Today, few remember when UNH students went on strike after the National Guard shot four students to death at Kent State during an anti-war demonstration on May 4, 1970.
I remember it well because I was an active participant. The student body was so united that the administration was forced to cancel classes for the rest of the year. In lieu of classes, students organized free classes to educate each other about how we were being manipulated by the power elite in our country. It was in one of those free classes that I was introduced to “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills.
Mills was one of the most influential and provocative sociologists of the 20th century. His book provided the intellectual framework for what happened in the 1960s. With Trump in office, things have gone full circle, making his ideas now as relevant as they were then. Mills galvanized people by showing them the difference between their personal problems and public issues.
Too often, individuals blame themselves for the setbacks they suffer in life. Sometimes that is warranted if the person is fired for being lazy and often late for work. That’s a private problem. However, it becomes a public issue if the person loses their job because AI has wiped out entry-level jobs across the board.
When viewed this way, issues such as income inequality and unaffordable health care are understood not as the result of fate or personal deficiencies but as the consequence of selfish actions by powerful economic and political actors whom Mills called the power elite. They always prosper, even amid the upheaval of war.
It is not fate or personal shortcomings that have caused the average person’s income to stagnate over the past 50 years because the rich are still raking it in. A recent article in The Guardian makes this clear: “The wealth of billionaires has reached record highs in 2026, with the wealthiest gaining $4tn over the past 12 months, a 13.2% increase from 2025.”
This gross inequality is even worse in the U.S., “with CEO pay increasing 20.4 times faster than worker pay in 2025.” Trump’s strategy of blaming immigrants while pitting rural folks against city dwellers does nothing to reduce this disparity. The real reason is, “Times are hard for working people, not because of immigrants but because corporations and billionaires are robbing you,” said Graham Platner, a candidate for Maine’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
Platner’s declaration signals that politics have come full circle, making Mills relevant again. Back in the 60s, Democrats were spurred into action by the young, who could no longer stomach Nixon, his imperial presidency, and the war in Vietnam. Today, students and citizens at large can no longer stomach Trump, his grift and delusions of grandeur — all culminating with his war of choice attacking Iran.
Back in the day, it all came to a head when the establishment Democrats at their 1972 National Convention were overthrown by the grassroots: a diverse coalition advocating for working people, minorities and anti-war activists. They mounted a direct challenge to the career politicians who catered to the rich and powerful.
Most people have forgotten that’s when Shirley Chisholm ran her “Unbought and Unbossed” campaign, becoming the first black woman to vie for the presidency. Her mantra highlighted her independence from political bosses and special-interest money, reinforcing her commitment to representing the people rather than the establishment.
In a flashback, we see a revival of the 1960s in the politics of Platner. His campaign, which empowers ordinary citizens to fight entrenched bipartisan establishment power, aligns perfectly with Mills’s sociological theories.
Platner, a former Marine and oyster farmer, frames his political movement as a necessary, grassroots and often radical challenge to what he calls a “system that has neglected the people of Maine” and a “corporate Democratic Party.”
Is Platner’s campaign destined to be a quixotic venture like Chisholm’s 1972 “Unbought and Unbossed” campaign, or does he represent the future? I pray that it is the latter.
Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jstim.substack.com.