I Love George McGovern <3

There's no one better suited to give the first reply than you, jk. You're a great friend

A far better place by any objective measure, whether you like his policies or not. The butterfly effect that would occur just from removing the Watergate Scandal alone is enough to make your head spin. That one event more than any other disillusioned countless Americans. It's what killed that sincere belief that government, however imperfect, works and the sense of dignity towards elected magistrates for most Americans. It kicked off the modern attitude of apathy, cynicism and contempt most people today have towards government, politicians and anyone who gets sincerely invested in the process.

In fact, we Americans ended up with the worst, unluckiest timeline possible the way things turned out. See...both McGovern AND Nixon believed in universal healthcare as well as a guaranteed minimum income. That's the thing most people today don't understand--Nixon himself was going to champion the idea of universal healthcare in his second term. Unfortunately, the Watergate fallout sapped his political capital, and once Gerald Ford was sworn in he was a lame duck with little capital of his own. If that were not enough, Ford's pardoning of Nixon was an unpopular decision that sapped away any goodwill from voters or other politicians he may have started out with. And from then on, neither Carter nor Reagan nor Bush I seriously tackled the idea of reforming our inhumane healthcare system. Clinton tried but it was struck down (largely due to blowback of Hillary being involved in the process--this was seen as nepotism...and to be honest, a good deal of the blowback was sexism as well.) During the 90s when Clinton was championing universal healthcare, the Republicans put forth an alternative plan. It's this alternate plan which Obama spearheaded into law during his first term...which Republicans now campaign against largely due to spite and political brinkmanship. 

The way things worked out was objectively terrible for the country. If McGovern had won, or at least not picked Eagleton and lost by such a humiliating margin, then his brand of politics would not have become a toxic nonstarter to subsequent politicians. (His loss was unfairly considered a repudiation of liberalism at the time, causing both parties to pivot to the right, which has been the case to this day.) Even if Nixon had not been such a paranoid creep, that realignment might still have happened but at least we would have gotten universal healthcare first, and once established it would have been too popular for Ronald Reagan and the new breed of neoliberal politicians he inspired to take away. 

As was mine. 

George McGovern makes you wistful. 

I admire and root for the underdogs too but I reserve strong feeling for those who succeeded.
IS there a iluleniloud as oggsford man(Jay Gatz)and Mcgovern as the green light on Tom Buchanan's dock-thing

What a sweet thing to say. Hal, you da man!

I wanted to respond. Too drunk. 


I know you good folk dont care for deletions. But I'm spent. 

Thank you!

I apprecciate the appreciations. Just about anything positive happening within hours of taking to bed usually helps to add that slightly less noxious touch of an uncharasteristically surface-deep, stock character of many years -in good*bad=tenured???standing

-taking a princinpled stand consisting of wholly unselfish gestures of goodwill to make palatable the unvarnished nightmare.