Come Home, America: Liberals need another George McGovern—and perhaps conservatives do too

January 27, 2006 7:56 AM

Come Home, America: Pat Buchanan's magazine, The American Conservative, prints a passionate defense of George McGovern. (via)
posted by pandaharma (8 comments total)

McGovern serving as a mouthpiece for ideas that most Buchananites are uncomfortable stating in public, lest they be (further) ostracised from the councils of Republican power.

They're a nostalgic lot, these Buchananites. And they sometimes seem to have an anachronistic, maladaptive fondness for odd ideas like dialog, balance, and fairness.
posted by lodurr at 8:49 AM on January 27, 2006

Nice piece. Thanks.
posted by bullitt 5 at 8:54 AM on January 27, 2006

eugene mccarthy gets a similar write-up
posted by pyramid termite at 9:08 AM on January 27, 2006

Strange and sad that 34 years ago seems like a completely different era, and that a candidate like McGovern seems so implausible now.
posted by billysumday at 9:28 AM on January 27, 2006

... I don’t like these neoconservatives worth a damn! They have this view that we are so much more powerful than any other country in the world that we need to run the world—none of this business of coexistence. I think that’s just terrible. It’s not conservatism, and it’s not liberalism, either. It’s a new doctrine that I find frightening. If Iraq hadn’t gone sour, there was a whole string of countries they were gonna knock off. That’s not conservatism to me.”

Amen brother.
posted by three blind mice at 10:09 AM on January 27, 2006

This is a great article. Those Buchananites are whacky, sometimes in a good way, too often in a bad one. McGovern comes out like an all around good guy in this article. I especially liked this about his defeat in the 1980 Senate race:

A group called American Family Index rated us. I came out with a zero, Jim Abdnor got a perfect score. Here I am a guy who has been married to the same woman for 37 [now 62] years with five children and ten grandchildren and I’m running against Jim Abdnor, a 58-year-old bachelor who gets a 100 percent rating. I’m not against 58-year-old bachelors, not for one minute, but they’re hardly a symbol of what promotes the American family.

posted by OmieWise at 10:21 AM on January 27, 2006

Strange and sad that 34 years ago seems like a completely different era, and that a candidate like McGovern seems so implausible now.

He was pretty much implausible then, too.

But I definitely agree with the sentiment.
posted by psmealey at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2006

Thanks for posting this; it was quite an interesting read. The political landscape sure has changed dramatically since '72.
posted by caddis at 12:57 PM on January 27, 2006