Jayne: Yes, things are bad, but let me tell you about 50 years ago

Yeah, 1968 was a pretty lousy year in the United States, a fact that was driven home last week with the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Democratic Convention. You might have seen something about it recently; it has been mentioned on the internet.

And while that convention continues to be deconstructed and reassessed, the overriding lesson is encouraging. Because if the United States can survive the insanity of 50 years ago, if it can remain the world’s greatest economic and military power, if it can thrive in the ensuing decades … well, then we can survive what we are going through now.

Sturdy enough to endure

In many ways, the 1968 convention — which ran from Aug. 26 to 29 — encapsulates the America of the late 1960s. It arrived just as opposition to the Vietnam War was growing and a hippie-led counterculture was finding its voice, serving as a flashpoint for the nation’s unrest. It arrived at a time of racial and social divisions that remain maddeningly pronounced. And it arrived at a time that was ripe for those divisions to be exploited.

As BBC News recalls: “Some were bent on disrupting the convention by whatever means necessary, while others focused on more left-field tactics such as holding a counter convention offering the likes of a nude grope-in for peace and prosperity, and workshops on joint rolling, guerilla theatre and draft dodging.”

You can take issue with the tactics of modern-day protest groups such as Antifa, but we’re pretty sure they have not organized a nude grope-in. Yet.

While delegates went about choosing Hubert Humphrey as their nominee, Chicago police went about beating protesters with nightsticks and kicking them as tear gas flowed along Michigan Avenue. We have had protests in recent times, but nothing like what was seen in Chicago and nothing equal to the riots that burned cities in 1967 and 1968. Even in bucolic Portland, racial unrest flared in 1967 and 1969 with violence and vandalism.

Although the Chicago convention came and went five decades ago, its influence lingers. As Mick Dumke wrote for Pro Publica: “From the vantage point of 2018, it’s quite clear those divisions didn’t end with the 1960s. Neither did the practice of politicians exploiting public anxieties for their own gain and undercutting the civil rights of minorities and dissenters, to the applause of many citizens. Reactionary politics and attacks on the truth itself are again disturbingly common.”

Notably, reports from the convention helped create the now common trope of criticizing “media bias” for unflattering stories — in this case about police brutality. Because when you don’t like the message, you blame the messenger. And then you elect Richard Nixon as president.

And yet, the United States survived. We survived because elected officials eventually stood up to Nixon’s corruption. And because Ronald Reagan stood up to the Soviet Union. And because the foundation of this nation is sturdy enough to endure.

Even when things seem like they could not get any worse.