That hopeful and widespread spirit has long since dissipated, a casualty of cynicism, brutal economic pressures that have decimated the nation’s middle class and the shifting winds of a political world that seems more focused now on public relations strategies, fundraising and poll-driven agendas.
“In the 1960s, if you asked kids who went to college what they wanted to do, a lot would talk about public service,” said Ross. “They were following the inspiration of John F. Kennedy. Now everybody wants to be an investment banker.”
In the 1960s, Congress rallied to support major overhauls in government and society through voting rights, immigration and a litany of social programs. Today, Congress can barely pass a bill to fill potholes.
For Weinberg in the 1960s, the idealism of the day pushed her out the door of her home. Looking back now, she says she yearned to be part of the social and political tsunami that was swirling.
“I still feel that sense of idealism which has to go along with being an optimist,” Weinberg said. “You have to believe you can actually make change and live up to those ideals.”
Less than a year before she walked into that Cedar Lane storefront to volunteer for the Johnson presidential campaign, President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Six months earlier, the Beatles rocked “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York — and just about every TV in every living room in America, too.
Weinberg was drawn to the mechanics of politics. She dialed phones, hung posters, knocked on doors, filled out index cards with names of potential voters.
“Loretta has a gift of being able to play the outside game and the inside game,” said Benjamin Dworkin, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University. “Not everybody can do both. She was unique where she could be the outsider and still be the senate majority leader. That is a unique political ability.”
Weinberg says she learned that dual game in the 1960s.
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A year after her stint on the Johnson campaign, Weinberg plunged into a landmark movement in multi-cultural Teaneck to integrate the town’s public schools. What emerged was a historic political and social shift — with Teaneck as the first American community to voluntarily desegregate its schools by busing students from one neighborhood to schools in another.
From there, Weinberg embraced all manner of other causes. She organized marches to end the Vietnam war and protests outside local supermarkets to draw attention to the plight of migrant farm workers.
By the early 1970s, she led a group of outspoken activists who began the slow dismantling of the party boss system in New Jersey.
“The reformers within the Democratic Party that emerged into power through civil rights and then anti-Vietnam War activism completely reshaped the party and thereby reshaped American politics,” Dworkin said. “Loretta was part of that generation of Democratic activists at the forefront of transitioning from a party dominated by political bosses, exemplified by Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley. The old clubhouse network was broken up.”
By 1972 Weinberg’s reformist efforts paid off. She was dispatched to the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach as a delegate committed to supporting the party’s maverick nominee, U.S. Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.
Idealism, fueled by optimism, seemed to rule the day.
“I can remember walking out of that convention after the nomination,” Weinberg said. “Music was playing. We were dancing. An African American women turned to me and said we just nominated ourselves a president.”
A few months later, Weinberg and her 1960s generation of Democrats suffered a cultural, political and social wake-up call. McGovern lost to incumbent Republican President Richard M. Nixon in a landslide.
McGovern won just one state — Massachusetts. In northern New Jersey, McGovern won Teaneck but was buried elsewhere. The idealism of the 1960s was essentially dead. Less than a decade later, Republican conservatism would emerge as a driving force of American politics.
Weinberg said she found some solace with McGovern winning her hometown of Teaneck. But the massive defeat was a lesson for her. Idealism, she said, was a wonderful elixir. But it was useless without voter support.
Weinberg turned her attention back to the small-ball of politics. From 1975-1985, she labored behind the scenes as the assistant administrator of Bergen County.
By 1990, she was ready for elective office, first as a Teaneck councilwoman, then with the state Assembly. After bucking Bergen’s controversial Democratic boss, Joe Ferriero, who would later be sent to federal prison, Weinberg won her state senate seat that she will leave in the coming days.
She says she has no regrets – certainly no desire to stay longer.
But she also says she has not lost her sense of idealism.
“I’m still passionate,” she said. “That will never change.”
She wants to direct her passion at her grandchildren.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com and the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in New Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kellym@northjersey.com
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