America’s Forgotten Liberal

  Here is a story by Rick Perlstein published in The New York Times opinion pages.

“JANUARY was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed.

That such a central figure in American history is largely ignored today is sad. But his diminution is also, more importantly, an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish…”

 

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978), served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Americans for Democratic Action. He also served as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945–1949. In 1968, Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 1968 presidential election but lost to the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.

 

  A friend sent me the link.  An old liberal progressive like me that remembers Hubert Humphrey.  It is sad that someone like him is forgotten.
 
  It does go to show that being Vice President just does not mean very much. 
( John Nance Garner described the Vice-Presidency as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss.”) Garner should know he was Vice President from 1933 to 1941.
  I don’t know anything about Garner but Hubert Humphrey was a great man and it is sad that he has been so forgotten.

Comments

[Jeep]

Wow! The Happy Warrior would be 100. I remember him well. In my mind, he defines liberalism - for better or worse. Here's something even more surprising: Monday, May 29, will be the 94 th anniversary of the birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Can you believe that, Jim?

[Dick]

Amen to your comments on Hubert Humphrey.