General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: All three Democratic presidential losses in the Eighties were caused by centrism. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The way to get "swing voters" is to look like a leader...not to treat labor, the poor and activists like pariahs.
And I'm very well aware of the "acid, amnesty and abortion" slur. Do you know who actually said it?
Thomas Freaking Eagleton.
But what were we supposed to do that year?
We couldn't run as an anti-choice party anymore...that would have made it impossible for us to get any women to back us at all(anti-abortion zealots were all right-wing crazies by then). And how could we have been different than the 'pugs if we'd said we'd go on prosecuting draft resisters?
McGovern was the candidate of young America. We'd have done even worse in '72 if we'd gone with a "fuck the Sixties-we'll stay in Vietnam forever" candidate. We'd havehad no chance in a race like that, because the outcome wouldn't have mattered (especially if Scoop Jackson, who was to Nixon's right on some issues, had been imposed as the nominee). "Bomb Hanoi/Taiwan is 'Free China/Build The SST" was not going to be a winning slogan for Dems.
Ed Muskie, btw, was well to the left of most of today's Dems, He wasn't centrist at all, and McGovern people would gladly have backed him if he hadn't been smeared out of the race.