The New McGovern?
It's Not Whom You Think

In 1972, George McGovern outmaneuvered a divided Democratic field to emerge as the party nominee to oppose Richard Nixon – and his campaign fell apart following the convention.

There were a number of reasons for this, but perhaps the most important has rarely been examined: The traditional party faithful, especially organized labor who supported center-rightists Hubert Humphrey and Ed Muskie, turned their back on the antiwar senator from South Dakota, leaving him and his boy-wonder campaign staff to the mercy of Nixon's Southern strategy of bigotry and fear.

Now, jump ahead to last winter and spring, when Howard Dean was exciting progressive Democrats by saying what they were thinking – he opposed America's invasion of Iraq, he opposed corporate terrorism, he would fight for affordable health insurance for all Americans, he was from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Critics from the right of the party bleated, “Don't nominate this guy because he's another McGovern – too far left for his own good – and he'll bring the party down just the way McGovern did 32 years ago.”

Well, the bad moon of McGovern is unmistakably rising, only this time it's coming from the right! By moving unmistakably “toward the center,” PreDemNom John Kerry is threatening to alienate the energetic, passionate, progressive Democrats who supported Dean, Dennis Kucinich and, yes, Ralph Nader. And to win in November the Democrats simply can't do without that energy and passion.

If the proposed platform handed out to delegates at last weekend's district party conventions is any indication, the Democrats are going to march into the general election campaign forthrightly refusing to repeal the insidious No Child Left Behind legislation that aims to break down resistance to government-endorsed private education; refusing to vastly overhaul NAFTA and stanch the outflow of jobs overseas; refusing to take a strong stand against corporate abuse; refusing to advocate for true and vital environmental reforms; and, of course, refusing to commit to U.S. withdrawal in the shortest possible time from Iraq. All in the name of convincing the vast middle muddle that a Democrat without gumption would be better at running the country than a Republican who has strongly held views, even if they're so far outside the mainstream you have to navigate that tributary by a mule-driven canal boat.

So how does McGovern enter into this? In 1972, it was the vast center, which the Democrats needed desperately to defeat Nixon, that abandoned the South Dakota senator, leaving the president to feast on the “silent majority” that re-elected him by one of the greatest landslides in history. Today, despite right-wing myths to the contrary, the country is much closer politically, as evidenced by the utter skin-of-the-teeth margin in 2000 and polls that indicate a similar result in November. Kerry and the Democratic center-right threatens to alienate progressives at his peril – and that of the nation.

Here is the beginning of a growing list of progressives calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq:

Ralph Nader: The independent presidential hopeful, or, as Kerry Democrats call him, the Presumptive Pain in the Ass, says that the only way to stabilize Iraq is with an international peacekeeping force composed of neutral nations and Islamic countries. “Iraq should be able to sort out [its] issues more easily without the military presence of a U.S. occupying force,” he says.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0419-09.htm

Daniel Ellsberg: The Nixon-era Defense Department analyst who released to the New York Times what became known as the Pentagon Papers — a confidential report that detailed over two decades the U.S. involvement in Vietnam — predicted the escalating violence in Iraq “will get far worse.” He also took issue with John Kerry's plan to perhaps increase involvement, saying, “I want him [Kerry] elected, but I'm not happy with what I'm hearing. ''We must persevere. We can't leave.' I hope that is a campaign promise he [Kerry] will go back on.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0420-04.htm

Contact Ira Lacher here.