Gary Hart: I knew George McGovern. Bernie Sanders is no George McGovern

[ehrnst]

McGovern’s personal and political biography made him a far different candidate from Sanders. As much as he is viewed by the conventional wisdom as one of the most liberal nominees ever to have been selected as the Democratic standard-bearer, McGovern, in his time, was far less liberal, in terms of expansion of government, than Sanders is now.

Both ran against the Democratic establishment, yet the comparisons between the two men are more facile than fitting. McGovern was much too complicated to be boxed into a “far-left liberal” category. It might be convenient journalistically, but it is not accurate.

McGovern won two House races and three statewide Senate races in the conservative state of South Dakota, not liberal Vermont. He was a decorated World War II bomber pilot who flew 35 combat missions, often landing with his B-24 bomber badly shredded by antiaircraft fire.

In the 1972 campaign, McGovern offered nothing like a Green New Deal, major overhaul of national health insurance, or any one of a number of sweeping increases in the size and reach of the national government. He did advocate something called a “demogrant,” anticipating Andrew Yang by half a century by proposing an annual grant of $1,000 to all American families, back when that was real money.
.............................................

If he wins the nomination, Sanders could lose as badly as McGovern did. But if he does, it will be for reasons that are much more complicated than that he is too liberal. History shows that massive increases in the size and power of government occur most readily when our economy is in deep trouble.

Sanders is trying to create his own New Deal at a moment when the economy, at least on its surface, seems to boom. But he is arguing for big government at a time when disaffected Republicans and independents want saner leadership to keep the perceived economic growth continuing, not revolutionary change.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gary-hart-i-knew-george-mcgovern-bernie-sanders-is-no-george-mcgovern/2020/02/28/06aa177e-59b0-11ea-ab68-101ecfec2532_story.html

[Sloumeau]

1. Is Gary Hart arguing that

Bernie Sanders isn't fit to shine George McGovern's shoes?

[msongs]

2. mcgovern was not an authoriatrian loner with an ineffective 50 yr political career nt

[ehrnst]

5. +1000. He had people skills, and a record of achievement. (nt)

[AncientGeezer]

4. That's the vibe I'm getting

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Hart's last point is big...

Widespread economic reform is a tough sell if the economy isn't in crisis. The fact is, 10% of Americans state the economy is the most important problem currently. Compare that to 2012 when it was 70% and 86% in 2008.

Right now, 62% of Americans rate the economy as either good or excellent.

Those are not numbers that will get people on board with wide sweeping economic reform. Americans might say they want the rich to pay more in taxes, or they want more income equality and better wages...but how many Americans are putting that as their number one issue? It's likely not a majority of voters and that's a problem. Hart is right, you're going to beat Trump by offering saner leadership. Not massive growth of government in a time where a strong total of Americans aren't truly dissatisfied with the economic conditions.

[ehrnst]

6. I know that people, having read this, will insist that there is

as big a crisis RIGHT NOT as there was during the Great Depression, if you just OPEN YOUR EYES, and then go into a long, emotional monologue about the immorality of any healthcare proposal but M4A, and the greed of the wealthy, and how oligharchs run the country, and how if one doesn't agree with them about the urgency of all of those things, that one may as well just be an oligharch, because "you got yours so you just think, screw everyone else," and it makes any actual discussion about how the economy actually appears to voters will be impossible.

That worries me, because the attitude that refusing to support anything but "perfect like I was promised" instead of getting behind something that actually exists and helping people now, is counterproductive, and people are dying.

We need fewer rants at "the establishment Democrats" and more genuine support of the possible.

[Demsrule86]

7. Different reasons but same ending...a gigantic loss.