Reply #58: A bit of a historical note

[Blue Wally]

In 1972, the 60s radicals hijacked the party. Long-time party office holders and ward/precinct were excluded as convention delegates as being "old party" in favor of radical activists. The entire presidential campaign was a massive train wreck and George McGovern was completely swept by the "charismatic and personable" Richard Nixon. Fortunately, the "old party type kept working at the lower level and we lost very few house and senate seats despite the massive presidential landslide (we took Massachusetts and DC).

As an anecdotal incident, in September 1972, a very prominent Wayne county (Detroit) labor leader and county party chairman (who happened to be black) went to the DNC headquarters to coordinate the campaign in Michigan. When he got back, he told the locals that he didn't mind when the college kids didn't know who he was, but that he did mind the fact that they didn't care after he told themwho he was.

Read Theodore White's "The Making of the President 1972 if you can find a copy. Don't let history repeat itself.