The unwanted nominee, George McGovern and the Democratic party.
I remember George McGovern fondly. He was not just anti-war, he was ahead of his time on so many issues. He was a progressive in the truest sense of the word. He was, and remains to this day, the most liberal candidate that the Democratic party has put up in modern times. The trouble is, the Democratic party didn't want him.
1972 was supposed to be Ed Muskie's year, his shot at the brass ring. But a funny thing happened on the way to the convention, McGovern outhustled the rest of the field by tapping into the grassroots anti-war movement and making it his own. Muskie also had a very public meltdown that brought into question his mental state, and whether he was on drugs.
The '72 National convention deserves a historical retrospective all its own, it was that contentious. The short version is that the establishment party pols didn't want McGovern on the ticket no matter what, with a Stop McGovern movement headed by Jimmy Carter, then Georgia governor. However the McGovern group simply didn't back down, and outhustled, outplayed their opposition and secured the nomination.
However despite the fact that he won the battle, McGovern didn't win the war, in large part because he was betrayed from the beginning. Having earlier secured a commitment by Ted Kennedy to be on the ticket as a balancing factor, Kennedy backed out at the last minute(a good thing in the end, as less than a week later Kennedy's drunk driving killed a campaign worker at Chappaquiddick). Pol after pol turned down McGovern, leaving finally the ill-fated choice of Thomas Eagleton. When that fell through, the Democratic party saddled McGovern with Sargent Shriver, a man who proved to be a horrible campaigner and detriment to McGovern's campaign.
Nor was Shriver the only way in which the Democratic party hindered McGovern. I was volunteering for the McGovern campaign in my home town, and we were chronically short of money because the national party, which at the time provided a lot in the way of supplies and money, simply didn't come through. They not only withheld money, but other resources as well, including having other major political figures come out to campaign for McGovern. In cities like Chicago, the Daley machine was essentially shut down, doing nothing for McGovern. George Wallace, nominally a Democrat, ran a third party campaign in that took away votes across the South. Many even switched their support to Nixon simply out of spite. McGovern became a pariah within his own party.
We know what happens next, McGovern was defeated in the largest landslide ever, and basically became a national laughingstock. But what happened to him is a lesson to all of us, namely that the Democratic party is not willing to support a candidate who doesn't toe the party line. If you are too liberal for their tastes, even if you are reflecting the general consensus that we should end a war, you will be attacked by the party that you call your own.
The McGovern campaign shook me to the core. I remained in the Democratic party for another ten years, but in many ways my heart wasn't in it, and I became ever more disillusioned with the party. Finally, in '82, I left the party. Yes, I still work with them because there are few true alternatives. But I will never again unconditionally support the party, and I will always distrust them.
Rest in peace George, you were a good man, far too good for the Democratic party that stabbed you in the back and hung you out to dry.
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