Bobby and Barack

For one who has experienced both eras, the current movement for Barack Obama has achieved a living remembrance of Bobby Kennedy's campaign in the week when RFK's murder is painfully remembered.

On June 4, 1968, I watched from a New York townhouse the murder of a second Kennedy in five years. Martin Luther King already was gone, Vietnam and our cities were burning. I was in the midst of chaotic planning for anti-war demonstrations at the Democratic Convention coming in August.

I drifted off with friends to St. Patrick's Cathedral where Kennedy staffers let us through the doors late at night. After sitting a while in silence, I found myself as a member of a makeshift honor guard standing next to his simple coffin. I was wearing a green Cuban hat and weeping. The last political hope of the Sixties vision -- a movement-driven progressive government -- was finished, whether by chance or plot, it mattered little. The violence I had resisted under white racism in the South was seeping into my veins. Like many who took their rage even farther, I was hardening, and never dared again to recover my young idealism.

"Dad, don't you recognize anything of yourself in this movement?", asked an angry email from my son Troy, nearly forty years later. He was working 24/7 with his [now] wife Simone, for Barack Obama, spreading the boundless energy of the young and an artist's flair for silk-screens. How could I share your giddy utopianism, I wanted to respond, after the murders of the Sixties icons -- John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, all of whom I had known as a young man? If those killings were not enough, we suffered the Nixon and Reagan eras of counter-revolution aimed at what our generation had achieved. Then the war and sanctions and war again for control of the Persian Gulf. During the coming decades, I was limited every day by the sordid realities, as well as the occasional modest achievements, of electoral politics.

I didn't see him coming. When I heard of the young state senator with a background in community organizing who wanted to be president, I was at least sentient enough to be interested. When I read Dreams of My Father, I was taken aback by its depth. This young man apparently gave his first public speech, against South African apartheid, at an Occidental College rally organized by Students for Economic Democracy, the student branch of the Campaign for Economic Democracy [CED] which I chaired in 1979-82. The buds of curiosity quickened. Soon I was receiving emails from David Peck, an organizer of the Occidental rally, who now is coordinating Americans in Spain for Barack Obama.

One of Bobby Kennedy's qualities, or perhaps it was a quality of the times, was an easy and growing familiarity with the New Left. He evolved from 1961 to 1963 from viewing the Freedom Riders as a dangerous nuisance to a prophetic minority. By 1967, he even wanted to copy SDS community organizing projects -- a forerunner of Barack Obama's path -- as a template for a national war on poverty.

He had a talent for engaging outsiders while trying to remain presidential. When Staughton Lynd and I met with him in late 1967, we sparred with RFK over his still-forming position on the madness of Vietnam. He mocked the Vietnamese communist position on free elections, for example, but realized there was no answer to the evidence that Ho Chi Minh would have won 80 percent of the national vote in 1956 -- in elections which France and the United States prevented. He wanted to be the anti-war candidate, but hoped for peace through negotiations, not a unilateral withdrawal. Yet his thoughts seemed free-floating, driven by curiosity.

I sensed there was no fixed version of Robert Kennedy. He was evolving, improvising, feeling his way, from former counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, to his brother's attorney general, to a dissenter from the Democratic establishment...It was unclear where he was headed, perhaps even to himself, but it was my sense that he was on some deep level, astonishingly, on our side.

For this intuition I was sharply criticized from all directions. FBI memos suggested that I was a Kennedy "agent" in the movement, though our formal positions were quite different. Many in the revolutionized [and fragmenting] SDS held the same suspicions. The Yippies considered calling off the Chicago protests for fear that Bobby Kennedy might co-opt them with his lengthening hair. The McCarthy volunteers were livid that he was stealing their dream.

But he was the only one who could bridge the chasm between the traditional Democrats and the disaffected young, the striking farmworkers, the rebellious blacks, even the utterly disenfranchised native Americans. I learned from that experience that, like it or not, a charismatic and willing candidate, not just a linear program, is needed to mold a diverse majority.

So it was with great interest that I attended a Robert Kennedy human rights event in Washington early last year, featuring Barack Obama as the honored speaker. I sat in a small audience that included Sen. Ted Kennedy, Bobby's widow Ethel, and several of her grown sons and daughters. Obama's written remarks were heartfelt, thoughtful, but not especially inspiring, at least as I recall. What struck me was how enthralled the Kennedys were, especially Ethel. He definitely was the one they had been waiting for.

