George McGovern (1922-2012)

Former Senator George McGovern has died.

His passing should make us consider what might have been.  McGovern is best remembered for having lost the 1972 presidential election to incumbent Richard Nixon in the biggest landslide in U.S. history. 

McGovern’s drubbing at the polls was an object demonstration of the American voter’s egregious lack of judgment.  Nixon’s resignation in disgrace a scant twenty-one months after his electoral triumph must have caused even the president’s most fervent supporters to kick themselves for their stupidity.  (On the other hand, maybe it didn't.  A political cartoon from that time shows two men at a bar, with one saying to the other, “Hey, Nixon’s no dummy.  If the American people wanted moral leadership, he’d give it to them.” The humor in that piece hits a little too close to home for comfort.)

McGovern was not perfect by any means; his quick repudiation of his first running mate Tom Eagleton after it was revealed Eagleton had once been treated for clinical depression being the best remembered example of his fallibility.  Nevertheless his defining characteristic was his fundamental decency, something lacking in virtually every presidential candidate for the last thirty years. 

McGovern, a decorated World War II veteran as well as an academic historian, was an early opponent of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.  After one measure he sponsored to defund the war failed to pass, McGovern proclaimed, “This chamber reeks of blood!”  It is nearly impossible to imagine a member of Congress saying anything like that today about Afghanistan or any other of our recent wars.  Nixon, by contrast, promised to end the war during his 1968 campaign but only concluded the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam a few weeks before the 1972 election.  Unsurprisingly, both public and pundits forgot his foot-dragging and widely praised Nixon's success.  Nixon's saturnine, uncompromising style, which had worked against him throughout his political career, actually helped his cause in 1972.  Despite the Vietnam debacle, Nixon's silent majority had no patience for what they saw as anti-American ideas or the excesses of the '60s youth culture.  For them, a McGovern presidency would mean condoning what they held to be anathema.  

McGovern was a good guy. Unfortunately, good guys with ethics often finish last in this country.  In a culture where we strive to impose our will on each other and seek to impose it on the world, it is clear why he did not achieve this nation’s highest office.  As the man in the cartoon said, Americans aren’t interested in moral leadership. They want to be told they are the best, that they are always right, and that they are always blameless.  George McGovern’s plainspoken style conflicted with our self-image, reminding us that power does not necessarily equate with greatness. I only wish we had public servants like him today.   

© 2012 The Unassuming Scholar