Memories Brought Forward

It often happens that BIG events like a Presidential election cause one to look back and remember previous similar events. This year for me, with my 60th birthday and that 40 year memory of 1968 was especially so. Therefore I spent some time reminiscing about the election campaigns I have been aware of in my lifetime. As an "old" friend of mine used to say, I have become a "living link with history."

1956: Adlai Stevenson vs Dwight Eisenhower
The campaign that started it all for me. I remember at age 8 wearing a Stevenson button. It may also have set the stage for many years of disappointments.

1960: John Kennedy vs Richard Nixon
Ah, yes, the New Frontier. At age 12 I watched Kennedy's acceptance speech at my grandparent's house in Brooklyn. I laid on the floor by my bedroom door to listen as well as I could to the first Kennedy-Nixon Debate. I was a confirmed political junkie from then on.

1964: Lyndon Johnson vs Barry Goldwater
The black year. Goldwater's conservatism that was going to lead us to war while LBJ escalated and lied about war in Vietnam. I was only 16 and couldn't vote, but I supported Goldwater. (Shame as I admit it publicly.) I think I couldn't bear to see LBJ continue. He had usurped the New Frontier. Emotions do play a part when you don't think about it.

1968: Hubert Humphrey vs Richard Nixon
1968. The year says it all. Tricky Dick vs Happy Hubie. Bobby Kennedy gone. I was 20 but the voting age was 21. It was the beginning of the cynicism of Presidential elections. Idealism was dying. But what may be the strongest memories for me from that campaign:
1) Getting a press pass for the radio station and being on the bus with the Big Guys when Humphrey spoke in Bethlehem, PA. The boredom of the Big Guys sitting having drinks in the press room didn't disillusion me at all. It was actually quite exciting.
2) Co-anchoring the election night coverage on the college radio station at Lehigh U. My colleague at the time, Tim E. reminded me a few months ago of that night. It was a close election and with our own and other college station reporters all over the place we kept going and going into the night. As a die-hard Democrat I was forced to make the call in the early morning based on info we got from a college in California that Nixon was the one.

1972: George McGovern vs Richard Nixon
Disillusionment and cynicism were the winners for me. McGovern was my candidate. Nixon was a crook. (Actually he was much worse as we would soon find out.) It was a humiliating defeat for McGovern and the final political blow for many of us. I'm not sure I trusted politics or many politicians again until this year.

1976: Jimmy Carter vs Gerald Ford
Oddly this was my second support of a Republican candidate. (The only one after I was able to vote.) It might seem strange today, but I voted against the Religious Right more than I voted for Ford. Ford was a good man who got a bad press for what was his most courageous act, pardoning Tricky Dick. He may have kept the nation from an awful battle. On the other side was this Southern Baptist from Plains who was being touted by the Falwell Minority as the Great Evangelical candidate. I remember standing in the voting booth for the longest time trying to decide. In the end I pulled the lever for Ford thinking I just couldn't vote for Falwell. Oh well. Was I ever wrong on that one!

1980: Jimmy Carter vs Ronald Reagan
Sadly a man of principle like Carter has a difficult time with the Presidency in our modern age. (Which scares me about Obama as President.) As a result Carter may be the greatest ex-President we have ever had. By the time of the 1980 election there was no way I felt good about the way we were electing Presidents. Ronald Reagan became the best example of that after Tricky Dick. Hard to believe that things could get worse- but they did. One thing Regan and his policies did was to force me into a serious reconsideration of many of my 60s beliefs that had been set aside. I discovered that I still believed in peace and justice issues- with a passion.

1984: Walter Mondale vs Ronald Reagan
Mondale/Ferraro was the sacrificial lamb ticket. No one would beat Reagan. And they didn't. But at least there was a woman running for office for the first time.

1988: Michael Dukakis vs G. H. W. Bush
All I remember about the actual race is that Dukakis blew a big lead and lost. What may more important memories were first, that I voted for Jesse Jackson in our Wisconsin primary. No, it wasn't a protest vote, as such. It was a vote that said the system is broken. Let's do something big. The second thing is that I entered alcohol treatment less than a week before the general election. But I had to vote so I absolutely made sure that one of the last things I did was get an absentee ballot and vote for Dukakis.

1992: Bill Clinton vs G. H. W. Bush
What can I say. I was actually on the winning side for a change. Clinton/Gore was a neat moment. Surprisingly they lived up to many of the positives (and some of the negatives) of the race. But they actually did have a great 8-year run of positive life in America.

1996: Bill Clinton vs Bob Dole
Dole stood no chance. Period.

2000: Al Gore vs G. W. Bush
The first of two disasters. And he didn't even really win this one. The Supreme Court did. Anger and cynicism came back big time. And only got worse.

2004: John Kerry vs G. W. Bush
Kerry lost more so than Bush won in this one. And things only got worse.

Which brings me to what has been the most exciting election of them all. Obama vs McCain. All my old political junkie tendencies came rushing back. Like any addiction lays dormant, political fervor buried under cynicism and years of lost dreams, comes back in all its power when there is reactivated hope and promise. There were many times when I would say that I don't want to be hopeful or optimistic. Too many years have proven less than fruitful.

This was the 14th Presidential election campaign I have known. There were many times when I couldn't get enough of what was happening, but I would turn it off, fearing that I would again be disappointed. It couldn't really be happening could it? We couldn't be making this momentous decision now, could we? On Tuesday evening there were early moments when I shuddered thinking my support would be lost again.

I am not as idealistic as I used to be. Reality has caused me to have a sense of doubt about all political systems and ideals. And yet- and yet....

This past week at the end of the past 20 months have shown that while we may be divided as a nation, there is still a sense of that great first revolutionary movement alive in us. Many on both sides will probably seek to keep the divisions alive for their own self-serving reasons. We must not allow that. Anger, self-righteousness, frustrated idealism must not be allowed to to derail the hopes of this week.

If it has managed to raise the hopes and heart of even this old idealist and political addict, overcoming the depths of cynicism, then there is still something good at work. May it spread and grow and move us into a new American era as leaders of freedom and justice in the world.