Remembering Paul Wellstone

Remembering Paul Wellstone is rather like remembering a younger brother who one loved, admired, trusted, and constantly screamed at.

My last bout of irritation came when Paul supported the excruciatingly boring, pseudo-saint Bill Bradley as Democratic candidate for president and flirted with Ralph Nader and the Green Party. I wrote him a furious letter saying that he had betrayed women, minorities, and labor—for whom a Republican president would be a catastrophe. Then, when the current senatorial campaign began I read that the Green Party was fielding a candidate in Minnesota to, again, dilute the liberal vote, throw the election (and the Senate) to the Republicans and, in Ralph Nader's words, "teach the Democrats a lesson." (It somehow never occurs to Ralph to teach the Republicans a lesson …)

That's when I remembered how important Paul Wellstone was in the Senate. A man who never apologized for being a liberal. I sent a letter of support and a campaign contribution.

Since Paul died, I've heard the word "liberal" used on TV in a positive sense for the first time in years. When did it become a label of apprehension and disdain?

It was not by accident that "liberals" came to be viewed in a negative light. First there was the Joe McCarthy witch hunt against "commie-liberals." Then Spiro Agnew, our very own felon disguised as vice president, started the lies about the "liberal media." In the 1980s came the full-blown backlash against civil rights, women's liberation, gay rights, and labor. Ronald Reagan swept into power proclaiming that government was the enemy, greed and bigotry were in, and liberals were wimps catering to the perpetual losers of the world. (It’s ironic that Mrs. Reagan is now begging the government to subsidize stem cell research in the hope that her husband's Alzheimer's disease might be alleviated.)

It's never been easy to be a liberal. The hard right and hard left assume you are cowardly, stupid, or morally deviant. Does anyone remember how much courage it took to say that blacks had a right to vote, women had a right to contraception, and homosexuals are human beings? Paul Wellstone never forgot. And he never forgot that veterans need loving care; that everybody deserves health insurance; that it's possible to have profits and a clean environment; that lousy schools produce lousy citizens; that violence against women is chronic and endemic; that supporting Israel does not mean hating Palestinians; that supporting peace is not un-American.

But beyond that there was something sweet about Paul. Unlike the hatchet men of the right and the left, he always attacked ideas and issues but never sought to destroy his enemies.

Finally, he risked the whole shooting match, including this year’s election, by voting against a unilateral, "pre-emptive" attack against Iraq.

Good night, sweet Prince. And flights of angels sing thee to rest.