It's another Super Tuesday and the presidential primary voters in five states will cast ballots today. With Republican and Democratic candidates are anxiously waiting to add to their crucial delegate counts. As the temperature rises in the primary races so does the atmosphere at Donald Trump's political rallies. The outbreak of pushing, shouting, and physical violence by supporters, the order from the candidate to get out, and the persistence of professor -- protesters had had a disturbing element to this campaign. It is not a new development in American politics. Joining me is Carl Luna political science professor of Mesa College and director of disability Institute at the University of San Diego. Carl, welcome to the program. We haven't seen this up rival -- of people in recent. But in fact there is a long history of it in politics. There is a history of violence in politics in general. When Phineas Fogg arrives in San Francisco and around the world in 80 days, it is right when they are doing the elections and it was one big cry get. There used to be elections in America were was rival gangs trying to stuff ballot boxes. But like we were just talking about mumps measles copies are things we are supposed to move on. It's is disturbing to see such a backslide. Many folks are pointing to 1960 and comparing it to this campaign. You see similarities? You have the basic discontent. In 1968 is when we started to import more than we were exporting. Immigration was just becoming an issue, middle-class was starting to slow down with prosperity. New technologies, all that of people, sexual revolution, social civil rights, you're seeing that today as well. We're going into a technical -- technological shift. Folks are living less long than they used to especially those without a college degree. There's a feeling of discontent and outsiders trying to take over the system. Other people are trying to come to power. Average Americans versus the new Americans. I am afraid the summer of 2016 could be the hottest ones we've had since 1968. Back then our politics were torn apart by the Vietnam War. There doesn't seem to be one galvanizing issue like that in this year's politics. Is there? The Vietnam War was the overarching theme Cobbett is also the civil rights movement, the dislocation of American class workers, labor unions. Today you have an amalgamation of issues. There are huge social and technological changes. Many of the candidates instead of coming up for the future, are trying to capture the past. They don't know how to deal with this. This era, like then there are a variety of reason for people to be upset. And they are getting upset at the same time to a destructive effect. I think it is important to remember that in 1960 with the assassinations of Doctor Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy on the trail, it's actually much worse than the nation is going through right now. Yes. That is the nice side of all this. For those talking about the shouting and pushing and punching it alleys -- rallies, in 1960 you had major assassinations. Cities of burned in 1968. Chicago was paralyzed. There was still the old civil rights violence going on. We were not of that period. Political violence has usually been racially tensioned in America. Of the 4000 or so people who died were either lynchings, in riots caused by segregation, so we are in a better situation. Though race relations are probably at a low for what they have been for 10 or 15 years. Summer talking about the convention coming up in Cleveland seeing much how it will be another national convention in Chicago which you just mentioned. Can you remind us of that Democratic convention in Chicago? Was that as bad as everybody has been saying? It was pretty bad. I was only eight at the time. I have watched it on television and studied it since then. You had a president who chose not to run for reelection because of the war. Hubert Humphrey declined to go through the primary process instead of trying to get caucuses to help them get the nomination comes a lead alternative, Robert Kennedy's to shot in Los Angeles. Yet mumps of riots across the country, antiwar activists, socialists, anarchists. That furthered Richard Nixon to say how the Democrats are blowing everything up. He said I'm your guy. He was able to win the election and the rest was history. That was a mess. I think that convention was a mess. Typically in political science, that is the term we would use. What you think elections have been relatively peaceful for the last few generations? A general prosperity, even though it has worn down for middle-class families over the last 20 years, then that comfort of prosperity that maybe it will get better from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton, the thought was maybe it will come around the corner. But the hope and change did not hope and change. We went through generation that didn't need to resort to as much political violence and confrontation to get what they wanted. Civil rights movement became institutionalized. Paper was accepted, even though was going down. In prosperity we get used to the fast -- fact we didn't to violence. That is why it is so shocking to people that that could pop up again. That was more the norm across history than the preceding 30 years. Is the public to make up with their seeing? The public as part of it. The public has been watching this. Donald Trump in the issues of the Trump campaign