Trump vs. protesters: Playing with political fire

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump challenges protesters at a political rally in Kansas City, Mo., on March 12. /Image via Right Side Network

In America, violence and presidential politics make a volatile mixture that bodes ill for the party linked to the brutality, and the country.

The violent response to protesters at Donald Trump's campaign event yesterday in Chicago is a potential history-repeating-itself moment for the Republican presidential candidate. The last time political protesters in Chicago were beaten in front of a national television audience was during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential convention, when Mayor Richard J. Daley unleashed a police riot that injured at least 100 protesters and 100 officers.

In November 1968, Republican Richard Nixon narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the popular vote, 43 percent to 42 percent. Destined for impeachment and disgrace, Nixon posted a much more comfortable margin of victory in the decisive Electoral College vote, 55 percent to 35 percent.

Chicago police officers beat and detain political protesters during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential convention. /Image via unretiring.blogspot.com