I've clung to grim belief that 1968 would be darkest year I'd see in US. Horrific assassinations. Real (not show) military occupation in DC. Tet and MyLai. 'Police Riot' in Chicago. Nixon/Agnew. Not so certain any more. Back then 2 parties still functioned. A prez could resign for "good of nation"
1968 I arrived in Saigon and spent a year there at govt expense. We always felt there was a "real world" we wanted to get back to. I despair to see what has become of the "real world".
The wait-and-see attitude we've collectively seemed to take—wait and see if the regime cancels elections, wait and see if the regime imprisons politics opinions, etc.—is going to be something that we live to regret. "Why didn't you do anything when there was still a chance?"
1968 was transient, it did not lead to a permanent Idiocracy of zombies
I wasn't alive then, but between Vietnam and the murder of MLK & RFK - it is shocking every time. I can imagine it must've seemed like the world had gone mad. However, this time around I fear much more long-term damage...and a frightening part is that I'm not sure if the public even realizes it.
It was upsetting, depressing, disturbing. But I never felt that the country was going to abandon the Constitution or become fascist. It was Reoublicans who made Nixon resign. Bipartisanship existed. The Nixon gov't officials went to prison. Much worse now.
I regret to tell you this is a perspective mired in the distant past and informed by reflexive American exceptionalism. Our Republic has fallen. It arguably fell when the perpetrators of Jan. 6 weren’t summarily punished. Other republics, other democracies, have fallen. Start by accepting reality.
…The French, our nearest republican brethren, are on their Fifth. After Napoleon, Napoleon III and Vichy they didn’t pretend to go back to an overthrown Republic. They recognized the necessity of proclaiming a new one. I don’t want to be escapist by proclaiming our Second one….
…but if we overthrow this regime—and elections won’t be enough—we will have to do the same, and we will have to write a new Constitution, one with the virtues of the first, but minus its fatal flaws born of historical compromises.
And let us not forget that these "historical compromises" were mostly imposed by enslavers.
A nightmare year in so many ways. Took us years to recover, if we ever truly did. And here we are again.
Wondering the same
Now is a good time for Washington and Oregon to leave the union and form Cascadia.
It was dark times in the USA in '68, assinations, the riots, not knowing who to believe. All of that rubbed off on the troops beginning in '68. Nam wasn't dark just because of Tet but because of the craziness filtering from stateside. I remember the race riots in Nam and MyLai... crazy
68 was the year America when to the end of Fascism. 25 is the year it when over the edge
It was definitely a different era when people still had a sense of shame.
1968 almost seems like a year in paradise now.
It's not even close; 2025 is way worse.
Main difference is that Nixon was trying to bend the rules to what he wanted, whereas Trump denies that there are rules.
Today worse. We are one click from civil war. I joined Navy 1968 for 6 years. Country still had collective sense of right and wrong. MyLai was wrong. No one thought it was right. Understandable. But not right. 2025, Trump J6 pardons are not impeachable for half the country. No healing current gap.
Since 1968 - as America appeared to be progressing in pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment and leaving racism, misogyny and ignorance behind - the same EVIL that gave rise to the KKK was persisting under the surface. IT was waiting for the signal to emerge, and IT finally got it from Donald Trump.
Every politician tries to connect with their base of voters. When Trump said “I love the poorly educated”, he hit the mother lode.
The root cause of all of this is that the Republican party and RW oligarchs decided that they we willing to win at all costs. Trade principle for winning (e.g. partner with murderous dictator Putin because he helps you win), trade truth for lies because you can win with lies, etc.
Well, luckily we’re here to make sure it’s only darkest before the dawn.
Yes, really feels right now as "good old times," when American Constitution and democracy could still prevail
Do not underestimate the value of the Warren court in those times. You could kind of feel if something requiring justice made it to the Supremes, justice might possibly indeed prevail.
bsky.app/profile/mari...
Came here to post that myself. The dam is going to break soon.
And we’ve still got 4.5 months to go! And 2026 to follow.
Yes. But wasn't My Lai covered up until '69?
Yes, just after Tet'68. A door gunner blew the whistle on the operation to a bunch of congressmen a year after it happened, March '69. The public got wind of the massacre in late '69. Calley was finally charged but the court martial was hushed-up for another year.
1968 was such a dreadful awful no good year. After the assassinations of MLK Jr and Bobby Kennedy, Pope John Paul II was shot and badly wounded, and Newsweek (which was great then) ran a cover photo of the moments after the shooting, with a one-word headline: AGAIN. I still get chills from that.
