I was a good liberal in some sense at that point. I wanted to end a war. I wanted to support the civil rights movement.

I get up every morning and think...today I'm going to end capitalism.

When I was young, communism, which had a certain allure to me, was clearly a failed experiment in the Soviet Union and in China. And yet, anti-communism was as bad.

That's where we all kind of were in the mid-1960s. Students for a Democratic Society grew from a small group of socialists at the university of Michigan into a national organization, and in many ways, its growth was driven by the Vietnam War.

The massive anti-war movement, which I was a part of and which was a major part of my life, never stopped the war in Vietnam.

[John] McCain seemed to be winking to the Right, and [Barack] Obama seemed to be winking to the Left. Neither one of them - if McCain had been elected we'd still be where we are on gay rights.

The passions and commitments that ignited my activity as a student are the same passions and commitments that I have today.