The Spirit of 1969--Part 1

The race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is fascinating on several levels, not the least of which, to me, is that it brings back some old memories and reminds me that the idealism, ferment, and activism of the 1960s and 1970s continues to influence this country. When I see Clinton and Obama battling it out for the Democratic nomination, I get a glimpse of the society that Clinton and others like her envisioned, a society where racism, gender equality, and uncritical acceptance of the actions of those in power were vigorously challenged.

In 1969, when Clinton was a senior at Wellesley, my dad was a professor on the other side of the country in Washington State. Like a lot of colleges and universities, there were cell groups, earnest discussions about politics and authority, and some silly behavior too, but by and large students were energized, active, and idealistic. After what seem now like almost quaint battles over whether women could pants in class and whether colleges and universities could exercise almost parental authority over their students, the protests became a genuine cultural movement with people refusing to allow race or class or the way they were brought up to be proscriptive, working to undermine these through politics or on a more personal level through travel, spiritualism, alternative lifestyles, drugs.

Motivated primarily by a desire to transform society instead of making money or climbing the corporate ladder, many of those baby boomers, became journalists, activist lawyers, doctors, teachers, and politicians. Others continue to live lives based on goals quite different than those of their parents and grandparents. Many remain active and committed to their ideals and have transformed American society by heading up local community improvement projects to running for President of the United States. My parents weren’t radical and they weren’t hippies but they ended up as transformed as many of my dad’s students, often working with people as dedicated and indomitable as Hillary Clinton to end the war in Vietnam to bring about civil rights for blacks, and to focus attention on poverty.

Clinton isn’t free from the less noble desires that drive other politicians, and she sometimes practices the kind of politics she probably abhorred as a college student or young lawyer advocating on behalf of children. That said, I feel like I know something about her or her motivations, anyway. I know less about Obama, but all indications are that he is driven by many of the same things as Clinton, though has taken a somewhat different path to get there. He, too, has been at the head of the class in most everything he does and, like Clinton, who went from Yale Law School to a non-paying position advocating for children, Obama went from Harvard’s law school to organizing people on the mean streets of Chicago. He also has some experiences that Clinton does not--living abroad and navigating racial obstacles in this country—that should inform his domestic and international policies in a way that would be good for this country.

So when I see Clinton and Obama rushing around to get caucus votes in my native state of Washington today, I will think of my dad, who took me to my first caucus years ago, and who died last year, and how happy he would have been to see these two candidates seriously competing for the Presidency of the U.S. He would never have said it himself but he too, could be proud, of his role, however small in something that, if not a revolution exactly, continues to bring about some profound changes in this country.