I would obviously have voted for Hubert H. Humphrey the last Democratic candidate to truly represent the legacy of the New Deal and beyond that was a genuinely decent and honest common man candidate in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. Furthermore, I believe that 1968 was probably the most influential election in recent American history, setting the stage for the New Right dominance of the Republican Party and through that vehicle American politics in general based on the politics of fear and selfish egoism while the Democratic Party would degenerate into a brief dominance by the New Left which alienated the white working class and then the neoliberals/Rockefeller Republicans which furthered this alienation. This realignment in turn would virtually stall any progress in the completion of the social welfare state in the United States for the next forty years.
Of course, we must also note that this election featured a Vice Presidential election who was my original namesake.
If I had been old enough to vote back then, I would’ve held my nose and voted for Humphrey.
Incidentally, my father, a nominal Democrat, voted for Nixon in 1968 in protest over Humphrey’s slowness to distance himself from LBJ’s policy in Vietnam. He later said that was the worst mistake he made in his life.
My father was in Vietnam during the '68 election. He voted for Nixon and talked my mother into doing the same on the grounds that Nixon would end the war. (She never forgave him.)
I was a member of my local chapter of Youth for Nixon in 1968, and volunteered in his campaign. So if 14 year olds had been able to vote in 1968, I would have voted for Nixon.
My politics have changed somewhat during the intervening decades.
Needless to say, if I could project my current self back to 1968, I’d not only vote for Humphrey, I’d work my ass off for him.
I wasn’t old enough to vote in 1968, but would have voted for Humphrey had I been able. I was at that tender age an enthusiastic Democrat. If I was sent back in time without any knowledge of history from 1968 on, I still would have voted for Humphrey. He’s one of the great men never to be president.
“JOHNSON SENDS HUMPHREY A BROAD” - fake headline by George Carlin
I was too young to vote then, as well. I’d be for Humphrey, although I agree he didn’t (really couldn’t, as VP) distance himself from LBJ’s failed Vietnam policy quickly enough. Far better him than Tricky Dick or an out-and-out racist like George Wallace, though. And I’ve always liked Muskie.
Agreed as to Humphrey’s decency, but Walter Mondale his protege (1984) and Paul Simon (1988) were both very much in the Humphrey/New Deal mold.
I was for Clean Gene, but got over it enough by November to support the Hump except I couldn’t vote yet. Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party all the way!
Can’t get clean for Gene, well then hold your nose for Hubert. I was 9 years old in '68. It was the first election I’d ever paid attention to. Our Weekly Readers in school kept us informed about politics & stuff, in 4th grade.
Sucks that RFK got assassinated or it would have been an absolute no-brainer.
So after school on election day that year, we kids piled into the school bus to go home. The bus driver was black. We asked him who he voted for. He answered “Wallace,” and grinned, trusting we’d get the obvious joke.
The primaries didn’t really matter much back then. The nomination was mostly decided by party leaders. McCarthy was the outsider and Humphrey (with Johnson’s help) was the insider.
I will concede, certainly, that the Smith Act Trials were among the most shameful disgraces in modern American history, and that Dems no less than Pubs were elbows-deep in them.
It’s a big part. “The People” felt shut out of the process, and that led to our current primary system. Another part was Mayor Daley’s “The policeman is not here to create disorder. The policeman is here to preserve disorder,” and “Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch,” (to Sen Ribicoff when he complained about police behavior) attitude. Then there was the War, which might also have had something to do with it.
I was going to say I did vote for Humphrey, but I realized I couldn’t. The voting age was 21 back then so I couldn’t have voted. I certainly did support him over Nixon.
or it would have been an absolute no-brainer.