The mid-60's to early 70's was a great moment in the history of Western civilization--a moment when a youth culture dreamed a better dream than the oppressive one that the Eisenhower era had delivered: the dream of what I call the "Whitmanian Republic." The right-wing backlash began in earnest with Reagan's election in 1980, though the seeds for it were planted throughout the 1970's. McGovern's defeat in 1972 was decisive; Jimmy Carter's spineless presidency drove the final nails into the coffin. Ted Kennedy's challenge to Carter (in 1980) was undermined by his own Party (as McGovern's challenge to Nixon had been undermined by that same Party). Here's Ted being the good Party man at the Democratic convention in 1980.
Still, there are echoes in that speech which continue to call to us today. We hear the call as well in Rumi's Masnavi--where, in Book 3, he places a speech on the lips of Moses in which the prophet predicts Pharaoh's inevitable downfall. He also addresses his own followers: "With us, one must needs be a waking sleeper, that in the state of wakefulness he may dream dreams" (Nicholson's translation).
The oppressiveness of the past three decades almost makes one long for the Eisenhower era. Even so, I cannot help but think that the Right has over-played its hand. Waking sleepers are in the wings. Where else could they be?
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