My wife and I watched THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 last night...
The underlying issue of the 1968 Democratic Convention protests was that the Democrats were no better than the Republicans. Sounds eerily familiar.....
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The students opposed the Vietnam War and the draft, and these guys demonstrated against everybody - Dems and GOP. It just so happened that this one took place in Chicago during the Democratic Convention.
I remember at the time, a lot of journalists and pundits were suggesting that these guys must be COMMUNISTS since they were against the war. They couldn't possibly be true, loyal Americans or they would WANT to go and fight in Vietnam.
What I love about this movie is that it brings back that time period so well, and it's not glossing over the messy parts. Everyone's perspective changed so radically by 1972 when Nixon ran for re-election. By then no Dems were in favor of the war, and even Repukes were turning against it. All Nixon could do by then was make up his fake justification "Peace with Honor" so he could get re-elected.
Yes of course Watergate changed everything, so we need to remind ourselves that this trial happened BEFORE Watergate. It happened when stupid people still believed that the Vietnam War was a "good" war. Even some Democrats believed it in 1968.
