2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I'm old and jaded. I sure hate to see the enthusiasm of young people stifled instead of encouraged. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)In 1964, LBJ won almost every state.
Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The country was in mourning.
In 1964, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. He also fought the War on Poverty and began Medicare. 1965, the Viet Nam War officially started. By 1968, the war and the demonstrations against it and the draft had divided the country.
Humphrey was an excuse for a candidate.
The racists in the South and the conservatives in the rest of the country rejected the Democratic Party once our Party fought for social justice and paid less attention to economic justice following Humphrey and McGovern (1972).
Nixon won primarily because he promised to get us out of the Viet Nam War "with honor" (what a joke) and because of his Southern strategy. He rode in as a "moderate" and was really a harbinger of extreme conservatism.
We had oil crises in 1973-74 and in 1976. That was before the advent of small cars and reduced gas mileage. Those oil price hikes caused inflation to go out of control.
Reagan was elected in my view to a great extent because of the high cost of oil.
Look at the maps that followed the 1964 election.
My review of history leaves a lot out but I hope I touched on the most important points.
The economy and racism determined the course of our country from its beginning to the present. I don't see how we can effectively defeat racism without first getting our economy moving. Does anyone disagree with me because I would like to read their ideas on how we can do it. How can we end racism without approaching the economic divisions in our country first? Any ideas.
I read a lot of comments on DU criticizing Bernie for focusing on economics, but I don't see any other way to really change our country for the better. I am very willing to read ideas on how to do that. In fact I want to see them.
Hillary's plan to continue the status quo will not work. It just takes us further toward racism (not saying she is a racist; she isn't) and oligarchy. We need change.