Back To The 60s

In the current age of Trump, we can draw several similarities to the 1960s. It’s already quite common for people to compare the 45th President to his Republican predecessor, Richard Nixon, who became President in 1969, but had already become a prominent political figure in his Vice Presidency under Dwight Eisenhower and Presidential bid in 1960, which he lost to John F. Kennedy. Of course, we can’t draw a perfect similarity between the two, but they are still comparable, and that isn’t the only comparison we can draw. Expanding on the Trump-Nixon comparison, there aren’t actually that many comparisons to draw in policy, except they were both moderates, though they were liberal in vastly different areas. Nixon’s liberalism is evidenced by his creation of the EPA, and Trump’s by his willingness to side with congressional Democrats and inability to pass any of his actually conservative legislation in Congress, despite holding a majority in both houses. However, both have been involved in scandals, though Trump’s lacks enough evidence at the moment. Evidence of Nixon’s Watergate scandal was leaked by FBI associate director Mark Felt (his alias was “Deep Throat”). Trump’s scandal, like Nixon’s, deals with an election, but Trump’s deals mostly with alleged foreign involvement, whereas Nixon’s was a domestic sabotage of the opposing party. Additionally, both administrations had classified information leaked by an anonymous source - Nixon had “Deep Throat,” whereas Trump’s leaker is yet to be identified, but most believe it to be someone closer to the President and/or with a higher security clearance. Both have had connections to tapes that have helped make them immensely unpopular as well - Nixon with the investigation of Watergate, and Trump with the Access Hollywood tape, which made him plummet in the polls. There have been calls to impeach both Presidents, and one stepped down. I think Trump will try to fight removal all the way if he is impeached. However, that is not where the 60s comparisons end. One might also compare Senate-hopeful Austin Petersen to Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Both can be considered “different kinds of Republicans” that follow the more proper definition of conservatism that Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, and Ronald Reagan would have been placed under. This brand of conservatism is linked to libertarianism, which is evidenced by Austin Petersen’s campaign in the 2016 Libertarian primary. Both Goldwater and Petersen had unsuccessful Presidential campaigns, and Petersen is a hopeful for the same office Goldwater held for 30 years. Of course, we can draw a line on their stance on abortion rights, where Petersen is pro-life and Goldwater was pro-choice, but most of their other basic beliefs are very similar. Both have been critical of their President, but Petersen has been much more optimistic about Trump than Goldwater was about Nixon. Even on the Democratic Party’s side of things, we can make comparisons. Barack Obama can probably be compared to Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson’s “Great Society” can probably be compared to Obama’s Keynesian response to the housing crash in 2007, as well as the administration's support to LGBT rights, though that is undoubtedly below the civil rights movement that brought rights to a whole race of people than just people that have different sexual tastes. Both Presidents also saw the rise of major movements and the escalation of minor and unpopular wars started under previous administrations. Both Presidents also oversaw gun control legislation and were met with low approval during their Presidencies, though historians have since viewed Johnson more favorably. In addition, there have recently been rising tensions, and the 60s saw plenty of that, especially in 1968, when both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated. In fact, there has already been an assassination attempt on several Senators by James T. Hodgkinson. Additionally, Black Lives Matter (BLM) can be compared to the Black Panthers for their similar tactics of terrorism. Obama, who was just compared to Johnson, however, only raised tensions, whereas Johnson signed several Civil Rights Acts, which have gone down in history as favorable. Additional tensions today include the Alt-Right and AntiFa, which might be compared to Nazis and Communists, which both saw major leaders (George Lincoln Rockwell for the Nazis and Che Guevara for the Communists) assassinated in 1967. So what does this mean for the future? Donald Trump may go down as one of the worst and most scandalous Presidents as regarded by historians, Austin Petersen may bring about yet another rise of the conservative movement, historians might rank Obama higher than he is actually favored among the American public, there might be several assassinations and a year of complete chaos, BLM might come to an end but be remembered as a great movement, racial tensions might come down within the next decade, the Alt-Right will probably be put on the back-burner of history, and AntiFa may be worn on the shirts of college students half a century later. We can only wait to see what the world has in store, but what we do know is that this may be an eerie return to the 1960s.

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