The Development of Baby's Political Rebellion -- Part 5

This article follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

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During 1963, Baby Houseman became increasingly appalled that Barry Goldwater might become the Republican Party's candidate in the 1964 Presidential election and that her father might vote for him. Baby's major objection to Goldwater was that he opposed using governmental power to compel Caucasian business owners to serve Negroes. Goldwater argued that the US Constitution recognized people's freedom of association. Caucasians thus had the right not to associate with Negroes -- in particular, a right to not do business with Negroes.

More generally, Baby was developing an opinion that the US Government had to take measures to improve the fairness of US society. Baby had learned about the new and influential book, The Other America: Poverty in the United States, written by socialist Michael Harrington and published in 1962. Harrington argued that about a fifth of the US population was stuck unfairly in poverty. Not everyone was enjoying the USA's era of prosperity that followed World War Two.

Although Harrington was a socialist, he proposed governmental measures -- such as more funding for education, medical services and housing -- that would help that impoverished one-fifth of the population to climb up out of their poverty.

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During 1963, Baby had become upset about three events.

1) Protesting Negroes had been attacked by police dogs in May.

2) Protesting Vietnamese monks had burned themselves to death beginning in June.

3) Three miners had been trapped in a collapsed mine for several days in August.

In Baby's mind, the three events' common feature was unfairness. Some people had to suffer and had to try to protest, while other people lived in comfort and complacency. The people in the first group were born unlucky, while the people in the second group were born lucky. These unfair differences were a world-wide tragedy -- in particular in the United States.

Baby's father tried to give Baby a more complex perspective. When she complained about such unfairness, he explained that life is difficult for almost everyone. Although he himself enjoyed financial security and comfort now as a doctor, he had struggled for many years to graduate through college, medical school and a medical internship. After all that personal struggle, he was able to help many people, every day, with his medical knowledge and skills.

He suggested that Baby too would be able to help people if she acquired a higher education.

1) She would be able to help protesting Negroes if she became a lawyer or a judge.

2) She would be able to help Vietnamese monks if she became a diplomat.

3) She would be able to help miners if she became an engineer.

Baby's father preached to her that higher education would be her key to her future contributions to improving the fairness of society. She would have to study for many years, and so she would have to develop her personal patience. The USA was making social progress steadily. There already had been much progress during his life, and there would be further progress during her life.

Baby became increasingly frustrated and angry by her father's preaching to be studious and patient. The continuing unfairness outraged her. The US Government could to much more to accelerate and spread progress, but old people like her father impeded such progress by being complacent and selfish and by voting for unfair Republican politicians like Goldwater.

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Baby complained further that too many people were limited in their abilities to obtain higher educations and to rise in professional careers. For example, Negroes and women were thus limited. Even Caucasian men who grew up in working-class families were thus limited.

Baby foresaw that she herself would be limited educationally and professionally because she was a woman. The men in the universities and in the professions inhibited and limited women. The women had to get married, give birth and raise children. Therefore her father was wrong when he preached to her that she wold be able, if she obtained a higher education, to contribute significantly to social progress during her future adult years.

Baby would be able to break through such inhibitions and limitations only if she attended an all-women's college.

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Baby recognized that the USA's society was thoroughly unfair. The older generation -- including her parents and even her older sister -- were failing to recognize the new realities.

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See also my previous article The American Folk Music Revival in 1963,

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I will continue this series in Part 6.

The Development of Baby's Political Rebellion -- Part 4

This article follows up Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

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Baby Houseman graduated from high school in Brooklyn, New York, in the spring of 1963, when she was about 16 or 17 years old. During the months preceding her graduation, she was accepted to enroll in Mount Holyoke College, an all-female college in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Baby intended to attend Mount Holyoke College for four years and then join the Peace Corps for two or three years.

Baby's father Jake was hoping that Baby -- unfortunately born as the family's second daughter -- might follow in his footsteps into a professional career and perhaps even become a doctor. He did not think that attending a small college would prepare her for a prestigious medical school.

