Reject Fear, Embrace Change, Vote Rabb.
Progressives or, indeed, anyone pointing to a new direction in political life, often find that as they get close to victory, some of their supporters begin to have doubts and fall away. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. pointed to this phenomenon in his account of the 1960 presidential election in A Thousand Days. Kennedy was ahead of Nixon in the campaign’s internal polls for much of the race. But then in the last few weeks the gap closed. Schlesinger’s explanation was that Kennedy was not only offering something new and different to the American electorate but was younger than the typical presidential candidate. And that combination ran up against the inherent conservatism of human beings. Most of us find change hard. We find new idea, new approaches, and new directions challenging. And that’s true even if we are dissatisfied with much of the status quo. We know what to expect from things… Continue reading