I was talking on a national call about this time and 1968. I was only 13 then and maybe don’t recall how crazy and unsettled and uncertain that time felt, what with the Tet Offensive (which made it clear that Vietnam was a lost cause), the assassinations and riots, the Democratic convention, and the election of Nixon (and probably more I don’t remember).
But this time feels more uncertain and scarier. I’m not exactly sure why but I suppose it’s mostly Trump and the support he has from half this country. Police brutality, property destruction in cities, even COVID-19 wouldn’t feel utterly unmanageable if we had a president who was not both incompetent and a threat to our Constitution, democracy, and freedom. And while Nixon’s possible election was scary, he was never nearly as scary or as bad as Trump. The immorality of Vietnam weighed heavily on us, but it wasn’t an immediate threat to our own lives.
I’m sure things felt a lot worse for Black people, for whom the death of Dr. King must have been a horrible shock and something they felt more viscerally than we did in my family.
Even for a young white man in a secure middle-class family, I remember things seeming out of kilter but not potentially disastrous. I’ve always been an optimistic person. (I get my optimism from both my grandfathers who came from across the notion and made good lives from themselves here. ) And that probably helped in 68, too.
Maybe I just know more. I’ve studied political history. I understand the political regimes are always a lot less stable than they look. I see how deeply disturbed and disturbing Trump and his movement are.
At any rate, I’m having trouble finding anything to be optimistic about. We have a chance if we defeat Trump. But even, things are going to be hard. Disaster seems right around the corner.
Sorry for the rambling and for not really having a point.
I’m trying to, as they say, process some difficult stuff.