June 4, 1968: When America truly started going down the wrong track

[Chasstev365]

Upon the assassination of RFK, Roger Wilkins, a young African American official in the DOJ said in retrospect. "And the it was over. The whole thing was over; the whole period of lift and hope, it was over."

From there, we got Nixon and Watergate, 7 more years of Vietnam, Reagan and the beginning of the end of the New Deal, a partisan Supreme with W in 2000, lied into the Iraq War, to dictator Trump.

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[Biophilic]

1. That's what it felt like to me. Thinking about it now brings those feelings back.

[Walleye]

2. Then we topped the whole decade off with Kent State. The 60s were truly over.

[txwhitedove]

6. Yes, not just one assassination or event but the culmination. End of an era.

[CanonRay]

3. I've been saying that for at least 50 years

[harumph]

4. I would say, after Nixon, there was a chance to right the ship.

Sadly, our macho culture thought Carter had been a wimp with the whole Iranian hostage crisis and voted for Reagan. Reagan was the introduction of supply-side economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, poo-pooing of alternative energy, and, the common practice of disparaging the poor and non-white citizenry on the one hand and the valorizing of so-called "job creators" on the other. The beginnings of right wing radio expansion were during the Reagan era. Managing to be both an arrogant puppet and self righteous prick (see his HUAC testimony) not enough people had the wisdom to see through the bullshit. The morality of the demographic - the 30% that intractably support TSF, was formed during Reagan era. The dismantling of the Soviet Union began during Reagan's time and the stupid fucking republicans had NO PLAN IN PLACE to assist the transition of the former CCCP to a democracy. Instead, the CCCP was sold off for scrap to the Oligarchs. To be fair, Clinton didn't do shit for Russia either. I remember arguing in the 1990s that if we didn't actively step up to the plate to help Russia inoculate themselves against the toxicity of the former Soviet Union, it would become the failed crime state with nukes. One idiotic decision after another.

Edited to add: I believe the reason we did not assist Russia economically was because our corporate class were afraid of competition. Russia has an educated citizenry and amazing natural resources (but) has lacked sufficient capital and supply chains to leverage them. Now it's run by a parasitic oligarchic class with an extraction mindset. The oligarchs could not care less about innovation as long as their territory provides enough oil and minerals to fuel their yachts.

[Blue Full Moon]

12. When they let Nixon skate for the good of the country.

He needed to have been made an example of. Co horts got light sentences.

[yardwork]

5. I think the assassination of MLK, Jr. had even more impact.

[ColoringFool]

11. I Disagree. In Terms Of Civil Rights, Of Course. But RFK Was Going....

To be elected President---Humphrey and McCarthy wouldn't have stood a chance to be nominee after California, and RFK had no "LBJ" baggage so would have defeated Nixon---and THAT eventuality would have meant a different......everything.

Bobby, even more than Jimmy Carter IMO, though Carter grew up in humble circumstances, had empathy for the least of us and for all of us.

Humphrey got my first official vote on my 19th birthday, 1968, but Bobby was my guy.

[rurallib]

16. I will disagree with that. Most of the delegates were chosen in the backroom

in those days. The Johnson admin still controlled who got favors and who had power within the party.

So while Kennedy and McCarthy were making the headlines, Johnson was wielding his power to get the nomination for Humphrey.

[mokeyz]

23. no

because MLK wasn’t going to be president.

[intheflow]

28. I agree.

A someone who was 4 when both men died, MLK's has had a much longer-lasting impact than RFK's assassinatin. The people replying here are basing RFK's legacy on the possinbility he might have been elected in an election they were going to vote in - perhaps as first time voters. It was a traumatic event for them and it had a lasting impact on them. But in the absence of his presidency, MLK has had demonstrably much more of a cultural impact on the US.

[mountain grammy]

7. I felt that way at the time..

With Dr. King gone, this just felt like the final nail.. as it was meant to be so the corporations could flourish, as they have. You can drive across America and every small town and suburb looks the same, same stores, restaurants, etc. Younger people will never understand what we lost.

[ColoringFool]

8. Actually, RFK was shot in the early a.m. of June 5, & pronounced dead on June 6, which is the usual date associated....

with his assassination.

[Chasstev365]

13. Was it Eastern or Pacific time? 12:31AM or 12:32?

I knew someone was going to nick pick this.

Yes: June 4, 1968 was the California Primary

Bobby was shot after Midnight on June 5, 1968

He died on June 6, 1968

On June 7, 1968, Airforce One was sent to LA to get RFK's body and family to bring them back to NYC

The funeral was at St. Patrick's Cathedral and train trip from NYC to Washington DC was on June 8, 1968.

Happy now?

If I wrote all of this, you probably would have been the one to tell me it was too much information.

[unweird]

9. Sixties Peak

The peak was earlier than ‘68. But yes that spring of ‘68 is when the establishment powers began roaring back against the people getting out of control (of the powers control at least).
The melancholy notes in the writings of HST in Fear and Loathing allude to this time also.

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[Unwind Your Mind]

10. That would be a great topic for a time travel story

Stephan King wrote one about preventing the JFK assassination, highly recommended

It would actually be easier to stop Bobby’s because we know for sure who actually did it. I’m not saying we do or don’t with JFK but it’s a big part of King’s book.

It would be as simple as managing to be nearby and shouting Gun. Then the story could be about what happens after, hmm. That part is much harder to contemplate, but interesting…

[videohead5]

14. A lot of things changed in the 90s

A bunch of southern states went completely red like Tennessee. Tennessee used to have two Dem senators. That's when the right-wing propaganda machine took over. The crazy conspiracies started. Remember the Clinton Chronicles. Right-wing media started up in the 90s and people in the south ate it up.

