Politics

Biden, Let the Protests of 1968 Be a Warning

By Charles M. Blow

Produced by Jillian Weinberger

In 1968, protests against the Vietnam War reached a climax in Chicago outside the Democratic National Convention, where the police beat and arrested demonstrators — and most likely contributed to Hubert Humphrey’s loss in the general election that November. In this audio essay, the columnist Charles Blow draws a parallel between those events and this year’s convention, which will also take place in Chicago and where protesters are again planning demonstrations. Blow warns the Biden campaign that the growing campus protest movement signals what could come and that the campaign ignores history at its peril.

(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)

Credit…Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Bev Grant/Getty Images

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This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Annie-Rose Strasser. Mixing by Isaac Jones. Original music by Sonia Herrero, Carole Sabouraud and Pat McCusker.. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta.

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