Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

The 2024 Democratic National Convention is about to begin in my hometown. I am worried.

In the summer of 1968, I was between my junior and senior years in high school. After a string of the usual summer jobs, delivering clothes for the local tailor, bagging groceries at the local supermarket, this summer I had a “real” job. I was writing computer programs for the City of Chicago. It was a big secret in those days that if you ignored a parking ticket in Chicago, you would never hear from the city. That was because the city’s traffic court, which had a crew of one hundred patronage workers dutifully typing the data from each ticket and each mailed in payment onto computer punched cards, no one had written the programs to match the two card decks and print out notices threatening arrest to the scofflaws who hadn’t paid.

In typical Chicago fashion in the days of Richard J. Daley, the last of the big city machine mayors, I knew a guy who knew a guy and I got the job. The traffic court wanted the project to remain a secret because a fair number of parking violators, not knowing there would be no follow-up, paid their fines by mail. I wanted the project to remain a secret because I figured my seventeen-year-old self would be an easy target if any disgruntled ticket recipient found out who I was.

The traffic court building was downtown, which meant every day I commuted from our south side apartment to the center of the city by train. That brought me right through, under really, Grant Park. It was in Grant Park that what was later described in the Walker Report, officially known as “Rights in Conflict” and named after Illinois Attorney Daniel Walker, who later became Governor of Illinois, as a “police riot” occurred. Twice a day I had a bird’s eye view.

For more than a year there had been protests, demonstrations, and riots throughout the nation. The protestors were primarily young people objecting to the war in Vietnam. Young men in those days were subject to a draft and conscripted involuntarily into military service. Approximately 58,220 U.S. military personnel lost their lives.

The incumbent President, Democrat Lyndon Johnson, had decided not to seek election to a second term. That did not deter as many as fifteen thousand protestors from coming to Chicago in 1968 to stage protests at the Democratic National Convention. Many of them pitched tents in Grant Park. And there they were confronted by twice as many Chicago Police, National Guard and regular Army troops.

The events of 1968 are well documented. Suffice it to say it was a scary time in Chicago and throughout the nation. Especially if you were seventeen years old. The DNC came back to Chicago in 1996. It has not returned until now. It is tempting to draw parallels between 1968 and today. There are some, but there are also major differences.

There is once again debate in the country about American involvement in a foreign war. Today it is about Gaza. But America’s young men are not, for the most part, on the firing line. America’s involvement is mostly financial and diplomatic. The exception is the Navy and Air Force, which are proving military support in defense of Israel.

There have been vocal protests on some college campuses by Gaza war protestors. In addition, millions of Americans maintain a false belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Advocates of both groups are expected to descend on Chicago during the convention. Security forces estimate the number of demonstrators will be larger than those present in 1968. There are questions as to who is organizing and funding these protestors. One pro-Palestinian activist, Deanna Othman, even telling the Washington Post it will be seen “as the equivalent of the 1968 DNC in Chicago.”

The Democratic 1968 nominee, Hubert Humphrey, was the vice president and a loyal supporter of Johnson’s Vietnam policy. Kamala Harris, today’s vice president and Democratic nominee, is in a similar position with regard to President Joe Biden’s Gaza policies. And Biden has decided not to seek a second term in office, providing the opportunity for Harris to step in.

While there were few counter protestors in 1968, this year may see a significant number turn out in opposition to the pro-Palestinians. That is because the Republican nominee not only opposes their cause, but he also argues that the Democrats are on their side! “Actually, Israel is the one [that wants to keep going],” Donald Trump told supporters, “And you should let them go and let them finish the job. He [Biden] doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one.” Trump has also declared that he will refuse to allow refugees from Gaza into the United States if he is elected to a second term.

So, if you riot at the 2024 convention and damage Harris, it could lead to a second Trump administration. That would be a horror for the Palestinians, and a blessing for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

I would have thought the Democrats would schedule their convention in a swing state. Illinois is believed to be solid blue. I just hope they get in and out and leave my beautiful Chicago in one piece.

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