“Bang!” There, that problem is solved. The end of the discussion. The end of the debate. Now we can move on.
1960s-Assassination Central
Fifty-six years ago, on June 6th, 1968, “Bang!”, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. This was the last of several national assassinations during the 1960s, first President Kennedy in 1963, then Malcolm X in 1965, then Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, and finally Robert Kennedy, later in that same year. None of these assassinations have any real clarity, since the original investigations have been debunked with more recent information. What is clear is that the national leadership of Blacks and the leaders of a more humanizing and democratizing direction for the nation were wiped out putting the 1968 election into turmoil and leading to the Republican Party and Richard Nixon winning the presidential election, now with the emphasis on “law and order”, the never-ending call of those who do not want change. It was also the reinstatement of the old economic elite, who had been pushed from power by FDR and the humanizing and democratizing directions of the New Deal.
The beginning of their resurgence was the growing influence of corporations during the Eisenhower administration, especially with the arms race of the Cold War and the fanatic anti-communism of the McCarthy years. I might point out that Nixon was as ruthless an anti-communist as anyone in politics at that time.
But JFK represented a return to a more humanizing and democratizing direction for the nation, finding a kind of détente with Russia to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis and hints that there may be ways to end the Cold War. His mistrust of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs was likely to lead to changes in leadership. He was even likely to begin to draw us out of Vietnam.
All of these were taken as signals of change, away from the corporate/conservative direction to a more humanizing and democratizing direction looking for peace and exploring possible avenues of cooperation throughout the world.
“Bang!” A bullet ended that possibility and brought Lyndon B. Johnson to power, a leader who was much more compatible with those corporate powers. So, the CIA retained its dominance, Vietnam escalated, and any hope of ending the Cold War is finished.
And then there was the disruption of the old order as Blacks became restless and outspoken. And then another “Bang!” First, Malcolm X and a few years later, “Bang!”, Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated, both as national leaders of the upsurge of Black political action, reducing the risk of Black political power gaining any traction for the foreseeable future, keeping the old institutions in place a while longer.
And finally, “Bang!”, the last threat to the established order and the last hope of a more humanizing and democratizing leader with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in his run for the presidency.
1968
And then, in the election year of 1968, with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the humanizing and democratizing forces were beside themselves with frustration and grief, not to mention the frustration with Vietnam. The Democratic Convention in Chicago was a powder keg, and Mayor Richard Daley, as a representative of the old order, lit the match when he sent his police to violently break up the demonstrations outside the convention.
Without a national voice, without national leadership the humanizing and democratizing elements of the nation were disorganized. As a result, the corporate/conservative voices, once again, regained their dominance.
Back in the Saddle Again
Nixon is elected to the presidency. The Republicans are back in power. Vietnam will continue and “law and order” and “benign neglect” will reign with social problems. That conservative and pro-business power is soon solidified by Lewis F. Powell’s memo to the National Chamber of Commerce giving them their marching orders for how business must take over the political processes of the nation, thus shifting the national narrative from democracy to capitalism. Up to this time business had not been quite so directly involved in national politics as an organized force. As a reward, Powell was appointed to the Supreme Court by Nixon, adding a very conservative and pro-business voice to the court.
How Did All This Come to Be?
Perhaps the Gods were simply and clearly on the side of the conservative voices who disliked change and were not too excited by the potential power of democracy, or perhaps, this whole series of assassinations just happened to happen in a serendipitous manner so helpful to the conservative and business interests. But I suspect that there was something else at work here. We must remember that when any unexpected events happen that favor a more liberal, humanizing, and democratizing direction, the term “left-wing conspiracy” comes up. However, when such serendipitous events happen that favor business and the establishment, they are only labeled a “good business plan.”
To be very honest I think these assassinations may well have been part of a “good business plan” to restore the power of business and the older established order that had lost its dominance during the New Deal and was determined never again to allow anything like that to happen again in this nation. Back to the power of an economic elite.
The Legacy of the Bullet
If those in power find they are losing the argument or if they detect a shift which might take this nation toward a more humanized or democratizing direction, they can once again assert that “might makes right” and not only end, but also win the argument, “Bang!”, with a bullet. That is the legacy of manipulators. That is the legacy of the suppression of the very best of human impulses, regardless of the cost to democracy, or the human cost or even the planetary costs incurred.
It is sad to have our national history be one of obstruction to change and, too often, allowing the final solution to be a bullet. “Bang!”