didn't just emerge because of Donald Trump. There are people that feel angry over the system, and he has capitalized on that. Bernie Sanders, to a different degree, discontent with the status quo. The enemy is us. As a culture, some of this in the cold course of culture were used to being rude, them Venus, the works against the, good. We're willing to retreat into our smaller tribes. Cable-TV, Internet. We don't have to work with other people to compromise. Wench you start to break down comparable -- compromising day-to-day discourse, look at Sacramento, City Hall, don't be surprised when it breaks down in the streets when people try to engage in civil discourse. How that you think it the rallies will get? The hope will be that if Donald Trump gets the nomination, for example, and then after the convention everyone is happy to back him, maybe burns out. I tend to think if there is a debate at the convention over Donald Trump, if the party elite try to take it away from him, that will cause a backlash. There will be a lot of protesters. And if he will be against Democrats and progressives in Cleveland, there will be a certain amount of anger so if Hillary has gotten the nomination by party insiders. I don't think it will be the same degree as Republicans. But going into the fall, we are so used to spectacle politics now, outrageous TV, this could fuel flames. Things people used to be afraid to say, they now think it is their right to say because political correctness has just caused all that. Bring it back to Super Tuesday today, five states go to the polls today, what is at stake on the Republican side? The future of the party and what it stands for, party of Lincoln, party of Trump, because Donald Trump is a very different sort of candidate. He is not a part of traditional Republican values per se. There is more of a supremacist ultranationalist that is kind of going to him like you have not seen since 1968 with George Wallace. He is kind of George Wallace with a New York accent and a better hairdo. A better hairdo? A much better hairdo. Okay. That's something. So Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, do you see anything definitive happening? On the Republican side, if Donald Trump suit so high on all, he's probably got it. If Bernie Sanders can win one or two today, it keeps on going. The math always works for Hillary Clinton except there's almost something Charlie Brown about her but the football that keeps getting pulled away from her. Hillary, you can never be too surprised if she loses a couple of these. My bet is that she will probably win Florida, when Ohio, and then it's the plot into April when she secures the nomination. As we plod on, as you say, does become more and more likely California, which of course has primary in June, make a difference a share? There's a chance in the Republican race, it could. Of the Democratic race, I still think Clinton has a better chance according to the math going forward but if it is not resolved in April and May, we are the less big-ticket. California finally gets to resolve the. At that point, we might want to take a collective vacation a candidate and not touch this thing. It is going to be -- really growing here. You will see nothing like you'll see in the June primary. That could affect things like our Mayor's race. I have been speaking with political science professor Carl Luna who is also professor of civility Institute at USD. Carl, as always thank you very much. On April 18, we will have are conference in respect of civil dialogue. Checks out on our website at restoring respect. Thank you. [ Music ] Coming up the question of why state Senator Ben Hueso is not moving forward on legislation to help rideshare companies like Uber. It is 12:23 PM. You are listening to KPBS Midday Edition.
It's Super Tuesday, Part II, of the presidential primary races.
Voters in five states are casting ballots Tuesday, and Republican and Democratic candidates are battling it out for supremacy in the presidential race.
As the the primary races heat up, so do the tensions at GOP candidate Donald Trump's political rallies.
There have been outbreaks of pushing, shouting and physical violence.
A San Diego political scientist is not surprised because this country has a long history of violence connected to elections.
“These are things we’re supposed to move beyond,” said Carl Luna, a Mesa College political science professor. “It is disturbing to see such a backslide.”
Some have compared the current situation to 1968.
There was much discontent in the nation then. The U.S. was waging a war in Vietnam. The country also was importing more goods than exporting, immigration was an issue, the working class was under economic pressure, a new generation was coming into politics and new technology was changing politics..
“We’re seeing that same kind of shift today,” Luna said on KPBS Midday Edition. “I’m afraid the summer of 2016, the conventions, could be the hottest ones we’ve had since 1968.”
Two prominent Americans, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King were assassinated in 1968. That same year, a riot broke out at the Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago.
The current situation, while similar, doesn’t really compare, Luna said.
“Cities burned in 1968,” Luna said.
The current climate has led to some shouting at campaign events and a few punches thrown, but Luna said there has not been an outbreak of serious violence.
