1972 Democratic Party Platform is so progressive as to be off the scale today

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14. McGovern's landslide loss reversed the movement toward progressive policies

And began the movement toward the middle. The loss was considered a lesson for aspiring politicians. McGovern and progressivism was marginalized. Some unions failed to support him, and there were even some "Democrats for Nixon."

President Carter in 1976 was much less progressive than many in the Democratic Party before him. In 1980, he was primaried by Ted Kennedy from the Left partially because of that. By the 1990's the Democratic stood much closer to the GOP of the 70's economically than to the Democratic Party in 1972.

Many later day politicians participated in the 1972 campaign and were influenced by the outcome including Gary "new ideas" Hart who ran the campaign and even both Clintons who campaigned for McGovern.

In retrospect, Nixon was probably unbeatable in 1972, especially when he took the war issue away from McGovern, and numerous campaign blunders by McGovern made the loss even worse. The progressivism of the platform contributed less than is widely thought to the loss.