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US POLITICS
Will Gaza be to Biden what Vietnam was to LBJ?
A rhyme if not a repeat of history
In March 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson (aka LBJ), declined to run for re-election after a near loss in the New Hampshire primary to antiwar candidate, Eugene McCarthy. Johnson was a strong supporter of the increasingly unpopular conflict in Vietnam.. The nomination contest that followed was waged among McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey, the Vice President, and Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the recently assassinated JFK. After RFK himself was assassinated, Humphrey won the Democratic nomination handily, and lost the election to Nixon. It wasn’t a clean win; Nixon secretly sent Henry Kissinger to talk to the Viet Cong, urging them not to make a peace deal with the Johnson administration because they’d get a better deal from Nixon. This turned out badly for everyone all around.
Fast forward to 2024, and we have an increasingly unpopular war in Gaza that is enthusiastically supported by the current Democratic president, Joe Biden. The Democratic party apparatus is striving to avoid any embarrassing near losses in the primaries by downplaying the contests and refusing to hold debates with other candidates. It’s arguably the least democratic process the party has held since 1968 (which had ended up leading to reform).