LAKEWOOD, Colo. — For weeks, political experts have pointed to similarities between this year's DNC and the 1968 Democratic convention – both hosted in Chicago.
Norman Provizer, a political science professor at MSU Denver, said both conventions share much in common, but many of the events unfolding in Chicago this year are being addressed very differently. Unlike the '68 convention more than 50 years ago, instead of a divided Democratic party, this DNC is firmly unified behind Kamala Harris as the nominee.
Provizer has followed elections closely for decades. He remembers watching the DNC more than 50 years ago.
"Yes, I did watch it in 1968. And it was not a pleasant sight," Provizer said. "It was ugly, enormously ugly. It was violent."
He watched on as the Democratic party's search for a candidate was overshadowed by what happened on Chicago's streets as police and Vietnam War protesters clashed violently.
"Protests went crazy and the response to them in many ways was even crazier. So that's really the identifier of the '68 convention. It was very dramatic but in a very negative way," Provizer said. "And it nominated Hubert Humphrey and did not help his chances of winning the presidency – and he lost.”
Both conventions suddenly found themselves with new candidates at the forefront, ready to make a run for the White House.
And both, with thousands of protesters pushing back on a war just a few streets away. Provizer said that's where the similarities between the conventions end.
"Unlike the '68 convention in Chicago, ripped the Democratic party apart. Ripped it apart. This convention has seen the Democratic party sew itself up. It's enormously unified," Provizer said.
Part of that unity, he said, is due to the progress made so far to address excessive policing. And part of that is the party sweeping unity sweeping delegates into the DNC.
"It's an enormously positive event. I think anyone who's watched any of it has seen it, just enormously positive," Provizer said.
As the convention continues, Provizer expects the DNC will draw another comparison altogether. "It will probably be compared in many ways to the convention in Denver, when the Democrats met in Denver," he said.
Provizer said he was at the 2008 convention and watched Barack Obama accept his party's nomination here in Colorado.
As Kamala Harris' campaign picks up steam, he said this convention could stand out for a moment in history all its own.
"And this will be the convention if that path is followed, this will be the convention that produced the first woman as well as first Black, Asian, other categories but the first woman to become President of the United States," Provizer said.