1972: Democratic rifts, then (and now?)
In a Newsweek interview with George Will and Sean Wilentz that’s mainly about the Left re-evaluating Reagan, there was this food for thought from Will:
What happened in ’72 was the aggressive, conscious, tough, skillful disenfranchising of organized labor and of the big city machines, by George McGovern. McGovern was thought of as a soft prairie farmer. He was one tough cookie, a man who took a nonexistent Democratic Party in South Dakota and produced a senator””that was himself””not many years later. What happened in ’72””that formalized, aggressive takeover of the Democratic Party by one faction at the expense of another””is what we’re seeing playing out right now. It is no accident, comrade, that in ’76 Reagan makes a strong run and in ’80 he makes it into the White House over the remains of the badly divided Democratic Party.
Neo, I tried to post something that had a link to something I had previously posted. Your software kicked it out.
Regarding parallels with 1972 and today, some readers might be interested in revisiting some information I had previously posted about Senator Eagleton, who for a short time was McGovern’s running mate. It shows the importance of integrity, because on two counts, lack of integrity on Eagleton’s part damaged McGovern’s run. Had McGovern known that Eagleton was the source for the “acid, amnesty, abortion” phrase from Robert Novak, McGovern would never have chosen Eagleton as a running mate. Eagleton’s not informing McGovern about his depression for hospitalization is simply further confirmation of Eagleton’s lack of integrity.
Furthermore, if Eagleton believed that McGovern could not be elected, as shown by the “AAA/MAA” remark to Novak, why did he consent to be McGovern’s running mate? Did that not also show a certain lack of integrity?
Because Neo’s software kicks out links to her blog, I have to provide manual “links.” I posted at April 29th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
neoneocon.com/2008/04/29/obamas-faces-his-sister-souljah-moment-or-is-it-his-eagleton-moment
If Obama is nominated, as seems likely, it will be interesting to see how much of the McGovern scenario takes place.
Nixon was an unlikeable president overseeing an unpopular war, yet he defeated McGovern in a landslide.
That was a over a generation ago. Today Obama is a more radical and more bizarre candidate than McGovern. I would think Obama would be unelectable, despite the mood for change, his elegant looks and his charismatic speaking. But the country on the whole has moved to the left since McGovern, so it’s hard to say.
The best news is that Obama has lost sheen as something more than a politician.
I think Wilentz makes a very interesting point about liberals when he says that Reagan went way too far cutting taxes. It just shows how much he and they still fail to understand. The percentage of GDP going to taxes didn’t change very much at all because of Reagan’s tax cuts. What did change was the way that high earners chose to get paid. And that change turbocharged the economy for the last 3 decades.
We’ve seen something similar in the left’s response to the Bush tax cuts. Bush shifted the tax burden away from the middle class and onto the highest incomes. He also shifted the burden slightly toward the future (smart policy when you inherit a rescession). Liberals are so invested in screaming “tax cuts for the rich” that they refuse to see what really happened.
Because of that failure to see the truth, they are about to try to raise taxes on the middle class under a soak the rich, class warfare scheme. Not smart.
I’ve visited some pro Hillary sites and yes, if that’s what happened in the past, then it is similar to what is happening now. The Obama people / posters on the sites are behaving towards the Hillary people very much like Kos kids do to republicans. Out and out mocking them with clichés about the lower middle class and such.
I’ve said it before, but this year is primarily a struggle for control of the Democratic party. The Kennedy/Daley faction is desperate to keep the Clintons out of control. I’m not even sure they care if Obama wins, as long as they keep the Clintons out of power. I actually voted for McGovern in my first ever election. Now I’m a McCain supporter. Just shows you what a few years will do.
Interesting observations from George Will.
If anyone wants to read exactly about what he’s referring to, read Hunter Thompson’s Fear & Loathing on The Campaign Trail ’72.