George McGovern passed away a few days ago at the age of 90 and despite not having held an elected office over the last 32 years,continued to be a large part of the liberal/progressive wing of the Democratic Party.McGovern was best known for his 1972 crushing at the hands of Richard Nixon in an attempt to win the Presidency,but the legacy of McGovern was far more than just one defeat.
McGovern won election to the Senate from a partisan state that was not his party (South Dakota) three times before being one of many long time Democratic Senators that were taken over by the Reagan wave of the 1980 election.
I would even go as far to call that bad luck as I believe in any other year,McGovern might have been re-elected,which might have allowed him to serve as long as he had wanted.
George McGovern was more than just a politician as his passion for stopping world hunger always was a staple of his interviews and appearances.
McGovern and Republican Senator Bob Dole worked together on a program to help feed children of school age around the world to allow children that weren't getting food to get fed and as a incentive to get them to learn as well.
McGovern was also the first director of the Food For Peace program in the Kennedy administration and continued in his Senate years to build the program in both funding and in practices.
McGovern certainly was left-leaning,but he always spoke sensibly and as a result was able to work with people that might not have been in agreement with him to get things through the red tape that has clogged the political system since the beginning of time.
McGovern is remembered for more than just his food initiatives and his loss to Richard Nixon,mainly because of his vehement opposition to the Vietnam War.
McGovern ran on ending the war and was a hero to the anti-war crowd,but what I always thought highest of him for was his speech on the Senate floor in 1970 in an attempt to pass the McGovern-Hatfield bill to influence Vietnam policy.
I find his words eerily familiar even today as we continue to toss around various wars and whether or not they should be fought.
" Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes. There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us"
Strong words,but very true ones.
Old men start wars,young men fight them.
When you consider McGovern's background as a medal winning bomber pilot in the second world war,his feelings on war were not only unusual but often poignant.
McGovern never tried to take advantage of his military background,even when his patriotism was questioned in the 1972 campaign and that shows even more about what he stood for.
McGovern also put forth two "how to's" in the 1972 election.
How you can win in the primary process,even when being considered a "darkhorse" and how to throw away any chance of winning the actual election.
His grassroots manner of upsetting Ed Muskie,the heavy favorite, and later Hubert Humphrey to gain the Democratic nomination showed how a underdog with a "winged" message can manage to win in the primary process,where ideology means much more than in the general election.
McGovern's inept campaign against Nixon shows the difficulties in winning where it counts with the same limited platform.
McGovern's selection of Tom Eagleton as his running mate was the end game for McGovern.
Not because of Eagleton's issues with mental health in his past.Even in 1972 ,I think that could have been overcome,but because McGovern had always been a straight shooter even when the news was not good and his 100% support of Eagleton was followed by his removal from the ticket-that made McGovern look like just another pol.
That took away one advantage that McGovern had over Nixon,which was telling the truth even when it hurt.
After the loss to Nixon,the Democratic party ran away from McGovern as they pretended the election never existed and rarely evoked his name.
George would run a Quixotesque campaign in 1984 that was doomed for failure,but McGovern felt the effort was important to frame the debate towards more liberal issues.
A better than expected third place finish in Iowa was followed by a fifth in New Hampshire and McGovern stated that anything short of second place in the Massachusetts primary would send him from the race.
McGovern was true to his word after a third place final result.
McGovern became an author and speaker for the most part after 1984,usually for liberal or food causes,with the exception of his book "Terry" a 1996 best seller about his daughter's death from alcoholism and her lifelong issues with the disease.
McGovern had a bad fall minutes before his scheduled appearance on the C-SPAN series The Contenders in December,which kept him from appearing.
That was very unfortunate,as it kept McGovern from being the only person in the series to participate as most were deceased and Ross Perot declined the invitation.
The 1972 campaign was the first that I remember (I was four) and when I had to walk around town on occasion with after school activities as a kid,I always took one route more than others.
A homeowner had a car port and inside that car port was a framed picture of bumper stickers of Democratic candidates through the years and prominently in the middle was McGovern/Shriver 72.
I always liked walking by there and looking from the street,the guy probably thought I was casing his house!
To this day,I have a McGovern/Shriver button around here somewhere and I just missed an AVON decanter of the 72 election once at an auction.
Rest in Peace,Senator,you deserve the best for a life spent attempting to help others....
Photo Credit:Boston Globe
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