2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: George McGovern strongly called for the redistribution of income -- and lost 49 states to 1. [View all]The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,576 posts)That election was about the war far more than anything else at all; I don't even remember McGovern's position on taxes (it was the first presidential election I was old enough to vote in). The only issue that mattered to the vast majority of McGovern's supporters was the war. Nixon wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity, but he was the incumbent president and most Americans still agreed pretty much with his position on the war. The people who opposed the war were still reviled by "mainstream" Americans as dirty hippies, drug users and draft dodgers.
To make matters worse, McGovern's campaign was kind of a mess organizationally, and he badly bungled his handling of the choice of Eagleton as his running mate - first said he'd support him 100%, then backtracked and picked Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy family retread after offering the spot to several others who didn't want it.
You can't compare that election to this one - everything is vastly different.