How Democrats Learned to Love the Smoke-Filled Room Again

Good evening. It took less than two days for Vice President Kamala Harris to secure commitments from enough delegates to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, so my colleague Charles Homans is here to tell us how a party that spent much of the past year divided fell in line. Then, I’m brat — I mean, back — with a look at that meme. — Jess Bidgood

After President Biden’s debate performance last month unleashed existential doubt about the future of his presidential campaign, political veterans and pundits wondered aloud whether the party was walking into a sequel to its disastrous summer of 1968. That year, against the backdrop of a nation-dividing foreign conflict, an unpopular president decided not to seek re-election and anointed his vice president as his successor. The decision set off a momentous clash at that year’s Democratic National Convention between the left and the party establishment.

Unpopular president not seeking re-election? Check.

Anointment of his vice president? Check.

A clash between the left and the establishment? As of now, not so much.

The 1968 cataclysm shattered the old order of the party and ultimately produced the modern primary rules, which place most of the power for picking a nominee in the hands of voters — the very system Democrats will be bypassing if they nominate Harris for president, as delegates and party leaders have indicated they will.

But the initial response to Biden’s endorsement of Harris has shown that few Democrats have an appetite for 1968-style intraparty conflict, and many are happy to accept the informal decision-making of party elites: to learn to love the old politics of smoke-filled rooms again, however briefly.

One of the most significant differences between then