Unhappy Anniversary: 1968-2008

There are a few reasons 2008 will be 1968 in the U.S. Notably, the Democratic Party has fallen apart and will nominate an unelectable candidate in a fixed convention. It won’t be necessary for cops to remove their badges and beat up delegates this time.

It’s likely that an unpopular war will have its worst year yet.

Let’s hope that the worldwide events of 2008 don’t match 1968, though. Let’s review, in roughly chronologic order, how much fun that year brought us:

• The Prague Spring and its bloody and depressing end
• The Tet Offensive.
• The My Lai massacre
• The May revolution in France
• Martin Luther King is assassinated
• Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated
• The Pope forbids birth control
• Saddam Hussein takes power in Iraq
• The 1968 Democratic Convention dissolves into rioting and out of control police brutality; delegates and others are beaten in the streets; Daley engineers the nomination of Hubert Humphrey.
• The Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City: the army kills hundreds of people, most of them students demonstrating against the government.
• Nixon becomes president.

There were some good things that year too, but I don’t think they make up for the body count and the loss of freedom and the defeat of idealism worldwide. Let’s hope we get a better 2008.

Note: links are to Wikipedia because I am lazy.