The 2024 Democratic Convention, which begins today in Chicago, will be almost uniquely without suspense.
Vice Pres. Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz have already been nominated for president and vice president in an online vote, so we will not see the usual state-by-state floor tally. Inside the hall, the event will be a celebration of Harris’s historic nomination, along with spirited denunciations of the election deniers on the other side.
Outside the hall, however, things may be different.
A coalition of over 150 pro-Palestine organizations plans to bring “tens of thousands” of demonstrators to Chicago, who will protest the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza and demand the “end of U.S. aid to Israel.”
Although some organizers have promised “family friendly” events, with “children and grandparents” in attendance, others have predicted “scenes of fury and dissent” in the streets that could badly damage the Democrats’ hoped-for show of unity.
The difference will be crucial.
Almost exactly 56 years ago, I was at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with tens of thousands of other angry protesters against the war in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson had declined to run for reelection and endorsed Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had so far failed to break with the administration’s Vietnam policy.
We had no use for the Democrats, even though there was a pro-peace wing in the party that was nonexistent among Republicans.
“Bring the troops home,” we chanted, and “the whole world is watching.”
Most fatefully, we shouted “Dump the Hump,” furious that the erstwhile liberal apparently condoned Johnson’s war. Unwilling to recognize the vast difference between Humphrey and Richard Nixon, we wanted to disrupt the Democrats’ convention no matter what the consequences.
We didn’t stop at chanting. We rattled the doors of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, where the Democratic leadership was headquartered, and were met by head-bashing and tear-gassing from the Chicago police.
I am embarrassed to admit that the “police riot,” as it was later called, was not entirely unwelcome. After all, we figured that the cops’ televised brutality would help us build opposition to the illegitimate war.
How wrong we were. Nixon won the presidency by a popular vote margin smaller than one point. This was partly because the public was offended more by the unruly demonstrators than by the police, and partly because so many disaffected Democrats either stayed home or voted for third-party candidates.
The consequences of the 1968 election were disastrous. Nixon continued the war for another five years, intensifying bombing of North Vietnam and even expanding it into Cambodia, at the cost of thousands of American, Vietnamese and Cambodian lives.
He appointed four justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, including William Rehnquist, who served for 33 years, with an adverse impact on the law that is still felt today, including in the court’s unfortunate practice of deferring recusal decisions to individual justices.
American history would have been far different — and significantly more humane — if Humphrey had been elected. I deeply regret playing a small part in bringing about Nixon’s victory. My only excuse is that I was a teenager, without the maturity or foresight to understand what it would actually mean to “dump the Hump.”
This year’s pro-Palestine demonstrators are facing a similar choice. Although they have many good reasons to protest the current U.S. policy on Gaza, a restored Trump administration would surely make things immeasurably worse.
Harris has signaled her intention to be tougher on Israel than Biden, refusing to preside over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Most recently, she met with Palestinian-American leaders and called for increased humanitarian aid, an “immediate cease-fire” and the release of hostages.
Trump, on the other hand, first ran for the presidency by promising a ban on Muslim immigration to the U.S. He has gone all-in with Israel’s most right-wing political elements, who have lionized him in return.
He said that Biden has “become like a Palestinian” and isn’t helping Israel “finish the job” in Gaza.
Nonetheless, some protesters have taken the same position toward Harris that we displayed toward Humphrey in 1968, denying any responsibility if their protests cause Harris to lose the election, and even suggesting that their 2024 demonstrations will be “comparable to those that engulfed the [Democratic] convention during the Vietnam War.”
The large mainstream Muslim organizations do not appear to have joined the demonstration coalition. Prominent Arab American leaders, including Democratic National Committee member James Zogby, along with some of the 30 officially uncommitted delegates, will attempt to change policy through a series of meetings inside the hall.
For their part, coalition organizers say they have recruited “hundreds of volunteer marshals” to keep order and “de-escalate conflicts.”
We blew it in 1968, undermining Humphrey, who strongly supported civil rights and the labor movement, even when he belatedly distanced himself from Johnson and called for an end to bombing North Vietnam.
We got Nixon, the worst criminal ever to occupy the White House up until that point.
This year’s pro-Palestine demonstrators would do well to be wiser and more strategically savvy. They can make their point without enabling another criminal presidency.
A second Trump administration would be bad for Palestine, bad for Israel and bad for America, which is something that even the most ardent protesters should keep firmly in mind.
Steven Lubet is the Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.