At a GOP convention where expected violence didn’t happen, history repeats itself
By Marc Fisher July 24 at 6:40 PM
The fear was palpable, heightened by a pervasive sense that the country was in disarray, that the social compact was near collapse, that Americans could no longer get along. “Disorder and even violence will disrupt the convention,” one columnist wrote. Extraordinary security measures were taken. Some respected party elders announced they were staying away. The prospect of nominating a wild card, a provocateur, a man who seemed disturbingly comfortable with extremism, caused many to wonder if the Republican party was falling apart. But perhaps the most angst in the days before the convention centered on the likelihood that there would be blood in the streets, a massive show of protesters determined to push back against the unprecedented choice of a candidate from far outside the mainstream.
Cleveland 2016, the Trump moment? No, San Francisco 1964, on the eve of the Barry Goldwater nomination.
There was no violence. There were protesters, but not nearly as many as had been expected. The authorities, the press, the politicians had all gravely predicted a racial confrontation, an expression of black rage over the rising prominence of white supremacists among the ranks of Goldwater’s supporters, and a white backlash against that black protest. It didn’t happen.
It didn’t happen in Cleveland last week either, despite eerily similar expectations. A few stray protesters engaged in half-hearted, tragic color wars in the city’s central square, yelling across lines of expressionless police officers that black, or blue, or all lives mattered. Despite the shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, despite two years of rising tensions over relations between police and black Americans, the protests near the Republican National Convention were small, almost entirely peaceful and generally ignored.
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