The ideas which are often regarded as well explored territory are much of the time rather undercovered in comparison to their prestige. This scenario is among them. Robert Kennedy ran for the Democratic nomination in 1968. While it is subject to debate whether he would have achieved the nomination in the race against Humphrey (and to a lesser degree McGovern), there is enough support that it was a possibility. The discussion with Mayor Daley is among the sources to support the idea. Kennedy also had the strength of unifying and inspiring many different factions and sectors of Americans. This is among the reasons his murder was so devastating to the public. Many young people who had seen the 1960s, who felt there was a chance to set right what they felt had gone wrong, who felt as if there were a destiny to history of returning to the right path, were now lost and uncertain with a deep anguish that can not be written in words, and can only be explained if it can be emotionally felt. However, Kennedy was not limited in appeal. He was a source of inspiration to poor Americans, Black Americans, and so many other people in American society.
In 1968, Kennedy would be facing an America that had fractured over the course of the 1960s. It was already fractured by 1968, and we have a clear guide in those times to what would follow. The Vietnam War had divided generations of Americans, and had called into question everything that had once seemed so certain. Civil Rights and many other social and political issues played a role as well. Robert Kennedy's assassination, along with Martin Luther King, played a major role in creating a mood that the order was basically good but needed to be reformed into a mood that the order was basically corrupt and needed to be completely torn down and replaced. This mood seemed to be coming into vogue already, but the absolute devastation and disillusionment of 1968 resulted in even more drastic militancy in the 1970s. The 1970s would prove to be a decade where Americans were lost. And Robert Kennedy was a glimmer of hope and normalcy that was blown out with wrenching sadness. The death of Robert Kennedy was the death of hope.
This is not a topic concerning if Robert Kennedy could secure the nomination in 1968, nor the race against Nixon being lost if he did. There is a habit recently of being lost in the woods in discussing everything leading up to a topic, or how a topic could never be, such , that it does not focus on the concerns of the topic. That is not to say that there cannot be discussion concerning it. To the contrary, 1968 and the vents leading up to November are fully open to discussion. However, it is a discussion on the concept of Robert Kennedy surviving, securing the nomination, and winning 1968, with all the many details therein ripe for discussion, as well as the history after that fact being ripe for discussion. The term or terms, the impact on America and the world, the impact on social and political forces and the identity of this nation, among many other areas of discussion. With that said, what if Robert Kennedy had lived, and gone on to the presidency in 1968?