There are vast differences between Bobby Kennedy and Barack Obama, owing to circumstance, though both have followed hero's journeys of the classic sort. Kennedy was shaped by his brother's murder and the climate of his times, which drove all but the most robotic towards alienation. Barack is a product of globalization, immigration, even slavery, but nonetheless a privileged inheritor of the movements for which Bobby Kennedy stood. Both have believed, with Camus, that greatness lies in touching and uniting both ends of the arc of experience. Both were painfully cautious in formulating policy positions that seemed to placate everyone while leaving little solid ground for their core beliefs. It was hard to believe this was their Way, not just calculated opportunism.

My hopes for Robert Kennedy might have been dashed by his subsequent policies if he had lived to be president, but I don't think so. The best evidence is the progressive course consistently pursued by those closest to him, Ethel and Ted Kennedy, to this day. It is hard to imagine him abandoning all those poor people, fervent anti-war activists, and early environmentalists who swarmed his rallies -- and who, like the farmworkers, carried him to victory on the ground in California.

The most impressive parallel between Bobby and Barack is the reappearance of a unified African-American community along with an inspired new generation of activists and voters. Win or lose, the Obama movement will shape progressive politics, and our racial climate, for a generation to come.

Those who denounce Obama -- and the possibilities of all electoral politics- - should ponder the effectiveness of sitting judgmentally on the sidelines while an Unexpected Future arrives through the sheer will of a new generation. They should consider whether politics and history can be reduced to a fixed determinism that is endlessly repeated, as if there are no surprises. We can have our differences with Obama's specific policies, as I certainly do, but those should be measured against the prospect that a movement might transform him even as his very rise continues to transform the rest of us.

Comments

[indy100]

Great article, written with just the right amount of wistful sadness and newfound hope. I often say I was born 10-15 years too late, I was just a young child in the late 1960's, but have always had the heard of a hippie. Barack Obama, and even Hillary Clinton have given me hope for change in American politics and culture as usual. The world is changing and we need to change and adapt with it, or be rightfully left behind. At 45, as a working mom of four, and Nana to three little girls I find myself drawn to causes for change. I see things that have changed to benefit not only myself, but my children and grandchildren as well. In many ways were are not leaving a very good legacy, but in my own small way I hope to change that. Barack Obama may be just the President we need right now, and he offers people like myself hope.

[ericmiami]

Thanks, Tom. I joined VVAW after I came back from Vietnam and got out of the army. You were one of my heroes then and you still are. Keep up the good work!

[mspost]

I enjoyed reading Tom's article, as well as everyone who has responded so far. Reading the article and the blog's responses brought tears to my eyes. I felt the love in everyone's heart, I felt hope that awaits each of us, if we can take this journey together with Obama, if we Unite as One!

God Bless!

[johnnygoodwud]

often i enjoy reading the comments from my fellow huff. friends, than i do the main story line. this time i enjoyed both. thanks tom, and thanks huff friends for your heartfelt words. the dawning of a new day is upon us. yes WE can, yes WE will

[desertdweller]

What if?

[stellanoir]

Thanks for framing your son's heartfelt enthusiasm juxtaposed your somewhat dashed idealism.

I continually notice generational and epi generational nuances based largely on conditioning.

I've listened to the punditry go on and on ad nauseam, dwelling on conventional wisdom citing past circumstances. They've pretty much been completely wrong during these grueling primaries.

". . .They should consider whether politics and history can be reduced to a fixed determinism that is endlessly repeated, as if there are no surprises. . ."

"Mechanistic reductionism often masquerades as maturity" indeed.

I know as deeply as I can know anything that this juncture in time brings with it unique challenges and unprecedented energies for expedient resolutions and solutions.

Consider preparing to be REALLY surprised.

As to the lost idealism of your generation, sometimes progress is incremental and sometimes it comes in leaps and bounds.

This time may just qualify as the latter if we make it so, and not allow the failures of the past to become somewhat jaded and dire self fulfilling prophesies.

I was always a hippie wannabe but I was too young. I also perceived a hostility in the anti war movement's tactics that was counter productive and didn't necessarily really elevate the dialogue.

Maybe listen to Troy. Our kids may just be wiser than we or at least they'd better be given the world we are bequeathing them.

[TRYKER]

Its never to late to be a hippie. Now is fine too.

[Jazzbeau]

Or too early. Some of us are still hippies at heart as we approach 'three score and ten.'

[BlueTongue]

I remember when RFK was shot, 1968, that terrible year. In 1972, at seventeen, I went door to door in my small Wisconsin town, campaigning for McGovern. He was slaughtered at the polls. I banged my head against the wall, thought the American people will never believe in what I felt was crucially important, and turned away from any active roll in politics.

All these years later I find myself enthused, even obsessed, with this Senator from Illinois. For the first time ever I donated money to a political campaign. I feel disappointment in Obama is inevitable, but I thank the American people for this strange stirring of pride and hope. Maybe we are evolving as a people into a truly great nation.

