COLUMN: Think Again – History repeats itself in 2024 presidential campaign

A bombastic presidential candidate survives an assassination attempt and keeps campaigning. An ailing president’s family conspires to hide the true extent of his infirmities from the public. An incumbent president suddenly decides not to seek reelection and passes the torch to his vice-president instead.

All these things happened this month. Suffice it to say that the 2024 presidential election in the United States has been a wild ride so far. No doubt there will be more twists and turns to come.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that while these things are unusual, similar things have happened before. For example, in 1912 former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest at near-point blank range during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wis. Despite bleeding heavily, Roosevelt insisted on finishing his speech before going to the hospital for medical treatment.

This incident burnished Roosevelt’s tough and fearless public image and elevated him to an even more legendary status than he had before. Donald Trump’s defiant decision to raise his fist in the air and mouth the words “fight, fight, fight” immediately after being shot brought back memories of what Roosevelt did more than a century ago.

Meanwhile former President Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919 that left him incapacitated. Rather than step down, Wilson’s wife Edith conspired to keep the true extent of his disability hidden from the public—and even Wilson’s own cabinet. Many historians note that for two years, Edith essentially ran the country.

The parallels with current President Joe Biden are striking. Not only is Biden the oldest person ever to serve as president, but it is also increasingly obvious that his mental acuity has sharply declined over the last few years. His disastrous debate performance last month showed that there is no way that Biden can serve as president for another four years.

After several weeks of unrelenting pressure, Biden caved to demands from his own party that he end his bid for a second term in office. In doing so, Biden followed in the footsteps of former President Lyndon Johnson.

Back in 1968, Johnson planned to run for a second four-year term. However, the unpopularity of the Vietnam War made it unlikely that Johnson could win the fall election. As a result, on March 31, 1968, Johnson announced that he would not seek another term. Johnson’s vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, won the Democratic nomination.

Interestingly, Humphrey went down to defeat that fall. Republican candidate Richard Nixon won the presidency with the backing of what he called the “silent majority.” Americans were tired of the chaos they saw during Johnson’s presidency and wanted someone in office who would take the country in a different direction.

Thus, while the events of the last month are highly unusual, they aren’t exactly unprecedented. There have been previous presidential assassination attempts (along with several successful assassinations), former presidents have gotten sick while in office, and there are times when incumbent presidents suddenly decide to end their campaigns.

However, what stands out is the fact that these things don’t usually happen all at once. The fact that these dramatic events all took place this month is something that should make us all take note.

The United States is in for a wild ride in this upcoming election. At this point, we can’t even be certain who the Democratic nominee is going to be, although most Democratic politicians are quickly throwing their support to Vice-President Kamala Harris. Whether she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump this fall remains to be seen.

We live in interesting times. Stay tuned for more developments in the weeks ahead.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.