This Ain't 1972

[merrily]

42. Did anyone mention the war, Eagleton, a Democratic Congress and these other things?

Last edited Fri Jun 19, 2015, 06:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Overview :

Let's start with this. By 1972, in addition to serving in Congress, Nixon was a World War II veteran (as was McGovern) with 8 years as Vice President during one of the best economies for most voters that this country has ever known to this day, and 4 years as a war time incumbent President/Commander in Chief.

The Democratic Party was well into losing the "Solid South" because a Democratic President (Truman) had integrated the military via an Executive Order, the next Democratic President (JFK) had used the ICC to integrate interstate travel and the next Democratic President (LBJ) had gotten the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act passed.

A lot of opposition to McGovern came from within his own Party:

The Democratic Party's nomination was eventually won by Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, who ran an anti-war campaign against incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, but was handicapped by his outsider status, limited support from his own party,* the perception of many voters that he was a left-wing extremist and the scandal that resulted from the firing of vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton.

Emphasizing a good economy and his successes in foreign affairs, such as coming near to ending American involvement in the Vietnam War and establishing relations with China, Nixon decisively defeated McGovern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1972

"It's the economy, Stupid."

I don't know why there was such dissent within the Party, but a field of 20 for the Democratic nomination may have had something to do with that.

Those of you who read "left wing extremist and said, "aha," slow your roll. That perception had a lot to do with wedge issues, which the center right perpetuated, and the rest to do with getting out of Vietnam faster than Nixon was managing. Both ran on getting out of Vietnam. I don't think McGovern lost the election because of the timing of the withdrawal, do you?

1. The undefeatable wartime incumbent advantage

The incumbent advantage cannot be dismissed. However, Nixon was not, in 1972 "merely" an incumbent President. He was a wartime incumbent President/Commander in Chief. US voters have never voted a war time incumbent Commander in Chief out of office. NEVER.

2. Voters did not see Nixon as a conservative.

How many posts have you seen at DU claiming that Nixon and Eisenhower were more liberal than today's Democrats? (I disagree almost every time I see one, but I sure have seen a lot.)

In 1968, Nixon had run on knowing how to get the US out of Vietnam with honor or some such. In 1972, he ran on almost having ended the Vietnam War. So, McGovern, an anti-war candidate, was not running so very differently from Nixon.

It's a lot easier for any President to look good to voters with a traditional Democratic Congress, which is what Nixon had had during his first term. Moreover, since FDR and Truman had held the Oval Office for an unprecedented 20 years, mostly due to the New Deal(s) and the Fair Deal.

Republican Presidents and Presidential hopefuls got the message: if you want to be elected and re-elected, be more like FDR, at least during your first term. As a result of those two factors, during the first Nixon administration, a lot of pro-environment, pro-labor, etc. legislation has passed by the Democratic legislature and signed by Nixon, for which the Nixon administration got much of the credit.**

On the foreign policy front, there had been Nixon's landmark trip to "Red" China, widely publicized and widely lauded. At that time, if TV networks were enamored of something, all American homes with TV were saturated with it--no internet, and a very limited number of TV channels other than the three networks. If anything would have been considered far left at that time, it would have been Nixon's trip to "Red" China.

3. Short of Democrats running God himself, Nixon was going to win in 1972, whether his opponent was as right as Mussolini, or as left as Marx or anyone in between; and Democratic politicians knew it.

In 1972, Richard Nixon appeared unbeatable. When McGovern won the Democratic nomination for President, virtually all of the high-profile Democrats, including Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie,[9] and Birch Bayh, turned down offers to run on the ticket. McGovern had been convinced that Kennedy would join the ticket. Kennedy ended up refusing.

McGovern campaign manager Gary Hart suggested Boston Mayor Kevin White. McGovern called White, and received "an emphatic yes", but the leader of the Massachusetts delegation, Ken Galbraith, said the Massachusetts delegation would walk-out if the announcement was made to the Convention that McGovern had chosen White as his vice-presidential candidate, as White had backed Muskie during the Massachusetts primary (yet, Massachusetts ended up being the only state that McGovern would carry in Electoral College votes on November 7, Election Day).

McGovern then asked Senator Gaylord Nelson to be his running mate. Nelson declined but suggested Tom Eagleton, whom McGovern ultimately chose, with only a minimal background check.

id.

In other words, in the minds of Democrats in the know, the 1972 election was baked before McGovern ever started to run! Given that 1985 was not that long after 1972, with DLC founders being party insiders who knew about this very well. Oh, what a patently dishonest web they wove when they claimed McGovern lost because he was too liberal and therefore the Party had to go right to elect Democratic Presidents.

4. Republicans were revving up culture wars, much as they and center right Democrats do today.

Upthread, I posted about WW II veterans in shock, as they watched their children burning draft cards and dropping acid. This morning, I found this.

On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days later, journalist Robert Novak claimed in a column that a Democratic senator whom he did not name said of McGovern: "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid." It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern — especially in the Nebraska primary.

id.

I don't know if McGovern was or was not for any of those things. However, I do know that rumors of those things would suffice, especially abortion Roe v. Wade was not decided until 1973. Indeed, until 1965, a doctor could be prosecuted criminally for advising a married couple about contraception. Griswold v. Connecticut.

However, reproductive choice and legalization of pot were not the issues that center right Democrats abandoned. To the contrary, they emphasized that kind of issue.