[TRYKER]

"I feel disappointment in Obama is inevitable..."

Perhaps to be matched with the inevitable achievement, success, progress and Constitutionality .

[khampton]

Well done! A change is gonna come.

[CrankyCurmudgeon]

Thanks, Tom. I voted for Bobby as my very first time voting on my 21st birthday, June 4, 1968. That evening's events is seared in my brain and comes back at least once a year for me. I worked with you for quite some time after that, Tom, when we studied with the folks from Bar Sinister. I also sat on the floor of Troy and Vanessa's (did I get her right?) bedroom with you, Jane, Peter, and Henry at yours and Jane's wedding.

As the years have passed I have taken to living my life as best I can, but I've never lost my desire to see the goals of the movements we were involved in realized. Although I just turned 61 yesterday, I have two young daughters fairly recently adopted from China. I would like to see them inherit a world that embraces many of the things we fought for. Barack Obama does, indeed, excite me even if I - as you do - disagree with much he offers. Nevertheless, his campaign has flattened the democratic process considerably, and that alone promises major change.

I believe you're still here in Southern California, as am I. Perhaps we will meet again someday. There's been a lot of water under the bridge. I hope we can do so. Remember the swallows.

[JennyJay]

Great article. Thanks for reminding me of an era when we all hoped for something better for America.
When that era died, it was mourned greatly. All these years . . . it has been a long walk, though a long ,very dark tunnel. But the light is shining brightly now! Bigger and Better and Brighter than ever before in history! Thank you Barack, welcome home!

[DeMaria]

Thank you Tom for your perspective, which is one few of us can as intimately share, even those of us who were among those "young" new voters inspired by the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, and you, to be honest.

In Obama I see a man of great intelligence, curiosity and a rare talent for listening. Will he change some of his policies? I think so. Not to pander to special interests but because in listening to alternative views, he will shape his own. In weighing more than one alternative, he will form a more reasoned understanding. Obama is a phenomenon and a symbol right now to many, but those who have read his books and opened their minds and hearts to his words and his actions can truly believe he, if anyone, can restore us to a sane and hopeful course.

[Soothsayer08]

Tom good post. I too lived during the time of f JFK RFK and MLK. I remember what turmoil our country was in due to another senseless war the Vietnam War. The candidacy of Barack Obama makes me feel the same inspiration that I felt during that time. Then we believed in our country, that it could be great because it's people had the will to make it so. As JFK talked about a "The New Frontier" then, now I feel a "Change "for the better coming for our kids and grandchildren.

[xenofile]

"Those who denounce Obama -- and the possibilities of all electoral politics- - should ponder the effectiveness of sitting judgmentally on the sidelines while an Unexpected Future arrives through the sheer will of a new generation."

Thanks, Tom.
You're living proof that there is still a place for us veterans of the culture wars, and it's not sitting on the sidelines!

[Kalena]

Tom,
Mahalo for the great post! There were so many heroes then...you being one. I have cried too many tears over the years at the murder of our leaders...and the subsequent desecration of our values and hopes. Working a small island caucus in April, watching the throngs of young and old, every ethnicity, gather and wait to register and vote for Barack touched me deeply. That high fuels me today, makes me work again for change, gives me back hope. Like you, I don't agree with all of his policies, but thanks for reminding me he may ride the tide of this movement too.
Aloha,
k

[camanokat]

kalena:

completely off-topic. Visiting Hawaii years ago, I noticed all the trash cans said, "mahalo" on them. So when buying something at a shop and the clerk said, "mahalo" to me, I was totally insulted. I thought the word meant "trash."

back to your regular scheduled show...

[Jazzbeau]

That little diversion was good for a chuckle.

I once had a similar misunderstanding. I had been in Mexico for weeks and kept seeing billboards which said 'Disponible' with a phone number. I thought it was a clever ad campaign by a very large corporation.

t was only later that I discovered that 'disponible' means 'available.'

[MrKnuckles]

I believe that Barack Obama is inquisitive and sincere in his desire to help those in need, and to stand for what is fair and just. He is a bright light that surely looks capable of directing the way toward a brighter future for the Democratic Party'.
But my biggest concern right now is, what abilities and strategies will he and his campaign employ in this campaign to assure those millions of old school Democrats that aren't so keen on his message of "Change." They need to be convinced that this sudden flood of new blood and renewed vigor in the Party doesn't mean they'll end up being left behind or ignored.
Obama's populist message of inclusion and unity must be brought to these older, more blue collar voters face to face by Obama if he is to convince them that he won't forget their rightful place in the Party or their concerns.

[KarateKid]

Today, the DNC announced they will no longer take PAC or lobby money, a la Obama. He is already making a difference.