Remembering The Past: George McGovern (1922-2012)

Source:Remembering The Past- U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat, South Dakota) 1972 Democratic Party nominee for President.

"George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972, left a lasting legacy to the Democratic Party. A political descendant of the Kennedys, McGovern was one of the first major political figures to come out against the Vietnam War in the mid-1960's. With that as a centerpiece of his campaign, he made the Democratic Party more inclusionary to the young, women, and minorities. His 1972 presidential campaign was marred by self-inflicted errors and conducted in the shadow of Watergate spying. Despite his epic defeat, he remained a decent and honorable man, and today's Democratic Party owes much to his efforts." 

From Remembering The Past 

To me at least Senator George McGovern represented the Henry Wallace Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party, that is essentially lead by Senator Bernie Sanders (the only self-described Socialist in Congress) today. 

The reason why a George McGovern came anywhere near close to the Democratic nomination for President in the early 1970s, when the Democratic Party was still lead by FDR/LBJ Center-Left Progressives and even Center-Right Conservatives, is because the Democratic Party was split between it's Center-Left lead by Senator Humbert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie and its Far-Left that emerged in the Democratic Party lead by Senator George McGovern and others. Which is how McGovern gets the nomination because he was the only Far-Left Democrat running for President in 72, with a bunch of other Center-Left Progressives like Humphrey and Muskie running for President.  

President Richard Nixon wanted to run against the Senator McGovern. Think about it, 1972 America is still involved in the Cold War against Russia, Americans hated all forms of socialism, really and not just Communists and communism. And you have a Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist leading the largest political party in America in the Democratic Party, running against a Center-Right President in Richard Nixon, who was fairly popular in the summer and fall of 1972. Which is how you get a 60-40 presidential election in 72, with the Democrats only winning one state, because the Socialists had taken over the Democratic Party. 

Losing a landslide presidential election is not the only legacy that George McGovern has even as a politician. He basically democratized the Democratic Party and is a big reason why the Democratic Party is a national, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, national political party today, that's no longer dominated by Anglo-Saxons in the South and Irish-Catholics and other European ethnics in the North. And George McGovern deserves a lot of credit for that.