Remembering McGovern

[ogsball]

I wish I would have been old enough to vote. . .

http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=5602

[mark11727]

1. I was JUST old enough in '72, and McGovern was my choice then.

I've been in BAD MOOD politically ever since.

(edited for fat fingers)

[n2mark]

4. I voted for McGovern

This entire election reminds of this....

I can remember the phone taps, people following me home from the train station... I can remember the person in charge had his house smeared with pro Nixon crap. This administration has all the tags of Nixon. This is Nixon all over again and much worse. Bums being paid to attend Shriver's gatherings.

For those who are searching... search to the Nixon era you will have all the info you need. I'll be polite the same slobs control the WH.

[Gregorian]

16. Wow, same here.

I remember only one thing- that night he won Massachusetts. I kept thinking to myself "America can't be that dumb. Only one state?" And hence, the bad mood ever since, here too. No, I vaguely remember the smear. The sex scandal. I've heard smart people criticize McGovern, but I don't know enough to add to the discussion. I guess Monkey Business says something about it.

[NightTrain]

2. I was only six years old myself.

1972 was the first presidential election of which I have vague memories. I distinctly remember that when Nixon was re-elected, my father shook his head and mutttered, "This country is fucked."

In a way, I'm kind of glad that both my parents were dead by the Great Blowjob Crisis of 1998. Not only did they miss that bullshit, but I'll wager that my parents both went to their graves never having even heard of George W. Bush!

[sr_pacifica]

3. He was a very compassionate man

One of his ideas was a minimum guaranteed income for all Americans. That was just tooo radical, man.

His vice-presidential running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was found out to have a history of depression. Out he went. Those were the good old days of understanding mental health---hah! I doubt it would be any different these days.

[Chili]

5. you're scared me when you said "was"...

...he's still alive, he was on Franken's show earlier in the summer, and he made my eyes tear up, he's still so full of compassion and conviction about the innate goodness of man and our responsibility towards each other. That's the core of the Democratic party's philosophy.

I was too young to vote for him, I was 12 at the time, but I remember that election, my Social Studies class was following it closely and I remember reading Newsweek and Time in class, and following the polls, and celebrity opinions... it fueled my interest in politics. I was crushed when he lost.

[sr_pacifica]

17. oops

I realized after posting that I made it sound like he was no longer with us. Sorry for the scare!

[n2mark]

6. I agree

I was upset with the dumping of Eagleton..Isn't this the way these thugs work?

I do suffer from depression, I understood Eagleton - was this McGovern's mistake? Didn't McGovern say he supported him? McGovern should have supported Eagleton.

What happened to Eagleton?

I continue to support McGovern.

[Barney Rocks]

7. perhaps McGovern

could play a role in a Kerry administration? He seems very capable still. He could be very good at Head of Health and Human Services.

[Wind Dancer]

8. Just missed the vote by a couple of years.

Can you imagine how different things would be if he had won the election?

[flaminbats]

9. I started out as a Tsongas supporter in 1992..

I was extremely bitter and angry after Clinton won the primaries, and even considered voting for Perot in November. Shortly before the 1992 Democratic convention I saw McGovern speak on C-Span, he did more to convince me to support the Democratic ticket than Clinton picking Gore did! :toast:

Before this I didn't know anything about McGovern other than he was badly beaten, but I have since wondered how any sane American could have knowingly voted for Nixon over McGovern!

[ElkHunter]

10. I was eighteen in 1972...

...and I did volunteer work for the McGovern campaign. Also saw him at a campaign rally that fall. To this day I still consider George McGovern the one Democratic presidential nominee who was closest to my own politics. I am proud to be a McGovernik. Every Democratic presidential nominee since has been a compromise.

[billkurtmeyer]

11. I was only 17, and I worked my ass off in Idaho of all places,

like McGovern or any other Democrat running for President ever had a chance in backwards ass Repub. Idaho! I remember crying real hard that night, and fearing for the future of our country. I got really really drunk for one of the first times in my life that night, and was seriously depressed for some time. McGovern is and was a real American, a decorated WWII fighter pilot, yet they called in to question his patiorism, sound familiar? I still admire him imensely, and I often wonder where this country would be now, if he had been elected or the Kennedy brothers had survived the right wing hit squad?!

[gordianot]

12. My first Presidential vote

I turned 18 and arrived early at the polls before they opened. A great American.

[gauguin57]

13. I worked at my local Demo. HQ for McGovern, though I wasn't

quite old enough to vote. I loved him with a passion I can't even explain. I got to hear him speak about 15 years ago, and stood right next to him as he stayed after his speech and spoke at length to a small group of interested college students.

The man has so much to teach us, about heroism, about peace, about compassion, about being a true liberal ... even about how to deal with a horrible family crisis like his daughter's alcoholism and related death.

[Dem_Loyalist]

14. I worked my @ss off for McGovern in '72

I wasn't old enough to vote but was aware of politics even then. I think that election was a real missed turning point for our country. So many things might have turned out different if McGovern had been elected. The last 30 years of history would have most likely been completely different. Just imagine no reaganomics, no massive and constant military buildup, no gulf war 1 & 2 and no bush family empire. I think we could have been a truly kinder, gentler and more caring country. That term was hijacked a decade ago by an incredibly calculating and uncaring family. Just think what could have been done with the trillions of $$$ wasted on military hardware. Socialized medicine would be a reality! Equality for EVERYONE would be accepted and expected rather than merely a campaign slogan. Presidents Carter and Clinton were bright spots in an otherwise dark and depressing 3 decades. Let's build on their legacy.

[burrowowl]

15. The 2nd time I could vote

worked toget him voted for.
About a year ago found a McGovern sticker in my parent's garage. I cried.

[Dem_Loyalist]

18. That would probably make me cry too

It's so sad what might have been.

[TN al]

19. I was too young in '72...

...but I voted for him in '84 in the Iowa caucuses. It was the first time I was eligible.

[fiorello]

20. Come home, America

I don't know if anyone remembers McGovern's acceptance speech - I still think it was one of the best. The day after, the now-defunct Chicago Daily News made it into a full-page headline.

It sounds just as great today:

I have no secret plan for peace.  I have a public plan. And as one whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of Vietnam, I will halt a senseless bombing of Indochina on Inaugural Day....

And then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad.
.....

From secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America

From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America.

From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex; from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of  the neglected sick -- come home, America.

Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.

Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world, and let us be joyful in that homecoming

.....
http://www.4president.org/speeches/mcgovern1972acceptance.htm