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| McGovern |
Life experiences shape the narratives that inform each generation.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. I hear the rhyme with "McGovern, 1972"
My parents were shaped by the Depression. Their families were broke. A job was a glorious thing. Then they experienced World War Two, with its new lesson: the country with the best firepower wins.
So of course the military-industrial complex grew in postwar America. It was the lesson of World War Two.
I am a Baby Boomer, and experienced postwar prosperity, the Civil Rights revolution, Medicare and the Great Society, youth counterculture, the anti-Vietnam War protests, and women's liberation.
And then the backlash to it.
The backlash was huge.
Nixon had his "southern strategy," and in the 1968 election George Wallace, an overt racist segregationist, won the electoral votes in the South. Nixon and Wallace combined won 41 million votes to Humphrey's 31 million. It was a one-two message, if people were paying attention, but Democrats were paying attention to other things, important things: the injustice to blacks, the right-ness of women's equality, and Nixon's corruption.
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| Prelude: 1968 |
1. There had been a liberal president who passed controversial health legislation, LBJ and Medicare/Obama and the ACA.
2. The liberal president was perceived as being friendly with black people.
3. The Republican was embroiled in corruption charges. Nixon/Trump.
4. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party was angry about the way the Democrats had handled the previous nomination, feeling that their candidate was too moderate and "establishment": the Chicago Convention/the Bernie-Hillary struggle.
5. The motivated progressive wing took charge and nominated the most liberal and outspoken of the large scrum of candidates, the one overwhelmingly popular among the young generation in college towns (including me): McGovern.
6. He was crushed, losing every state but Massachusetts. He was condemned for being weak on American security, weak on law and order, and for being a socialist.
7. The incumbent Republican won by making it a culture war between the Silent Majority of white, Christian, "normal" people, who were assailed by advocates of social change.
That is my experience.
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| McGovern wipeout: 1972 |
McGovern, I thought in 1972, was exactly what America needed and wanted. It was high time for a progressive. Everyone I knew agreed with me. I was in New Haven, Connecticut.
What was going on across the country was resistance and backlash to change that was coming faster than a majority of Americans were comfortable with.
Which Americans were those? Same as now: White working people. Less educated people. Church-goers. Married people. Rural people. Socially conservative people. Anti-abortion people. Anti-tax people. Republicans.
The culture was changing too fast for many Trump voters. Too much immigration, too much transgender talk, too many blacks and women getting power, too many kids with Chinese and Indian names as valedictorians, and worrisome disruption of the health care system.
I personally am comfortable with the pace of social and political change today, but a great many are not. They vote, too.
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| Click: Nation Magazine look back at attacks on McGovern |
I personally am comfortable with the pace of social and political change today, but a great many are not. They vote, too.
I was born just before 1950 and that is my experience. So I am worried.
6 comments:
I was born in the early 50s, and agree with most of what you wrote about the '72 election. I was in college at an engineering school. Campaigns hadn't reached any of us in NY. Not even at the neighboring liberal arts public college.
For those paying attention then,we were all worried about getting a job after graduation. The Viet Nam War was a distant memory for us too. No one was getting drafted as that war was winding down.
McGovern may have been known, but most of my fellow students viewed him as weak, and would be no help in getting any of us jobs.
Yes, Nixon in a landslide, despite the corruption.
Sure, Nixon eventually resigned, and Carter was elected, defeating incumbent Ford, Reagan rose again because he spoke to all the voters about jobs, the economy, and was the voice of the silent majority.
Who will be that voice in 2020?
Bernie Sanders, and Lizzie Warren, and Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg, and most every other democratic candidate is this year's George McGovern. They are all trying to outdo each other on who is the most progressive. Free this, and free that, but with no idea of how to pay for it. They are all going to transform America into Venezuela in no time flat. Just like McGovern got spanked by Nixon, Trump will spank whatever socialist the democrats nominate. Socialism/communism has failed every place it's been tried, but the younger generation of voters doesn't know that, because they received a lousy education from today's liberal schools.
