An incumbent president steps down. A presidential hopeful gets shot. Cities writhe with protests opposing a bloody overseas war.
Oh, and did we mention a Democratic National Convention in Chicago? Let’s do the time warp again! As uncannily alike as 1968 and 2024 have turned out to be so far, a reminder to breathe: the city has already broken the DNC curse once before, in 1996, when Bill Clinton was handily — and, all things considered, pretty uneventfully — nominated for reelection here. And this year could have been much crazier. The Dems set aside their squabbling just long enough to reject the pandemonium of an open convention and unify behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
She’ll already be the nominee by the time she sets foot on the United Center stage this week: an Ohio law requiring that candidates be finalized 90 days before an election forced the Democratic Party to nominate Harris ahead of its own convention, scheduled after that cutoff. The year’s most anticipated political event? An empty formality, if a really expensive, schmoozy one. Still, all over the city this week, invitations to celebrate our democracy — or grieve its fragility — abound.
Many of the events and organizations below live out a favorite maxim of the late congressman and judge Abner Mikva: democracy is not a noun but a verb. It only works by doing. Say your plans for the week involve more hunkering than doing.
First, we can’t blame ya: Chicago expects a staggering 50,000 visitors.