5. "The Eagleton debacle"

As indicated above, McGovern's pick for Vice President, the first one that stuck, anyway, was Senator Thomas Eagleton. Shortly after that, it came out:

Between 1960 and 1966, Eagleton checked himself into the hospital three times for physical and nervous exhaustion, receiving electroconvulsive therapy twice.[4] He was also known to have suffered from depression.

The hospitalizations, which were not widely publicized, had little effect on his political aspirations, although the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was to note, in 1972, immediately after his vice presidential nomination: "He had been troubled with gastric disturbances, which led to occasional hospitalizations. The stomach troubles have contributed to rumors that he had a drinking problem."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton

Also

Eagleton made no mention of his earlier hospitalizations, and in fact decided with his wife to keep them secret from McGovern while he was flying to his first meeting with the Presidential nominee.

id.

At that time, no one wanted a man with a background of mental hospitalization and rumors of alcoholism a heartbeat away from the Presidency, especially during war time. While Eagleton eventually left the ticket, this choice, for that time, was comparable to McCain's choosing Palin. People questioned McGovern's competence and judgment.

McGovern later approached six different prominent Democrats to run as his vice-president: Ted Kennedy, Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Abraham Ribicoff, Larry O'Brien and Reubin Askew. All six declined. Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law to John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, former Ambassador to France and former Director of the Peace Corps, later accepted.[28] He was officially nominated by a special session of the Democratic National Committee. By this time, McGovern's poll ratings had plunged from 41 to 24 percent.

No doubt, there were other factors that insiders knew, but never made it into wikipedia. However, the above sampling will suffice for now.


* An example of limited support from his own Party for nominee McGovern was Democrats for Nixon.

Polling cited by Connally indicated that as many as 20 million Democrats would cross over to vote for Nixon and invited "all those millions of Democrats who realize that in this Presidential election President Nixon is simply the better choice."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrats_for_Nixon

You can bet those cross overs were not liberals. That election also had extraordinarly low turnout.

**Major Legislation January 1969-January 1971

December 30, 1969: Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, Pub.L. 91–173
1969: Tax Reform Act of 1969, Pub.L. 91–172
January 1, 1970: National Environmental Policy Act, Pub.L. 91–190
April 3, 1970: Environmental Quality Improvement Act, Pub.L. 91–224
May 21, 1970: Airport and Airway Development Act, Pub.L. 91–258, title I
August 12, 1970: Postal Reorganization Act (United States Postal Service), Pub.L. 91–375
August 15, 1970: Economic Stabilization Act
September 22, 1970: District of Columbia Delegate Act, Pub.L. 91–405
October 15, 1970: Organized Crime Control Act, Pub.L. 91–452 (including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO&quot December 30, 1969: Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, Pub.L. 91–173
1969: Tax Reform Act of 1969, Pub.L. 91–172
January 1, 1970: National Environmental Policy Act, Pub.L. 91–190
April 3, 1970: Environmental Quality Improvement Act, Pub.L. 91–224
May 21, 1970: Airport and Airway Development Act, Pub.L. 91–258, title I
August 12, 1970: Postal Reorganization Act (United States Postal Service), Pub.L. 91–375
August 15, 1970: Economic Stabilization Act
September
1970: Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91–453
October 26, 1970: Bank Secrecy Act, Pub.L. 91–508
October 27, 1970: Controlled Substances Act, Pub.L. 91–513
1970: Rail Passenger Service Act (Amtrak), Pub.L. 91–518
December 24, 1970: Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91–572
December 24, 1970: Plant Variety Protection Act, Pub.L. 91–577
December 29, 1970: Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), Pub.L. 91–596
December 31, 1970: Clean Air Act Extension, Pub.L. 91–604
December 31, 1970: Housing and Urban Development Act of 1970, Pub.L. 91–609, including title VII, National Urban Policy and New Community Development Act of 1970
January 12, 1971: Foreign Military Sales Act of 1971, Pub.L. 91–672
1971: Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act, Pub.L. 91–695

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/92nd_United_States_Congress

Major Legislation January 1971 to October 1972

Passing legislation on revenue-sharing was a key event of the congress. President Richard Nixon had it listed on his list of top policies to cover for the year. Nixon signed the bill into law at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The law gained support from many state and local officials including: San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto whose city received $27 million in revenue-sharing money in the first year. Alito said that many projects that would not have been possible could now be done, "That will effectively enable us to meet those programs which up to now because of very tough budgeting we've had to trench."[

December 18, 1971: Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Pub.L. 92–203, 85 Stat. 688
December 23, 1971: National Cancer Act, Pub.L. 92–218, 85 Stat. 778
February 7, 1972: Federal Election Campaign Act, Pub.L. 92–225, 86 Stat. 3
March 24, 1972: Equal Employment Opportunity Act, Pub.L. 92–261, 86 Stat. 103
June 23, 1972: Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, Pub.L. 92–318, 86 Stat. 235
October 6, 1972: Federal Advisory Committee Act, Pub.L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770
October 18, 1972: Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, Pub.L. 92–500, 86 Stat. 816
October 21, 1972: Marine Mammal Protection Act, Pub.L. 92–522, 86 Stat. 1027
October 27, 1972: Consumer Product Safety Act, Pub.L. 92–573, 86 Stat. 1207
October 27, 1972: Noise Control Act, Pub.L. 92–574, 86 Stat. 1234
October 27, 1972: Coastal Zone Management Act, Pub.L. 92–583, 86 Stat. 1280

Approved Constitutional amendments
See also: List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution

March 23, 1971: Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified July 1, 1971)
March 22, 1972: District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment (unratified; ratification period expired in 1979 or 1982)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/92nd_United_States_Congress