Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 9:42:10 PM
Since many are comparing this election to those of the late 1960's and early 1970's, lets give it a look. A disclaimer, I wasn't born until late 1973 so I have no personal experience with the 60's and 70's. The 60's have always seemed weird to me, a decade that many recall fondly, but that may be because of the drugs that they were taking. The 70's seem strange too, with the worst of U.S. socialism falling apart then.
Many in the "mainstream" media recall the McGovern campaign in 1972 as historic. But it really wasn't. I think that the history books will look more favorably on the Goldwater campaign of 1964, much more in the future. Why would I say that. Most historians of today would not agree with me, Goldwater is often kind of forgotten about at times it seems. It may be that we are still too close to those events, since some may have worked McGovern's campaign. It may be strange to talk about two campaigns that failed to elect the person but has become part of the weirdness of that era.
Most forget how badly the campaign of McGovern was run. Nixon creamed him in 1972 in spite of the media hating him as much as they hate Bush-Cheney today. Also add to that mix that the common voter understood that McGovern was so far to the left to be electable. It seems that people knew that more then the voters of today understand how liberal Obama and Clinton are today. Amazing when you consider no alternative media that we have today. So nearly nobody actually voted for McGovern. Goldwater only had word of mouth of the grassroots and National Review on his side. The common "view" in the media was far from conservative in those days (not that anything has changed on that front). But things were worse then.
Goldwater was the beginning of a huge movement, the conservative revolution. McGovern's supporters were hoping for a revolution but that didn't happen (at least in the way they wanted). Goldwater brought us the Reagan years in the 1980's, and new hope and growth for the U.S. since then. McGovern brought us Jimmy Carter and Al Gore and other assorted losers. Democrats haven't learned much from McGovern, and continue to try to elect far left types that America doesn't want.
But at least we know more then the "mainstream" media would like us to, and we don't get all excited about the candidate that they hoped would be president in 1972. Because McGovern was just another in a string of left leaning politicians that America didn't want.