As
nyceve points out
in her diary, we're hearing more about 1968, and how Democrats really need to heed the lessons from that year. Specifically, Jonathan Alter wrote in Newsweek:
The revival of the romance of the antiwar left is a potential disaster for the Democrats. It's what gave the world Richard Nixon in 1968.
I think they're onto something, so I've put my ideas here. More after the fold.
Here are the five most important lessons from
the election of 1968:
- Democrats must support a full-scale invasion of Vietnam - despite being on the right side of history, it's clear that the Democrats were on the wrong side of politics. It's time to put this issue to rest once and for all. Democrats need to support a full-on, massive invasion of Vietnam to excise this political skeleton from our closet. Republicans know how powerful the idea is; why do you think they invaded Iraq? Because now no one is talking about 1992 anymore.
- We must prevent our presumptive nominees from being murdered - we had a great candidate in Bobby Kennedy, but we let him get murdered. We shouldn't have done that. Democrats need to band together to ensure that their candidates don't get murdered.
- We must win California -- Humphrey lost California's 40 electoral votes to Nixon, clearly because Californians are hawks. They even have an eagle on their flag. Or some mean animal. Our anti-war stance is clearly hurting us in that great state.
- Anti-war candidates are sure-fire winners in Texas. Peacenik Humphrey carried Texas, so we should modulate our message there. We need to tap into the vast Texas hippie protest crowd with local candidates who wear tie-dye and speak in hushed tones about world peace.
- Win back the South - we had a Nader problem in 1968, too. George Wallace won 46 crucial electoral votes as head of the American Independent party, the Greens of that day. We must win back "Southern Greens" through a targeted platform that takes advantage of the South's environmentally-friendly politics.
So, Jonathan Alter is right. There's a lot to learn from 1968. I think that if we're careful students of history, we'll be surefire winners in 2006.