The Week Chicago Died: How the 1968 Chicago Riots Changed the Democratic Party's Landscape

摘要

The week of 27 August 1968 marked a turning point for the two prominent American political parties: the Republican and Democratic Party. What transpired in Chicago during a hot, blistering summer was a week of frustration, chaos and confusion that permanently fractured the Democratic Party and resulted in a Republican Party that capitalized on these events, gaining a significant voter base. This one week proved to be the undoing for the Democratic Party who had always been able to count the 'silent majority' as their core constituents. When this core turned away, the Democrats lost much of their political clout, which ultimately they have been struggling to regain for 39 years.