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Yeah it’s not like we’ll see a repeat of 1968, when the Democrats downshifted to a Vice President at a convention in Chicago that was plagued by protests against the party’s support for an unpopular foreign war and wound up creating an opening for a candidate they’d beat before. Totally different!
YES THAT WORKED SO WELL AND DID NOT AT ALL THROW THE PARTY INTO A DIVISIVE NOMINATION CONTEST AND LOST ELECTION THAT WOULD HAUNT IT FOR THE NEXT HALF CENTURY
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When somebody’s history is bested by the History Channel, you know it’s bad.
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The author is a good historian, the piece was originally from 6 years ago
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Ah, didn’t know the channel ever hired historians!
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I’m guessing it was a mistake here?
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What the hell do you have against Ancient Aliens, Kevin
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so old i remember the history channel employing historians who appeared on air to intro movie or doc, during breaks to discuss, and after to talk about historical veracity. alas, also remember when they based an entire series on mistaking a pic of moe howard for hitler. @kevinmkruse.bsky.social
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They did a one hour special a decade ago on how a political scientist who made predictions for the CIA was the second coming of Nostradamus.
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We have Macron's French election If we want a more current example.
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“B-b-but it will be different this time”
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I still don’t understand how our current situation is better than “chaos.”
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Then you’ve not experienced chaos
If they were around in 2017-2021 and they're not merely trolling, then I'd say they're an imbecile. Even that wasn't true chaos, but it's the closest we've had in decades and it was plenty bad. What drivel.
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Nothing has been demonstrated to be more broken by Trump than the media. No basic research skills. Addicted to recency bias. Little critical thinking. Refusal to murder board anything. And utter contempt for any criticism.
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The media have been systematically purged of journalism over the past 30 years. Trump is the effect, not the cause.
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I respectfully disagree. The media has, unfortunately, failed to separate entertainment from journalism for decades now, but they have been lucky in that the majority of politicians still engaged in (mostly) good faith politics/governance...
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... There is nothing good faith about Trump. The media acknowledged they understood that and still dove right into their standard good faith model. Even today, they are hopelessly lost in that model. But it's even worse now....
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The media created an atmosphere that allowed a pathological liar to rise to the top. Indeed, he was elevated not only by a partisan machine dedicated to his triumph, but by other networks that prioritized scandal over journalism. If they'd treated him with half the skepticism they showed Sanders..
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As a Boomer, I lived through this, and LBJ was far, far more unpopular than Biden. It's not even close.
Would LBJ have won? What can we learn from the post resignation chaos?
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Oh- I think yours was damn good.
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Far better take than I've been seeing, and very little relevance to the current Democratic situation. One note: The Yippies were prepared to cancel demonstrations at Chicago, but, as Abbie Hoffman said, "Sirhan Sirhan stepped up and it was a whole new ballgame." I'd have made more of that factor.
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But it’s different this time because in ‘68 the Republican was an unprincipled crook who would do anything to get and keep power and sorry hold on I’m being handed a note
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The Republican was a drunk rather than abusing prescription drugs? More of a rhyme than a repetition.
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But this time it's different. Trump commits crimes, doesn't respect norms, and targets his critics... but with Stephen Miller in his ear, not Kissinger. So, where was I?
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Kissinger just didn't care about other people except as pawns and tools for power. Miller actively seethes with hatred. This may be one of the only times I'd say "I'd rather have Kissinger".
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Not to mention the obvious point that when LBJ withdrew, there had been precisely 1 binding primary contest. For Biden now, there have been 57.
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There are 3,894 delegates pledged to vote for Biden at the Dem Convention. The number pledged to vote for LBJ at the time he dropped out was 4.
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We were almost going to send some astronauts around the moon this year too.
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And Robert Kennedy is running too
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At least we're not in Afghanistan anymore so we don't have to add "involved in unpopular quagmire of a foreign civil war." At least not directly.
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Not gonna say anything about that because I don't want a visit from the FBI.
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No, no, no. This time is different because in 1968, there was *also* a huge conservative backlash to significant gains in gender and racial equali… Wait. I'm being handed some new information here.
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Is writing these a paid position? I can write 1,000 words describing a terrible idea, on deadline, and I could use some supplementary income.
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I really missed my calling writing click bait articles for big news media, knowing it's going to generate rage bait clicks of readers just to ratio my ass.
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My initial reaction to this headline was “am I being punk’d”
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"Hugely popular" with the entire Republican party and Abbie Hoffman, et al.
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God damn, I swear Hoffman will go down in history that him and his merry band of lunatics handed the entire country over to GOP fascists. Just because another sociopathic compulsive liar Nixon lied through his teeth about ending an unpopular war.
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I met Hoffman, briefly, in the early 1980s when he was speaking at my college. I don't think I've walked away from a conversation with a "famous" person less impressed than I was that afternoon. He talked like a complete moron.
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Not surprising as in biographies about him it has come out he suffered greatly from bio-polar disorder, and high intensity social/economic politics do not help someone with this condition, but only intensifies the condition even more.
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And lose the power of incumbency. (Johnson probably would have won if he stayed in)
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TOTALLY different, because nobody named Daley is mayor of Chicago.