On Politics and Character

Before Tom Hayden’s unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic senatorial nomination in California is quite forgotten, a comment is in order. Running against an ineffectual opponent, Hayden received 1.2 million votes, an impressive showing. Many of the things he said during his campaign were the kind of things liberals and socialists have been saying. Should we therefore have brushed aside the differences we had with Hayden when he was a spokesman for the New Left in the late 1960s? Is it true that “the radicalism of the 1960’s is fast becoming the common sense of the 1970’s”? (Tom Hayden, Op Ed Page, New York Times, July 12, 1976.)

I for one wouldn’t have voted for Hayden if I lived in C...