After the Floyd Riots, I see a 1968 re-election repeat (voters, campaign, democrat)

[BobNJ1960]

Law & Order became the dominant topic, which drove the suburban, middle class vote.

No matter how much they spoke in soothing tones regarding the riots in cities like Chicago that year, they did not vote in the same interests.

[Urban Peasant]

Only thing is, despite ordering up the National Guard, Trump hasn't exactly been encouraging law and order with his fiery, divisive, rhetoric if that is what you are implying. Even White suburban voters who can suss out the message behind the rhetoric will not vote for him if they have already made up their minds beforehand. That and 1968 was a different era. LBJ, a Democrat and vilified incumbent for the Vietnam Conflict, was in office in '68, kids between age 18 and 20 weren't allowed to vote, and the nation likely wanted change anyways despite the riots. The suburbs have plenty of law and order, it's the cities you've got to worry about.

[BobNJ1960]

I'm actually talking the true, underlying central topic of campaign as opposed to individuals.

In 1968, candidates still talked about the economy, but from older relatives and looking back historically, we know safety drove the vote.

Nixon won of course, but when you add the Wallace vote in, the non law & order Humphrey was decimated at the polls.

[xray731]

And Obama did nothing but let them riot - sorry but people of all colors are horrified by what they see right now - Trump will get their votes whether you want to believe it or not.

[banjomike]

Will 2020 be another 1968?

No. It was a singularly bad year, the one I always believed would be the worst I ever lived through for the past 50 years.

But 2020 is worse than 1968. And it's worse in vastly different ways. 1968 was the result of a lot of long-simmering issues that had been happening for a long time. Law and order was not the dominant topic of 1968. The Vietnam war was the dominant topic.

And law and order won't be the dominant topic in 2020 either.

The coronavirus will remain to be the topic that will drive the 2020 election, along with its attendant damage to our society, our economy, and our outlook on the future.

This is an issue that will not drive only one sector of our citizens on Election Day. The virus threatens us all equally, but only in degrees.
At present. Some states haven't been hit as hard as others, but there's nothing to say the second wave won't hit them. Or the third or fourth waves. As the first wave hasn't even ended yet, we don't even know how long the first wave will continue.

That uncertainty will be at the top of everyone's minds until we have answers to questions that have none at this moment.

And the bitter fact is the coronavirus may be like polio, a virus that brought on one epidemic after another, coming and going in intensity, for well over 70 years with no predictability.
Isolation was the only preventative that existed, and no one ever knew when they were going to need to isolate themselves. Isolation was a very weak preventative too, but it was the only thing people had to protect themselves and their kids.
And the last epidemic of polio in 1952 was the worst of all.

Nope. Law and order is far down the list of citizen's concerns nowadays.

[Adhom]

We have Trump now. Let's see him bring the current riots under control.

[Corrie22]

He's doing much more than anyone else has...

crossing state lines is a felony...
...Antifa a terrorist group

[skeddy]

why aren't the MSM berating these domestic terrorists for not wearing masks and practicing social distancing?

[Buckeye77]

Well, if you want to consider that the alternative is (presumably) Joe Biden, anything Trump does will look magnificent by comparison. Joe is still bunkered in his basement. Not Presidential at all. Law and order will be a major topic


edited to add - I'm pretty sure I voted in 1968 but have no idea who I voted for. I had a wife, 2 kids and a mortgage, so politics wasn't on my short list of things to worry about...

[Ringo1]

Originally Posted by xray731

And Obama did nothing but let them riot - sorry but people of all colors are horrified by what they see right now - Trump will get their votes whether you want to believe it or not.

Yeah. I don't believe it.

We have had total and complete chaos since Trump was elected and this is just more chaos under his reign.

Meanwhile he throws gasoline on the fire and then scurries away to the WH hidey-hole.

Real leader ya got there.

People of all colors are tired of his complete and utter ineptitude.