The police have been largely defunded. Their stations lie filthy and squandered. Vandals and looters have taken to the city streets; they smash windows, take what they want, and assault bystanders. The National Guard has been called in to quell the chaos. The President, a known racist who is increasingly unpopular throughout the nation, now speaks out against the events, calling the perpetrators "an army of thugs."
This is not a description of an attack ad launched by the Biden or Trump campaign. This was Boston in September of 1919. [1] In the day-to-day bewilderment of our lives in the year 2020, it can be hard to imagine that there have been times quite a bit worse than these in our nation's history; the year prior to the election of Warren G. Harding was a year of infamy for its violence, fear, and worry for the future.
I do not plan on doing an entire discussion and analysis on this subject (I didn't plan on doing a post at all before the one I have planned for October 30), but I think it is important to help people recognize why America was clamoring for change so much that Warren G. Harding would win by record numbers in the popular vote and dominate the electoral college as well (spoiler alert) on November 2, 1920 - just a few days away from a century ago!
Therefore, I have attached a video by a brilliant and informative history YouTuber "Cynical Historian" that entertainingly covers a lot of the highlights of the year 1919. To briefly summarize some of the wild events of that year, it is necessary to begin with the overarching fatigue of World War One, the fear of Russian Bolshevism and Eastern European anarchist tendencies, and heightened racial tensions after a presidency in which the federal workforce was segregated and a pro-Klan film was infamously screened at the White House. On top of all of that, Americans - indeed, the people of the world - were dealing with the influenza pandemic spiking after the war. In comparison, I am thankful to be living in a time of better healthcare development, more rights for minority groups, less blatant government violence (though it certainly still exists). I see so many of the problems of 1919 in today's dilemmas, but they have evolved. We have made so much progress, but there are still problems that Americans have not completely faced which have their origin in events like those of 1919 and earlier.
Oh, and Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919 as well. At least we have the chance to drink a toast today in 2020 when these kinds of scenarios occur - back in 1919 they had just passed the amendment that began the Prohibition Era ...
Without further ado, here is the video: (his opinions are not to be taken as mine; though this is mostly just a fact-based video)