Between Exaltation & Despair

A year ago John Bailey wrote to all county chairmen in the Democratic party informing them that President Johnson was going to be renominated, and that they should ignore those “doubters and cussers” who would “rather be heard than helpful.” With the exception of Zolton Ferency, the state chairman of Michigan’s Democratic party, key party officials publicly went along with Bailey. And many antiwar liberals in the party gloomily but “realistically” adjusted to the inevitability of Johnson’s renomination.

A year ago the New Left convened its New Politics Convention in Chicago and refused to adjust to the “realities” of electoral politics. The Johnson Administration, it was...