Furthermore, he felt that her two or three years in the Peace Corps might delay disastrously her medical career. Medical schools were reluctant to accept women students, who were likely to suspend their medical careers eventually in order to give birth and raise their children. Such reluctance would be even greater for a woman applicant who was two or three years older than a normal woman applicant.

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Although Baby loved and admired her father, she looked forward to getting away from him for several years. She realized that he was pushing her to be like himself -- to be like the son he had missed having.

She felt she was being a "daddy's girl" too long in her life. It was time for her to mature out of that phase of her life. She could do so only if she put a large geographical space between herself and him.

Such considerations were an important factor in her decision to attend an all-female college. She felt she was controlled too much by her father and by his male career ambitions for her.

Furthermore, she increasingly opposed her father's political opinions, which seemed elitist, harsh and uncaring. Although she tried to avoid political arguments -- or even discussions -- with him, she foresaw already that she would vote Democrat in the 1964 presidential election.

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During 1963, Republicans already were considering who should be the Republican Party's  candidate in the 1964 election. The two prominent choices were Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, and Barry Goldwater, a US Senator of Arizona. Within the party, Rockefeller was on the liberal wing, and Goldwater was on the conservative wing.

The Houseman family lived in New York and so was quite familiar with Rockefeller. Jake Houseman had supported Nelson Rockefeller over Richard Nixon in the 1960 Republican primary elections. The Houseman family were Jews, and most Jews in the USA voted Democratic. Jake Houseman, however, voted Republican because, as a doctor, he opposed government interference in medical businesses. Aside from that one key issue, he generally leaned toward liberal opinions.

Barry Goldwater, like the Houseman family, was Jewish.

Goldwater's political problem among Jews was that his political principles caused him to tolerate people discriminating against other people for racial or ethnic reasons. For example, if a Caucasian who owned a restaurant wanted to prevent Negroes from eating in the restaurant, then Goldwater argued that the Caucasian should be allowed to do so.

Goldwater's own family had become wealthy from owning department stores, and the family's stores did not refuse to serve Negroes. However, Goldwater believed that government's powers should be limited and that individuals enjoyed certain rights, such as the freedom of association. Therefore, the government should not be able to coerce Caucasians to associate with Negroes. In particular, the government should not be able to coerce Caucasian business-owners to serve Negroes.

Goldwater did not argue that Caucasians were superior to Negroes or that such discrimination was morally decent. Rather, he argued that the government's powers should be limited and that individual rights should be allowed.

Such reasoning troubled most Jews, because Jews had suffered from discrimination for many centuries and, in particular, had suffered the Holocaust in Europe during the 1940s.

Such reasoning surely troubled Jake Houseman, and so he felt ambivalent about Goldwater as the Republican Party's future candidate in the 1964 Presidential election. Keep in mind, though, that in August 1963, when the Dirty Dancing story takes place, the Republican Party's primary elections still had not begun. Goldwater still was not the Republican Party's candidate. It still was possible that Rockefeller or some other Republican politician might become the party's candidate.

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We can assume that Baby Houseman strongly rejected Goldwater's arguments that people should ever be allowed to discriminate against other people for racial or ethnic reasons. She did not respect Goldwater's reasoning at all. She was outraged that much of the Republican Party learned toward selecting Goldwater as the party's candidate for the next Presidential election.

Furthermore, Baby felt increasingly angry that her father might still vote Republican in the 1964 election if Goldwater were the Republican candidate. Baby was outraged by the unfairness of Negroes being denied service in restaurants and other businesses. She praised the Negroes who protested against such discrimination.

Compared to those Negro heroes, Baby considered Goldwater to be a villain. She rejected his arguments absolutely.

Baby's father, however, felt and even remarked that he himself might vote for Goldwater in the 1964 election, as the lesser of two evils -- the Democrat candidate being the worse evil.

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This series will continue in Part 5.

Girls Arguing With Their Fathers About Their Boyfriends