Chester Bowles (1901-1986) was a prominent Democratic
liberal. Connecticut Governor and later Congressman, plus
Ambassador to India for both Truman and Kennedy. His 1959
book,
The Coming Political Breakthrough, heralded a
liberal-Democratic victory in 1960, and it was Bowles who
engineered a remarkably liberal Democratic platform at the
1960 Convention.*
The book itself is a period piece of conventional-wisdom
cold-war liberalism; but there is one passage in it which
has always stood out in my mind: his description of
prophecy:
It seeks the stern alternatives of the age and
defines what they are. It brings the
individual electrifyingly close to those
alternatives. It tells him that if one
alternative is embraced as a guide for action,
the result will be this; while if it is
rejected, the result will be that.
Nowhere does it say that the future, for good
or ill, has already been sealed and placed out
of reach beyond further alteration.
Instead it proclaims that if the alternatives
are bravely confronted, if enough of the best
of human reason and will power are brought to
bear on them, there may be a fresh beginning.
Two words: global warming.
Two more words: Al Gore.
* As things turned out, Bowles was a tad too liberal for the
Kennedys; they gave him a second-tier appointment as
Undersecretary of State. After Bowles objected to the Bay of
Pigs invasion in 1961, he was chewed out by Bobby and
shunted off to India again.
Quotation is from p. 116 of the 1960 Ballantine edition,
which also has the platform text.