pinboy3niner]

16. They may look like National Guard conventions

In '68, I was on alert to take an Army contingency riot control squad from Ft. Jackson, SC, to Chicago. It was an enormous relief that they ended up not sending us. We'd had lots of training in jungle warfare--and zero training in civilian riot control. And some idiot probably would have issued us live ammo...

[WillyT]

19. Wow !!! - Thank You For That History !!!

:wow:

:hi:

[pinboy3niner]

26. To make matters worse...

Besides having no training for that, I was a 19-year-old Second Lieutenant--and they were going to place that responsibility in my hands.

We were active Army, not NG, and my assignment was not by selection, but ad hoc. I just happened to be serving as Executive Officer of a Special Troops company, and the position came with 36 "additional duties"--each specified in orders making them official--from "Mess Officer" to "Postal Officer" to the kid in charge of deciding whether or not the Army should open fire on civilians in Chicago... :eyes:

:hi:

[jwirr]

31. That was a good thing. One of the big problems with riot control in

general in the 60-70s was that it was not well understood. For one thing police often tried to corner protesters and that let to more violence than was needed. I remember taking a sociology course that discussed what was happening and what should have been done instead. The training was something that came after that.

I sometimes today watch the police deliberately ignore what we learned back then - for instance that first NYC confrontation where they cornered the crowd with their orange nets.

[mmonk]

20. Tumultuous as the civil war going on in the US will continue to heat up.

[izquierdista]

22. My predictions?

Democrats: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :boring:

Repubs: Introducing BOZO!, the world's greatest clown! {cue up circus music}

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. I agree. The D's will have a snoozefest full of pretty speeches. The R's will have a brokered

convention. They'll be desparately trying to shove someone out there on the stage who excites someone other than his momma or his wife.

The real shows will be outside the doors.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

23. Lots of red, white and blue. Platitudes. Cheering. N.T.

[blkmusclmachine]

27. Occupy them both:

Twiddle dee and twiddle dumb.

[gkhouston]

28. Anticlimactic. n/t

[jwirr]

29. I am sure that Occupy may be involved in some non-violent way

but what worries me about the Democratic Convention is Tbaggers/Racists etc. There may be real trouble from that quarter.