1968 and 2016: Older Self and Younger Self talk politics

I never had a a rebellious daughter--or any daughter for that matter--but I get a taste of how that feels now and then. My younger self comes to visit sometimes, and when she does, she's apt to scold me. We talk about politics and elections and what must be done to end war and bring America into a new era. She brings me back to 1968, an election year that looks very much like this one. Both had and have a lot at stake.

She is 21, newly graduated from college (with a social science/political science degree no less!) and ready to take on life in this most extraordinary year. So extraordinary that a major museum exhibit traveled the country in 2015, dedicated solely to the tumultuous events of 1968.

April, 1968: Younger Self is excited and happy because the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, the Bernie Sanders of his day, has just won the April 2 Wisconsin Democratic Primary. She and a few Mundelein College classmates traveled from Illinois to join hundreds of other young people working for him. The issue--the only issue for many--was the Vietnam war and the military draft, which was taking unwilling young men into war and sending thousands back home in caskets.

"This war is unjust and McCarthy can bring an end to it--I know it! she tells me. But I know she's also here to chide me. "Why aren't you working for Bernie? You've been for Hillary all along, haven't you? What happened to you!? What will happen to me?!" she suddenly realizes. "She disappears and returns just to shout, "I'm not going to become you! I'm just not!"

She leaves before I can explain myself: that I think Hillary has the ability to work with a very divided nation in a way that Bernie does not; that she's better than what the left and far right media have said about her; that 50 years of observing political campaigns has taught me that outside-the-mainstream candidates don't often fare well in a general election. Most of all, I believed--before the Republican implosion--that the Democrats could not afford dissension. Hillary has worked for it, she can do the job, let her run unimpeded. The general election will come, and I'm convinced that the Republicans are masters in well-funded deceitful campaigns, that sexism continues to affect how candidates are evaluated, and that Hillary's personal style doesn't always serve her well.

Younger Self returns periodically, and I keep returning to memories and images of 1968.

Here's Sen. McCarthy at a rally. He was a rather urbane, intellectual man who had once spent months of his youth in a monastery. I don't recall him ever raising his fist.

His supporters went "Clean for Gene"--the guys, for the most part--by shaving their beards and cutting their long hair, all traces of counterculture trappings removed. We were out to convince Middle America--and many were already questioning, if not convinced, as Walter Cronkite, the almost universally respected television commentator, seemed to be on our side. I remember seeing the photo below in a Wisconsin newspaper. I regret I've lost the news clipping of my classmate, Eibhlin Glennon, talking to a voter on the phone. Ah, the days when voters answered phones and wanted to talk with you.... I digress.

Younger Self doesn't yet know about cell phones or caller ID. A cell phone camera might have been handy then, as I have no pictures of myself on the campaign trail--precious few from my college years. I don't think I even had a camera. Or perhaps I just had the romantic view that I need not live life through a camera lens. Surely I would remember all the important things. Ah, yes.... Anyway here's one of the few close-up college photos I have, taken after a blood donation. You got paid for donating then, and the money always came in handy when buying textbooks. No doubt the smile is similar to the one I had when McCarthy won in Wisconsin. The smile hides Younger Self's often self-righteous and argumentative tendencies.

President Johnson, whose ratings had once soared after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, shocked everyone when he withdrew from the race just before the Wisconsin primary. McCarthy won his second victory after New Hampshire. Two days later Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. By then the popular Robert F. Kennedy had joined the race and was set to eclipse McCarthy--until he was assassinated in June following his win in the California primary.

"We wondered, didn't we," I muse, "whether adult life was going to be like this always." Younger Self nods; she's come back, a bit mellower, perhaps hoping to change the course of her future self.  "I know our generation has a really big part to play. Compromise won't get you anywhere," she insists. I look dubious, remembering those political science courses. Compromise is the life blood of politics, I would argue.

Democrat and Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the Establishment candidate. He was the Hillary Clinton of his day, a man with a long record on behalf of Civil Rights and other progressive causes, but tainted by the Johnson Administration's war policy. There was a third party wild card--segregationist George Wallace, a precursor of Donald Trump.

Younger Self returns. It's now July, 1968. "I'm volunteering with this group called the Coalition for an Open Convention," she reminds me. " If McCarthy can't get the nomination, we're going to lobby for an anti-war plank in the Democratic platform. This war must end!" I listen to this, trying to remember exactly how we thought we were going to do this. I believe we talked a lot, issued press releases, and tried unsuccessfully to get a permit to demonstrate.

Younger Self revisits in late early September. She's wearing a "plague on both your houses" button. The hawk Richard Nixon is leading the Republican ticket. Humphrey got the Democratic nomination, as expected. The peace plank efforts failed. The convention, held in late August in Chicago, was marked by Yippie protests and police violence. Younger Self was not part of that--the gathering of hundreds of protesters in Grant Park. "I feel a little embarrassed", she confesses, "but I'm relieved I didn't get assaulted or arrested. Her education had made her a sort of establishment protester it seems. I point this out to her, not unkindly.

November, 1968: Younger Self writes in McCarthy for president--a way of staying true to herself. Nixon wins the presidency. Humphrey comes close in the popular vote, but not in the Electoral College. Segregationist Wallace carries the Southern States--traditionally a Democratic stronghold. Without his candidacy, would the Democrats have won?

December, 1968: Younger Self has put the election behind her, focusing on her first real job--as a reporter for the Lerner Home Newspapers in Chicago. She wants to make a difference, to focus on her writing and learning more about Chicago politics. I tell her I understand. "Keep on learning and looking honestly at yourself--that's the key." "She leaves before I can add, "We're different, but I'm so glad I was you once! And yes, Bernie Sanders rocks! He's part of our generation, after all."