John Paul II was shot in 1981. The “Again” was probably a reference to the shooting of Ronald Reagan earlier that year.
I stand corrected.
Yes. Now I remember. The "Again" headline wasn't just in reference to the Reagan assassination attempt. It began the previous December when John Lennon was murdered. I'm still reeling from that one.
1968 was the last year Seymour Hersh was right about anything.
And we've still got over four months to go. God save us.
Things escalate quickly now.
There were also good things in ‘68. Prague Spring, Paris protests, examples of world youth movement, LBJ resigning. Even though the year ended tragically, there were waves of hope for generational change.
But Prague Spring was crushed. Mexican student protesters massacred at Tlateloco. It was quite a bad year. And yet, as a college freshmen, a lot of it escaped me at the time.
I wonder also if you will revisit your view that the 2000 election was more destructive than 2016's.
I’m so sorry you are seeing this.
‘68 was heartbreaking. Today is worse.
My feelings exactly.
We’ve reached the “papers please “stage of fascism already. It’s happening here in DC now. It’s going to get much much darker before it ends. Thread. 🧵 bsky.app/profile/drga...
We’re not quite there yet but yeah, it feels like it’s going to get there.
God forbid we go back there. I was a toddler then, but I know my history
Don’t forget the 9 month occupation of Wilmington, Delaware in 1968… www.phillymag.com/news/2022/05...
Also: Between 1964 and 1970, there were over 75(!) completely separate riots in the US about racism and/or the Vietnam war… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Cc: @alizinha.bsky.social
And “shame” worked, if you know what I mean. The public wouldn’t tolerate it if you were caught in a lie, caught accepting a bribe, caught diddling a child. Now we seem to shrug and move on to the next outrage.
Dude. It’s an interesting question for sure, but I really think you gotta zoom out and look at the full spatial and temporal context. Otherwise, this can become a distraction.In 68, authoritarianism was not metastasizing globally, and the biosphere was not on the ropes. Also, AI.
And our brains were not progressively rotting from these screens and algorithms and there was some general agreement on what constituted reality. And the experience of getting through the depression and World War II was strong in the national consciousness.
Sorry to be a downer, I just think we have to take it head on if we’re gonna turn it out Ps I love your writing, thank you!
I was born at the very end of '67. When I looked back, at what had happened, I marveled at the 8mm movies my parents shot that year. A different world. No 24/7 news cycle. Blissful ignorance, maybe. Now, we see all in real time. I too fear for what's coming down the pike, and soon. God help us all.
sadly, I agree.
It’s a thought. Vietnam and the bitter reaction to the civil rights movement (and the counter-reaction to that) combined to produce turmoil. But not everywhere, or even in most places, & in a country where economic growth remained strong as it had throughout the ‘60s. Anxiety is more general now.
Ah, the good old days.
When press secretary, FBI/DOJ, and many cabinet members lie with impunity, and GOP Congress enables such behavior, it’s hard to foresee a “bottom” right now. Possibly bad polling will eventually rattle GOP Congress members to wake up.
There was civic and social disturbance all over the country then but my memory is that people were better informed and much less cynical than now, and less fragile. I am talking vibes here, not data, and comparing old memories with current perception, so maybe I'm all wet.
And his successor pardoned him “for the good of the nation.” And no law-breaking president since then has been held accountable.
THIS. Nixon didn't resign for the good of the country at all; he resigned before they could convict his impeached ass. He should have gone to prison, and everything we're seeing now flows from the failure to convict and imprison him.
YES YES YES. Lotta people act surprised by how “quickly”we’ve fallen into criminal authoritarianism, but it’s been a decades-long project for the right.
"Would" not "could" Republicans flamethrowing could remake in their image, or they just decide to burn it all down!
Right there with you. Thought maybe 1970 when Ohio Gov James Rhodes sent Ohio National Guard to Kent State. With fixed bayonets they took a position & fired killing 4,wounding 9 Now Gov. Mike DeWine is sending ONG to DC to intimidate DC citizens & tourists. R's seem to hate freedom loving Americans.
I totally agree. We just *thought* Nixon was the worst President possible.
Those norms/guardrails are long gone.
Thank you, James. It's worse now.
I’ve always used that year as my benchmark for worst year since 1945. Now there is no bottom.
I've been thinking lately that, as awful as he was, I ought to apologize to the ghost of Richard Nixon.
I was thinking today that one of the saddest parts of the Trump descent into authoritarianism has been that the Republican Party, its members in Congress, the Supreme Court and most its base is perfectly fine with ending the republic.