Democrats, Chicago, 1968 and today — alike but different

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President Joe Biden is no Lyndon Johnson. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is no Richard J. Daley.

Hoping for a havoc-free Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week? Take those words of assurance from two Minnesotans who remember all too well a Chicago DNC that went badly awry.

I’m talking about 1968, the convention whose very mention conjures images of bloody mayhem for those of us past a certain age.

Cousins Hubert H. Humphrey III and William Howard still remember the smell of tear gas. The heavy hand of Lyndon Johnson. Their pride at watching Vice President Hubert Humphrey — Skip’s father and Bill’s uncle — deliver a stirring presidential nomination acceptance speech.

And their dismay upon learning shortly thereafter that the battle between Daley’s police and antiwar protesters in Grant Park had injured hundreds and hijacked news coverage of Humphrey’s big moment.

Some analysts contend that Humphrey’s electoral fate vs. Republican nominee Richard Nixon was sealed that night in Chicago. Skip Humphrey, Minnesota’s attorney general from 1983 to 1999, and Bill Howard, a Hennepin County District Judge from 1990 to 2013, were young men — 26 and 23, respectively — that year, much involved in the presidential campaign. They don’t chalk up Humphrey’s defeat solely to a bad convention. But they agree that what transpired 56 years ago in Chicago did the Democratic Party no favor.

That history has to weigh on delegates as they convene Monday in the Windy City to salute their already-official nominees, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

This year has already produced disconcerting echoes of 1968. Just a little over a month ago, there was an assassination attempt. Then a president opted not to seek re-election. A vice president emerged in his stead, and won the nomination without winning any primaries. Antiwar protests are back. Demonstrations — this time pro-Palestinian — are planned for the streets of Chicago.

And a Minnesotan is again on the Democratic ticket, putting this state in a not-always-flattering spotlight.

That’s a lot of historical rhyme. But it’s not enough for a poem. Humphrey and Howard see plenty of differences between 1968 and 2024. Take the conduct of Joe Biden since he ended his re-election campaign on July 21.

Biden unequivocally endorsed Kamala Harris for president within 30 minutes of bowing out. By contrast, Lyndon Johnson did not officially endorse Humphrey until weeks after the convention. The run-up to Humphrey’s nomination was rife with rumors that Johnson would come to Chicago to snatch the nomination back from his vice president.

By all appearances, Biden has not sought to control events at the convention or pressure Harris to toe his line on policy. Not so with LBJ.

“Lyndon had some kind of pressure on my father,” Skip Humphrey said, recalling the overbearing man who rejected Humphrey’s proposals to hasten an end to hostilities in Vietnam. “My father wanted to move ahead” toward peace, Humphrey said. “But he felt he had to make some peace with the president.”

There was no smooth handoff of staff and resources from Johnson to Humphrey as the nation has seen in the past month from Biden to Harris.

“Biden is playing it straight. He wants to help her,” Howard said. By contrast, Johnson tightly controlled the Democratic National Committee through the end of the convention. “He had all the money locked up,” Howard said.

Lack of funds handicapped Humphrey until Sept. 30, five weeks after the convention, when he delivered a televised speech to break with Johnson on Vietnam policy. It was a turning point in Humphrey’s favor. But the gains Humphrey experienced in the few weeks remaining were not sufficient for victory.

The passions engendered in America by the Israel-Hamas war this year are nowhere near as hot as the antiwar flames that scorched Democrats in 1968. But with anti-Israel protests planned this week, Harris faces a dilemma akin to Humphrey’s: Should she set a course different from Biden’s on Israel’s war?

The Humphrey cousins offered Harris more sympathy than advice.

“Any presidential candidate has a difficult time in this situation,” Humphrey said.

“Huge numbers of Harris supporters are strongly in favor of a strong Israel. But we have extreme frustration with what’s going on there, the huge tragedy of the Palestinian people. How do you deal with that?”

At least Harris is unlikely to have to cope with hyperaggressive policing of protesters, he noted.

“You don’t have a Mr. Daley. That doesn’t mean the mayor [Chicago’s Brandon Johnson] doesn’t have a lot of authority and responsibility to keep order. But he’s significantly different than Daley.” The legendary boss-mayor’s idea of keeping order included brutal treatment of protesters. A subsequent investigation concluded that Chicago had experienced “unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence” during the DNC.

The 1968 delegates came to Chicago divided and left demoralized. There’s a good chance that won’t be the case this week, the cousins said.

“What I see this year, Democrats are re-engaged,” Humphrey said. “They are not stepping back from the campaign that’s ahead. That was a problem in 1968. I’d say that’s the distinguishing difference here.”

If that difference survives this week, chances will diminish that the parallels to 1968 will persist through November.

Lori Sturdevant is a retired Star Tribune editorial writer. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.