In 1968 I was 21, and completing my Junior year in college. On that June Tuesday in '68 when Californians went to the polls, I had a final exam in a class on political philosophy. I wrote my Blue Book exam on the theories expressed in a book called The Radical Liberal. The author was my professor at UCLA that year, Arnold S. Kaufmann. It was all so contemporary.
Comparing the ideas of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy was rewarding, even for a 3- hour exam. What was far less worthwhile was the fact that I went home only to watch the assassination of Robert Kennedy shortly after he was declared the winner of the California primary.
I was in McCarthy's camp prior to that day. But RFK was getting to me, particularly because he was outspoken on Civil Rights and social justice issues beyond the morality of the Vietnam War seemed to matter more to him. In an instant, it all became irrelevant. We would not have another Kennedy in the White House, at least not in that year.
Much like today, people were struggling to separate their feelings for their country from their feelings for their government. I'd seen Robert Kennedy earlier that year as he spoke on the campus of Cal State, Northridge. Even then, more radical members of the crowd were shouting at him, urging him to "open up the archives" insinuating that there was much to learn about the narrative that passed for the Warren Commission's conclusions about who killed his brother John. With Bobby that day was an entourage that included actor Peter Lawford (married to his sister) and pro football player Roosevelt Grier, the massive NY Giant who endorsed RFK because of his record on Civil Rights. A month later the traveling roadshow that was his campaign was relegated to history.
The malaise deepened. The "downer" was palpable. In two months the fight was literally taken to the streets and the whole world watched as the status quo paved the way for a Nixon comeback.
So here I sit, 50 years onward and the malaise has returned.
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