A comparison between the 2024 and 1968 elections

Assassination attempts on a US Presidential candidate, a sitting President not seeking re-election, protests erupting across college campuses against a foreign war, and a Republican candidate who has been in the White House before – this was the election of 1968, and also the reality of the 2024 United States Presidential election.

In 1968, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election, with Vice President Hubert Humphrey eventually becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee. Despite Johnson’s ambitious policies, such as the war on poverty, his approval ratings plummeted due to his handling of the Vietnam War. Johnson finally withdrew from the election after Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy decided to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Similarly, in 2024, President Joe Biden, facing similar pressure from the public and his advisors, announced in July that he would not run for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. This decision came amidst his low approval ratings and a growing preference for the former President, Donald Trump.

In 1968, there were protests on college campuses in response to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The anti-war movement was driven by the draft sending young men to fight a war halfway across the world, and the Vietnam War’s privilege for being the first war to be broadcasted on television.

56 years later, college campuses, such as Columbia and Harvard, are once again scenes of protest. In 2024, the protests are directed against America’s support for Israel in the Israel-Palestine conflict after the October 7^th Attacks last year. Students’ ways of protesting the Israel-Palestine war include marches and rallies aimed at convincing the United States and other western countries to reassess their stance on the war.

A third parallel between these elections is the political violence present. In 1968, there was a successful assassination attempt on Senator Robert Kennedy – a brother of the late President John F. Kennedy and a vocal critic of the Vietnam War – by Sirhan Sirhan in June, 2 months after the assassination of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. In 2024, there were two unsuccessful assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, highlighting the high tensions within the country this election. Interestingly, Robert Kennedy’s memory lives on through his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer who ran as an independent for President this year.

The last coincidence is a Republican candidate who had been in the White House prior to the election. The Republican candidate for President in 1968 was Richard Nixon, who served as the Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. In his 1968 campaign, Nixon promised to restore law and order in America, and end the Vietnam War. In 2024, the Republican nominee is Donald Trump, who served as the 45^th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. This year, President Trump has promised to close the border with Mexico and end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

As American novelist Mark Twain said, “History never repeats, but it does often rhyme”.