Charles P Pierce: "1968 Is No Longer the Worst Year I've Experienced"

[kpete]

A note from Mr. Pierce at Esquire (who survived being hit by a car in 2020) — “1968 Is No Longer the Worst Year I’ve Experienced”:

… In 1968, even at its worst, even in the days when, one day after another, leaders were murdered here and democracy was crushed in Prague and Nixon, of all people, was elected President of the United States, there was some sense of forward movement. Hell, LBJ actually got a gun-control bill passed that October, and he was the lamest duck since James Buchanan at that point…

So we enter into the first year of what can fairly be called the nation’s Third Reconstruction, which will be completed this time, God willing, and if we have the stomach for what has to be done. We’ve looked over the edge and into the abyss and felt the ground giving way beneath our feet. That’s a kind of thrill, I guess. I’d rather not feel it again for a while, though.

There’s a lot of work there and so much rubble to clear away, and we are demonstrably not a country that believes in collective action any more. We have to stretch and exert political and social muscles that we have discovered recently have atrophied. That begins on January 1…

I have no reason to be overoptimistic.

But I’m trying…

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35105268/new-years-2020-worst-year-1968/

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. "It's a thrill I'd rather not feel again" I would rather had not felt it at all.

Nor, was it a thrill. More like a nitemare.

[PJMcK]

2. 1968 was a terrible year

RFK was assassinated.

MLK was assassinated.

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago devolved into massive riots.

Nixon was elected president.

The Vietnam war was raging and the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive. It was the deadliest year for American soldiers with 16,592 killed. 1968 was the most expensive year in the Vietnam War with the U.S. spending the 2020 equivalent of $569 billion.

There was even a pandemic, the Hong Kong Flu, also known as the 1968 flu pandemic (it continued into 1969), which killed an estimated 1–4 million people globally.

One bright spot emerged during the Christmas season when Apollo 8 took astronauts into orbit around the Moon for the first time. They captured the famous "Earthrise" photo. An American sent a telegram to NASA thanking the astronauts for "saving 1968."

Nothing saved 2020 except that Trump lost the election. Good luck, President-Elect Biden. You've got your work cut out for you!