[Chasstev365]

15. Yes!

[StevieM]

29. Ken Starr's ascension was a real turning point for this country. (eom)

[markie]

17. .....

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[Chasstev365]

18. 😢

[BeneteauBum]

19. That was a bad day for me

Occurring on the heels of the MLK assassination and several years after JFK, I wondered how this could this be happening? Combined with the DNC convention later that year, it was the true awakening of my political consciousness at the tender age of 16.

Peace ☮️

[jmbar2]

20. The 1971 Powell Memo finished kicking us off the cliff. Ralph Nader's assessment of what we've lost.

In 1971, a corporate lawyer by the name of Lewis Powell was working as a partner at the corporate criminal defense firm of Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia, representing corporate clients such as the Tobacco Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber asked Powell to write a memo addressing the populist attack on big business in America. The resulting 34-page memo was a blueprint for the corporate consolidation of power in Washington, D.C.

Powell was triggered by the success of Ralph Nader and a wide range of citizen's movements for regulation:

Congress had passed or was seriously considering moderate, overdue consumer, environmental,
and job safety legislation: the creation of (1) the EPA (1970) to prevent or diminish harmful
toxins in air, water, and soil; (2) OSHA (1971) to reduce workplace illnesses and injuries; (3) the
Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (which brought some sunshine to the dark congressional
process); (4) the modest Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act amendments of (1972).
The Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) was enacted on October 27, 1972. Responsibility for
administering the Flammable Fabrics Act (enacted in 1953, expanded in 1967) was transferred to
the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) when the agency was created in 1972. The
Wholesome Poultry Products Act was passed on August 18, 1968, but was significantly
strengthened by the Wholesome Meat Act amendments of 1970.

https://nader.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/powell-memo-8-25-2025.pdf

[dlk]

21. I would say it began with the assassination of President Kennedy

We cannot ever forget how very
far certain political interests will go to get their way

[mokeyz]

22. Yup!

[electric_blue68]

24. I remember it all..... 😔

I woke up (June 5) with a very weird stomach ache around 4AM NYC time. I had my dad's little transistor radio bc I was following rhe Cal primary. Turned it on and....
Never went back to sleep.
Walked around like a zombie in HS.

That night (6/6) I woke up again w same weird ache, arond the sane time. Turned on the radio....
"He was 43."... Frank McKowitz announced.
Was?!!! Sleepless again.

I went to St Patrick's w a friend. We stood on line for around 5 hrs.
Then went the next day to see the procession going to Penn Station.

Watched the train. Resented that I had to study for the PSATs in our extra room; thus dividing my attention, while my sister watched w our mom in the living room.
I remember the people of Philadelphia coming out, and singing "The Battle Hymn of The Republic".

Between Dr King and Bobby- terrible blows to our country!
JFK, absolutely! But I was only 10; other than knowing that assassination was horrible; I didn't understand till later more of the specific loss. Then decades later hearing his speech at the American University made it even more painful.

For these gentlemen by then I was paying attention to events; and knew what the losses were for our country, and the world!

[appleannie1]

25. My brother volunteered in RFK's office during the campaign.

Sometimes they took work back to the Kennedy house in the evenings and worked in his office at home. My brother wanted to go to California but RFK said "no, I think I will win in California, I will need you more in the next state." Jack stayed in DC. When Kennedy was brought back to DC the family asked my brother if he would drive one of the funeral cars to Arlington. He later said he did not know how he managed to get there without running into something because he could hardly see through his tears. He was never the same person after that. It was like something in Jack had died when RFK died.

[CBHagman]

26. The nation goes forward and the nation slips backward.

I would not frame it as a relentless march backward. That wouldn't be true, and it wouldn't be fair to those who need to know things can and do change for the better.

Yes, many of us lived through the hellish violence and losses of the 1960s and beyond. Yes, 2026 is a grim time, and there's a multi-pronged assault on our rights, our institutions, the rule of law, and any and all professional and ethical standards.

But progress and backlash have always been part of our story. I fear that people will become too discouraged and fall into learned helplessness if they see our story as a death spiral and not a journey.

[NNadir]

27. I am willing to be contrarian on this point.

RFK's assassination was a tragic event to be sure, but I am not convinced that he was a great man or that his survival and possible election to the Presidency would have been a good thing.

As an adult who has spent some time reading into the historical legacy of the Kennedy family rubbing off the sheen of the obvious charisma to get at the cores of the family beings, I'm not convinced that RFK Jr, the antivax nut in the cabinet is as much of an anomaly as is generally assumed.

The decline and fall of the United States, now accelerating into a death spiral has far more complex origins - the chief one being the distribution of wealth and the transformation of media into an instrument of propaganda - than the assassination of a marginally ethical political figure from a family isolated from reality by wealth and privilege. To my mind the only true liberal in that family was Ted, and it was only after he matured into such a role. He certainly didn't start there.

If nothing else we ought to consider the family's treatment of women to consider their ethical purview.

For the record the greatest Democratic President of all time, FDR, despised the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, and for good reason.

[DemocracyForever]

30. Bush/Florida 2000 created Trump

The GOP controlled SCOTUS's hijacking of Presidential elections by shredding the constitution and not counting 160,000 legally cast Florida ballots in 2000 in order to install their preferred candidate, the far right W is what created Trump. It gave Trump his election stealing roadmap, the terrible Bush economy, the opportunity to finish W's stacking of the SCOTUS with more far right extremists that will last for decades. The current radical GOP SCOTUS majority has now restored the Confederacy by destroying the Voting Rights Act, taking away women's reproductive rights and gutting environmental protections.