Hillary's Honorable Future: A History Lesson

As a journalist I have always practiced a form of history from below. My career coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the continuing break-up of the old World Order (the New World Order is still not in place). I preferred to report from the street rather than quote officials who are paid to lie to you or chase after interviews with powerful men (always men) who thought their decisions shaped this non-existent new order. They tended to be gone very quickly. In the long run understanding ordinary people -- what they thought, what they feared, what they would endure -- gave me a far clearer idea of which way power in their society was flowing.

That's a long-winded preamble to get to this point: viewed from below, the dates of historic turning points are often not the dates we memorize at school. One such date occurred around 28 years ago this week. It was the day former President Jimmy Carter earned enough delegates to deny Teddy Kennedy the nomination. In that anniversary is a lesson for Hillary Clinton.

You may have forgotten, you may not have been born yet, but in early 1980 Edward L. Kennedy had the audacity to challenge an incumbent president of his own party for the nomination. There were good reasons for Kennedy to challenge Carter: American diplomats were being held hostage in Iran, the society was poised in a perfectly balanced malaise of inflation and economic stagnation as the great de-industrialization that created the rust belt took hold. Carter had no answer for these problems. There was one bad reason for Kennedy to risk splitting his party: personal ambition and the family name. He was the last Kennedy brother. So despite a scandal -- Chappaquidick -- that would have destroyed a lesser politician he fought Carter for what he saw as his inheritance: the Democratic nomination.

In any case, as March blew into April it became clear that Kennedy would not gain enough delegates to win the nomination and it was around the same time that it became clear in the street that Ronald Reagan would be the next president, because the Great Communicator had all but secured the Republican Party's nomination. Carter might have eked out a win against George Bush the First, but he was on a road to nowhere against Reagan. Conversely Kennedy might have had a shot against Reagan. Reagan Democrats had voted for JFK...some of them might have stayed loyal to the name. So Kennedy fought on to the Convention where he failed comprehensively to challenge Carter's delegates. Finally conceding he told the assembly, "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

But here's the funny thing. He actually meant it. Kennedy by losing and remaining in the Senate probably did more good for his cause and dreams than if he had made it to the White House. The Kennedy of 1980 in all likelihood would have been a failed president. Instead he carved out what is universally acknowledged as one of the great modern legislative careers. More importantly he was in a better position to fight for his other legacy: as heir and preserver of the spirit of the New Deal. As Reagan attempted to wipe out all vestiges of the FDR consensus on activist government, there was Kennedy on the Hill fighting a brilliant rear guard action to preserve it.

All political careers end in failure is a cliche based in fact...Teddy Kennedy's career will not end this way. And his career offers a lesson for Hillary Clinton as the light fades on her presidential candidacy. Because away from the noise of her partisans, in the Democratic street, the forces that shape history from below are turning to Obama. Clinton can achieve more and leave a greater legacy of service to her country and her gender as a four- or-five term senator from New York than as a one-term failed president, like Jimmy Carter. The Senate is not a consolation prize, it can be a sturdy platform on which to stand while you shape, over time, the society you believe in. And if she concedes after the primary season rather than dragging the fight to the Democratic Convention in Denver, she will have a head start on shaping that society.