I was barely aware of Charlie Kirk until his death. I had heard the name, followed by the epithet, “right-wing influencer,” but I wasn’t aware of the scope of his influence. He, and other younger male influencers, have succeeded in persuading a growing number of young people to reject American democracy in favor of Donald Trump's authoritarianism. And it reminded me of another influencer from my youth--a man who brought hundreds, perhaps thousands of young men and women into the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and the Democratic Party.
Like Kirk, Lowenstein was murdered, though in Lowenstein's case, the killer was a former disciple, Dennis Sweeney, whose schizophrenia had convinced him that Lowenstein was sending messages to him. Sweeney was found not guilty due to insanity.
The list of people Lowenstein influenced is a long one. Here's a very abridged list, assisted by Google's artificial intelligence:
Bill Bradley, NBA star, former U.S. senator from New Jersey, and 2000 Democratic presidential candidate.
Barney Frank, former U.S. representative from Massachusetts
Tom Harkin, former U.S. Senator from Iowa
Bob Kerrey, former U.S. Senator from Nebraska
The late Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota
The late Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senator from Connecticut
Steve Roberts, journalist (husband of the late Cokie Roberts)
The late singer Harry Chapin, whose 1980 song, "Remember when the Music" was a tribute to Lowenstein.
The hundreds of young activists (most from the so-called "Silent Generation"), who volunteered for the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project, later known as "Freedom Summer," to register Black people in one of the most racist stated of the Union. The late David Harris, who was briefly married to Joan Baez and went to prison for draft resistance, went with David Sweeney, a fellow Stanford student, to McComb, Mississippi, one of the most dangerous assignments in that voter registration drive. Harris's memoir, Dreams Die Hard (1982) relates the story of Harris, Sweeney, and Lowenstein, and how the tragic combination of Lowenstein's confused sexuality and Sweeney's mental illness led to Sweeney's killing of Lowenstein.
The thousands of young men and women who took time off from college to campaign for Eugene McCarthy in the snows of New Hampshire. Lowenstein really thought he could bring Bobby Kennedy into the race to challenge Lyndon Johnson over his conduct of the War in Vietnam. The 1968 campaign was a sort of tragedy of errors, with Kennedy entering the race only after McCarthy's strong showing against Johnson. By that time, Lowenstein's army had committed itself to McCarthy. LBJ withdrew from the race at the end of March, leaving his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, as the establishment candidate who carried on with Johnson's support of the war, despite his private opposition. That hopeful early spring was destroyed by the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and then Robert Kennedy himself. Humphrey was nominated amid the chaos of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and after belatedly changing his position on the war, nearly was elected president. Had Richard Nixon not treasonously sent Anna Chennault to sabotage the Paris peace talks, he might have won. Nineteen sixty-eight was also the year Lowenstein won election to Congress in New York's Fifth District
And finally, the people of my generation, who participated in the Dump Nixon movement. While I had sold "McCarthy's Million" buttons to my Cedar Falls (Iowa0 classmates, I was too young to go off to New Hampshire, as were all but the oldest of my Baby Boom Generation. I was unaware of Lowenstein until I read David Halberstam's article, "The Man Who Ran Against Lyndon Johnson" in the December 1968 issue of Harper's Magazine. Had Lowenstein not been gerrymandered out Congress by the Republican New York legislature in 1970, he might not have had time to lead the effort. When he came to Iowa City in 1971, I met him. He told me to look him up if I was ever in Brooklyn. I never had the chance. Of course, Nixon won in a landslide in 1972, But I suspect that a lot of us, seeing that Nixon was going to win reelection, went to work for congressional, and state legislative candidates. I wrote press releases for Dick Clark, the Iowa Senatorial candidate who managed to oust GOP incumbent Jack Miller from office. Democrats increased their Senate majority by two seats in 1972.
And I've left out his work as head of the National Student Association and in the effort to end apartheid in South Africa. I'm hoping that in this dangerous era, there are influencers continue the legacy of Al Lowenstein.
Image: Wikimedia Commons via The Daily Tar Heel
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