I am reminded in some ways of the 1964 Republican primary race.

[MineralMan]

I was one year out of high school and not old enough to vote back in those days. But, I was still interested in politics. Still suffering from the loss of JFK the year before, I watched both parties closely, but the Republican primary race was the most interesting.

There are some parallels with this year's Democratic primary race, although the options were on the right side of politics, rather than the left. There were some prominent and well-known people running. there was a Democratic President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had been thrust into the presidency by JFK's assassination. He was a shoe-in as the nominee because of that.

On the Republican side, some of the notable candidates in the primary race were, William Scranton of PA, Senator Margaret Chace Smith from Maine, UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Nelson Rockefeller, and Harrold Stassen. There were a few more, but they were not as well-known. A woman was running for the nomination, which was rather shocking at the time. And, then, there was Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Goldwater, who would end up being nominated, in the end, was from the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. He was less well known than some of the other candidates, but was a firebrand of conservatism. Against all odds, he ended up being the Republican nominee, driven by a new wave of conservatism that overwhelmed everything else. Probably, there were too many candidates running, and Goldwater triumphed, in part, because of that.

In November of 1964, though, the nation rejected Goldwater, overwhelmingly, with a 486 to 52 electoral vote landslide for LBJ. The Republican party made the mistake of thinking that an arch-conservative would punch through and turn the nation to the right. That, clearly, did not occur. Barry Goldwater won only six states. It was a debacle.

Maybe I'm the only one who sees a parallel here in 2020. But, I definitely see it. I'm old, and I remember. If you don't remember, here's a link that will give you a pretty good picture of what happened and why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_United_States_presidential_election

[redstatebluegirl]

1. I had not thought about it but yes, there are some similarities.

[MineralMan]

3. That was a long time ago, but that Wikipedia article

refreshed my memory.

[CalFione]

2. Bernie is to 2020 Democrats what Barry Goldwater was to 1964 Republicans

It is a good analogy.

[MineralMan]

4. In many ways that is true, but sort of reversed, I guess.

Reading the account of the Republican primary at the link I posted is very interesting, I think. I had forgotten a lot of the details of that primary race. I wasn't a big LBJ fan as his full term went on. I was strongly opposed to the war, and he was not taking a good approach to it. He accomplished some things, but failed, in my opinion, to deal with the elephant in the room in the right way.

But, in 1964, I was in favor of his election, and totally appalled by Barry Goldwater's shocking views.

[MineralMan]

5. Barry Goldwater's statement on accepting the GOP nomination

will be remembered forever by those who heard it:

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

[customerserviceguy]

6. Do you remember

on the GOP side, that there was concern about Nelson Rockefeller's marriage? Rocky himself was not divorced, but he had married a divorced woman. It seems pretty quaint today.

[MineralMan]

7. I do. She was much younger than Rockefeller, too.

Those were definitely different times. I remember that very, very well. The birth control pill was just released in 1964. In California, though, it was not legal for doctors to prescribe it to unmarried women or women under the age of 21. At the time, too, Californians could only buy condoms at a pharmacy, and also had to be over 21 years of age. Every package had this printed on it: "For Prevention of Disease Only."

Both of those prohibitions were widely ignored, of course, but they were still the law. As a 19-year-old lad, such things affected me. Fortunately, at the state college I was attending at the time, the student health center had a huge fishbowl in the waiting area full of free condoms, and the health center pharmacy filled birth control pill prescriptions for anyone. The health center doctors were more than happy to prescribe it for students.

Those laws went away shortly thereafter.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Griswold vs. Connecticut

swept those laws away. Another reason to have a good Supreme Court that is focused on the rights of the people.

[Doc_Technical]

8. All I remember about the 1964 election year was

that the topless restaurants in San Francisco were packed with
delegates from the Republican Convention.