WOODY BASSETT: Not another 1968

Challenges of 2018 not as tough as 50 years ago

We are living in a divided country, severely polarized on just about every front. There's too much anger and incivility; too much noise and chaos. We are sharply separated along partisan and ideological lines. But we've been down this road before, most notably in 1968.

Many who lived through the watershed year 1968 still consider it today to have been a year like no other, a time when it seemed like the country was coming apart at the seams. Rebellion was in the air. Even though it was a half-century ago, what transpired that year still reverberates through the country's collective psyche.

A high school student back then, I still vividly recall what a turbulent and confrontational year 1968 was for the nation and the American people. The events of that year shook the country to its core: relentless and often violent opposition to the Vietnam War, two cruel assassinations, a close and divisive election, hardening class differences, a raging debate over economic justice and fairness, an alarming racial divide, massive and prevalent public demonstrations and protests, riots and destruction in the inner cities, a stark generation gap between young and old, the rise of feminism, the shrinking credibility of the nation's leaders and a combative culture war over values issues like abortion, crime, patriotism, religion, freedom of speech and respect for institutions.

Kenneth T. Walsh, author and White House correspondent and columnist for U. S. News & World Report, recently summed up the year 1968 this way: "It was a hinge point in history, one of the most consequential and tumultuous years in the American experience, and it changed the country forever. One traumatic event followed another. Social and political trends that had been building for years reached critical mass ... It was all dramatized and magnified by popular culture and an increasingly aggressive news media eager to hold political and cultural leaders accountable for society's shortcomings."

Sound familiar? And just think, that's before we even had the Internet, social media and 24-hour cable television.

Here's more from Walsh on 1968: "Americans who lived through it remain divided on what it all meant and whether on balance the trends of 1968 were beneficial or harmful to the nation. In some ways, historians say, America nearly lost its mind and its soul. In other ways, historians argue, the nation reinvented itself and became a more tolerant, less-constrained place, more willing to let people express their individuality and challenge authority. Overall, the upheavals of that year, both positive and negative, made it clear that once social change reaches a critical mass, it can't be stopped. And the changes live on today."

In the words of historian and American University communications professor, Lenny Steinhorn: "1968 was the perfect storm that crystallized the differences in society. What was clear was how we were divided and this played out for the next 50 years. Republican Richard Nixon's divisive campaign played on the grievances of white working-class Americans and others, as did George Wallace's independent campaign. And they paved the way for Donald Trump's grievance-based bid for the White House in 2016. Meanwhile, Democrats were playing identity politics, dividing the country into cultural segments that often couldn't get along and undermining the party's claim to be a unifying force."

Exactly how 2018 unfolds remains to be seen but undoubtedly it will be replete with fierce political and public policy battles over the future direction of the country and bitterly contentious, often maddening, conflicts over economic, social and cultural issues. Yet, what the United States will confront this year pales in comparison to what the country had to face and endure in 1968. While many of the same divisions still burden us today, the things we are fighting over now seem more trivial and less fundamental to our American democracy than those in 1968. The divisive trauma the country experienced 50 years ago was real and monumental, presenting challenges that tore at the nation's fabric. But the divide we experience today is largely rooted in our dysfunctional and consistently absurd politics and our often dishonest, coarse and juvenile public discourse, with the president arguably the most egregious offender.

Given what transpired and where the country found itself in 1968, much of the division that year was unavoidable. But much of the division today is entirely self-inflicted. It seems 1968 was largely about dashed hopes and broken hearts; 2018 will be mostly about our broken politics and our inability to listen to each other and find common ground.

This year may be a bumpy ride at times but there is much in America right now for which to be grateful. If the country could persevere through the chaos and profound difficulties of 1968, then surely we can handle whatever comes our way in 2018.

Commentary on 01/18/2018

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