Bernie is continuously telling us how he will pay for things. Maybe you haven't heard? They all make good sense, even to economists who've taken the time to analyze them. Infrastructure projects, tuition free college and trade school education, universal healthcare, the Green new deal will be paid for by taxing the rich instead of giving huge tax cuts, transaction tax on wall street trading, remove the upper income limit for paying into social security, greatly reduce military spending, quit subsidizing the oil industry, and others. McGovern did not capture the imagination of Progressives back then, and you are forgetting the negative impact his running mate, Thomas Eagleton. Remember also, that it was getting the dirt on Eagleton that helped Nixon dig his grave! For those who weren't there, here's some information from Wikipedia: "...Selection as vice-presidential candidate
In 1972, Richard Nixon appeared unbeatable. When McGovern won the Democratic nomination for President, virtually all of the high-profile Democrats, including Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie,[12] and Birch Bayh, turned down offers to run on the ticket. McGovern had been convinced that Kennedy would join the ticket. Kennedy ended up refusing. McGovern campaign manager Gary Hart suggested Boston Mayor Kevin White. McGovern called White, and received "an emphatic yes", but the leader of the Massachusetts delegation, Ken Galbraith, said the Massachusetts delegation would walk out if the announcement was made to the Convention that McGovern had chosen White as his vice-presidential candidate, as White had backed Muskie during the Massachusetts primary. Massachusetts ended up being the only state (along with the District of Columbia) that McGovern would carry in the Electoral College on election day.
McGovern then asked Senator Gaylord Nelson to be his running mate. Nelson declined but suggested Tom Eagleton, whom McGovern ultimately chose, with only a minimal background check. Eagleton made no mention of his earlier hospitalizations, and in fact decided with his wife to keep them secret from McGovern while he was flying to his first meeting with the Presidential nominee.
Replacement on the ticket
McGovern said he would back Eagleton "1000 percent". Subsequently, McGovern consulted confidentially with preeminent psychiatrists, including Eagleton's own doctors, who advised him that a recurrence of Eagleton's depression was possible and could endanger the country should Eagleton become president.[13][14][15][16][17] On August 1, 19 days after being nominated, Eagleton withdrew at McGovern's request and, after a new search by McGovern, was replaced by Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver.[18]
A Time magazine poll taken at the time found that 77 percent of the respondents said "Eagleton's medical record would not affect their vote." Nonetheless, the press made frequent references to his 'shock therapy', and McGovern feared that this would detract from his campaign platform.[19]
McGovern's failure to properly vet Eagleton and his subsequent handling of the controversy gave occasion for the Republican campaign to raise serious questions about his judgment. In the general election, the Democratic ticket won only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia..."
I would ask; "What, if anything, is different?
Pre-internet...does that matter? Social media meddling, hacking now have become a factor in elections adding another level of unpredictability to an already murky process, though it can work for both sides.
A big part of McGovern's appeal was opposition to the Vietnam war and the draft, which attracted younger first time voters who were awakening to the fundamental disfunction of the military/industrial complex. 50 years later, post 9/11 this is a much bigger factor determining voters choices, though it's reflected in economic rather than moral terms.
The Summer of Love, Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, birth control, bra burning, Civil Rights and a general libertine sensibility in the culture. Again, now much more of a factor; pot is effectively legal, women's right are accepted, though under attack, sex and gender are also less controversial.
These elements cast a different light on the overall picture, but I would posit the main difference is that Trump is much worse than Nixon, with the effect of mobilizing an otherwise complacent electorate that didn't rise up to support McGovern; the economy was doing OK back then, the middle class had yet to feel the effects of flat wage growth, progressives were largely happy with the advances made during LBJ.
It feels different now, but different enough?
T Mills...neither you nor Bernie have a clue how to pay for all of Bernie's social programs. You could take every dollar from every person whom you or Bernie consider to be rich, and it would not be enough money to pay for what he's proposed. If Bernie gets elected, then every middle class person will get whacked by Bernie for more taxes, too. If you think that only the rich will be targeted, or that you'll be exempt, then you're sorely mistaken. If the democrats nominate Bernie, then they are performing political suicide.
Oh I see no $$ can be spared for social programs but endless $$ for war war war. I CALL BS!
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