Watching Bernie Sanders’ victory speech in New Hampshire, when he went on and on obsessively about income inequality, the need for single payer health care and anger against Wall Street – important but lifelong battles – made me think he can’t win the general election in November. It took me back to 1968, when we got all excited about Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, the man of poetry and peace. By winning the New Hampshire primary on the strength of his anti-Vietnam war platform, he convinced Lyndon Johnson not to run for re-election, then Bobby Kennedy entered the race, building on the trail of hope McCarthy had blazed. After Bobby’s assassination, the establishment’s Hubert Humphrey won the nomination, but he was too old-style to win over most of us young idealists, so the nasty Richard Nixon was elected president. Maybe Hillary Clinton, who couldn’t even win the women’s vote in New Hampshire, is too old-style too. Is there a Bobby out there, who can inspire the young while convincing us old pragmatists, to save us from a Trump presidency? –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Feb 11-16, 2016.
