Bernie only 4th in 17 Prez campaigns

It dawned on me that this is the 17th presidential campaign I've followed since I 'liked Ike' back in '52 at age 7. It was easy to follow since I was blessed with concerned, informed parents who valued political interest and discussion. Once hooked I realized how vital public involvement was to our future well being and watched in both hope and dismay how we'd make the right choice and just as often turn the electoral gun on ourselves, choosing the lesser candidate.

In all those campaigns, there have only been four candidates who truly inspired me. It wasn't till 1968, when senator and poet Gene McCarthy, played Pied Piper to us millions of youngsters being called to fight and die in a criminal war that I realized a candidate could be truly transformational. Though he fell short to the Kennedy Clan and the Establishment, he presaged the 1972 candidacy of another senator, George McGovern, whose uncompromising commitment to peace in Vietnam and justice for minorities and the dispossessed in America was crushed by Nixon's cynical warmongering abroad and racist pandering at home. Then a long political winter till the improbability of a black progressive in 2008, not only being nominated but winning the presidency, brought hope that there was hope for America.

And that brings up my fourth political hero, Bernie Sanders. I'm both puzzled and thrilled that his groundswell of support comes not from my pre-baby boom generation and its immediate successors, but by the newest generation of young adults largely absent from the governing struggle. As I get more progressive and less patient with political idiocy in my eight decade, I'd guess most of my generation would follow suit. But on reflection it's better the impatience comes from the young since they must live with the consequences of their governing decisions much longer than I.

Though didn't know him, Sanders and I attended the same college back in '63-64; he a senior, I a freshman. Back then political interest and involvement was a given, considering the Vietman War and struggle for black civil rights. Sanders was in the thick of both fights, and spent his entire life following the path to a better America and world. For years now I've lamented that my generation might the last to be truly politically involved. Thanks to Bernie Sanders, I think we might be OK after all.