Hillary and the 1968 Democratic Convention

There’s been a lot of talk about how Hillary Clinton is dividing the Democratic Party and hurting the likely candidate with her negative campaign. She seems intent on fighting all the way to the Democratic Convention in Denver. What could be her motive?

It is informational to look back at what she was doing during the contentious 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. According to Carl Bernstein in his book, “A Woman in Charge”, Hillary Clinton was a regular attendee at the event. Not inside, mind you, Hillary was a Republican at the time, and had just attended the Republican Convention in Miami. All the same, like Richard Nixon watching the turmoil outside his hotel room, Hillary was a seeming bystander in the middle of the chaos.A refresher of Hillary Clinton’s crazy 1968 summer is in order. Like Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton supported the upstart campaign of Eugene McCarthy in the early part of the year. According to Bernstein, Hillary was president of the Wellesley Young Republicans at the time.

Most are unaware that Richard Nixon was a closet supporter of Eugene McCarthy, funnelling large contributions to the Democratic contender. His Machiavellian strategy of dividing his opposition worked as Lyndon Johnson removed himself from the race because of McCarthy’s surprising showing.

In April, Martin Luther King was killed. In June, Robert Kennedy was killed. In response, Hillary applied for a summer internship as a Republican and went to work for Nixon’s future Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird. That would be the same Melvin Laird who supported Nixon’s policies of invading Cambodia and escalating the war in Vietnam.

Few are aware of the duplicitious nature of many young Republicans; how they infiltrate Democratic events, create havoc with dirty tricks, say one thing while secretly doing another. It’s how Republican earn points and advance in the party.

Hillary Clinton certainly says the right things. She says she supported Civil Rights even though she worked to elect Barry Goldwater who voted against the Voting Rights Act. She says was a wavering Republican at the same time she was rising up its leadership ladder. She says she is part of Robert and John Kennedy’s Party even though she was a Republican throughtout it. She says she was disturbed by the police riot that happened at the 1968 Convention that took place all around her, but I for one, suspect otherwise.

I have no doubt she will try to disrupt the Democratic Party this year. The evidence goes all the way back to the decisions she made as a Republican operative in 1968.

This article was first published at the Daily Kos on Tue Mar 04, 2008

Aaron Dahl

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