“The Graduate” will turn 50 next year. In the unlikely event that you’ve never seen it, the protagonist of the movie is a young, idealistic, newly-minted Baby Boomer college graduate with no clear plans who is confronted with a future in an adult world that looks drab, corrupt, and overly materialistic. He is comically seduced by Mrs. Robinson, a much older woman who stands for all of the corruption of her generation. In the end, of course, our hero ultimately retains his ideals and prevails.
The movie is a classic of its kind, but it should be seen as a myth or a cartoon; the distinction between the boring, racist, materialistic World War II generation and the truth-seeking Boomers was always absurd. Today, of course, the tables have turned; Boomers are largely viewed as being narcissistic and self-indulgent, while Mrs. Robinson would be lauded as a member of the “Greatest Generation.” Tom Brokaw probably believes she fought heroically for our freedom at Omaha Beach. But that is a topic for another day.
The current relevance of this is simple; it is clear that many Sanders supporters, and possibly even Bernie himself (he is a sixties guy, after all) see their campaign against Hillary Clinton in much the same light as the movie. My advice to them is to get over their self-righteousness and move on. In the real world, as opposed to the mythological one portrayed in the movie, there are no perfect candidates, and no completely pure political choices; every election requires an identification of the lesser evil. Hillary is not the Democrats’ equivalent of Mrs. Robinson, and Donald Trump is, in fact, a clear and present danger to the country.