In 1968, I worked my heart and soul out for the election of Robert F. Kennedy. I took a semester off college to work full-time for his election; I started a draft-Kennedy group and when he became a candidate, I managed to get myself elected as a DNC delegate. I was angry at the Johnson-Humphrey administration and its endless war which had deeply divided Americans and diverted us from finishing the civil rights battles and the war on poverty. I saw in RFK a new hope and new direction for the country. When Bobby was assassinated, right on the heels of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Democratic Convention nominated Hubert Humphrey against what I saw as the real will of the party rank-and-file, I had nothing but contempt in my heart for the process and for my party's candidate. By the time election day rolled around, I did manage to hold my nose and vote for Humphrey, but between the convention and the election, I did absolutely nothing to help elect him and defeat Richard Nixon.
And what did I get? What I got was two terms of Richard Nixon -- years of lies and deception; years and years more of senseless war, of dead and disfigured young Americans; years of racial division fueled by the government itself; Kent State; Watergate; Spiro Agnew and government corruption of the kind we'd not seen in almost a century.
I have always held myself partially responsible for that. In a democracy, we get the kind of government we deserve for our action or inaction. I learned a lesson that the civil rights marchers used to sing about, and that the minority Republicans seem always to remember: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize. Had I put my disappointment aside, had I used my rational mind, I and the millions of other disaffected Democrats could have made a real difference that year. The election was very close. And there is little doubt in my mind now that there would have been a very real contrast between a Humphrey presidency and a Nixon presidency. It would have made a difference -- a life and death difference for many -- if I and others like me had made better choices .
We're at the same point in 2008 that we were in 1968. There will be a very big difference between an Obama-Biden administration and a McCain-Palin administration. It will matter. It will matter to people who lack health insurance, who will live or die if they do or do not get the proper medical care. It will matter to people who lose their jobs or their homes in an economy devastated by GOP fiscal policies that have wrecked the economy and shattered the lives of so many people. It will matter for decades to those affected by the three or so Supreme Court appointments the next President will likely make, to our constitutional liberties, to our First and Fourth Amendment rights. It will matter most to our sons and daughters who will pay the ultimate price on the battlefields our commanders-in-chief send them to, either wisely or recklessly.
And forty years from now, those Democrats who sat it out because they were angry at the outcome of the nomination fight, who wanted to "show the party" how mad they were - they will have to live with the very real consequences of their decision between now and November 4. I hope and pray that they will come to their senses before then.