McGovern touts legacy of liberalism in America

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/07/30/news/local/news05.txt

Conservative politics may be ascendant in America, but the world needs liberal leadership to move ahead, former Sen. George McGovern told a packed lunch crowd in Missoula on Friday.

Missoula World Affairs Council president Mark Johnson introduced McGovern to about 160 people at the City Club, noting that the retired senator and 1972 Democratic nominee for president was still working on anti-hunger campaigns worldwide. snip

"I'm a Democrat and a liberal," McGovern said, adding, "I'm sure I wasn't just revealing a secret. And I'm the worst kind of liberal - a bleeding-heart liberal."

That said, he went on to claim there was no government program now embraced by both political parties that wasn't started on the liberal side of the aisle. He ticked off Medicare, rural electrification, environmental safeguards and civil rights among the accomplishments. He acknowledged that President Eisenhower, a Republican, started the interstate highway system, but noted that all the liberals voted for it.

[Wetzelbill]

1. Hey from MT, alright!

[bribri16]

23. McGovern has been right about everything he stood for so far. n/t

[argyl]

2. This George I'd vote for. Actually, I did. My first vote ever.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. me too

he was a man with ideals.

[Catt03]

6. me too...nt

[Iowa]

15. He was my first vote too. (eom)

[llmart]

21. Mine too......

and now we know we were in the minority but we were right then and we're right now.

[mithnanthy]

22. Me too...

I worked on his campaign in New Jersey. He was my first vote. I was heartbroken after the election, having realized how many stupid people were living among us who could actually vote for Nixon over McGovern. Sounds familiar...

[cosmicdot]

24. mine, too

actually have this campaign button

He quoted William Butler Yeats in his acceptance speech:


~snip~

"My nomination is all the more precious and that it is a gift of the most open political process in all of our political history.

"It is the sweet harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and old alike, funded by literally hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation.

"Those who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign, heart, hand, head and soul, and I have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country.

"It is an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and to a faith that can literally move mountains.

"As Yeats put it, 'Count where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say: My glory was I had such friends.'

"This is the people’s nomination ..."

http://www.4president.org/speeches/mcgovern1972acceptance.htm

:patriot:

[tsuki]

3. How old was Reagan when he was elected?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. Reagan was 70, I believe.

[tsuki]

20. Durn.

[MisterP]

18. sixty-nine: the same age AHNULD will be in 2016

[Vox_Reason]

5. Read McGovern's latest book

I happened to catch his interview on Franken's show, and it was awe-inspiring. His latest book, "The Essential America", is brief but very impactful.

What a great American George McGovern is!

[IndianaGreen]

7. McGovern is a highly decorated war hero

unlike his many critics, most of which are chicken hawks. Nixon spent the war playing poker at a Navy installation stateside.

[tinrobot]

10. Actually, Nixon served in the Soloman Islands

He did administration of some sort. Certainly not a war hero like McGovern, but he was definitely in a combat zone.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-8.htm

Just setting the facts straight.

[prairierose]

8. Sen McGovern....

has a long list of liberal accomplishements.
He is a genuine war hero, and he ran the "Food for Peace" program for Pres Kennedy.

He successfully organized Dems into a winning position in a red state. (for those of you wondering how that is done, read his book "Grassroots").

The first time I voted in a Presidential election, I was proud to cast my vote for him.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Like you, my first vote in a presidential election was for McGovern

McGovern called for America to come home, withdrawing from Vietnam and from other questionable foreign adventures.

The Vietnam War Memorial would be half its size had McGovern been elected in 1972. When the American people vote their fears and intolerance, they invariably end up with losers like Nixon and Bush.

[pacalo]

11. I love this quote...

"I'm not casting doubt on the value of prayer," McGovern said, "although I've never been sure I was getting through. But if God told President Bush to send American troops to Iraq, he sent an entirely different message to the pope (who publicly opposed the war)."

[Cooley Hurd]

12. I worked on the McGovern campaign when I was 7 years old...

...stuffing envelopes, etc.

[catzies]

13. That is VERY cool.

:hi:

[Cooley Hurd]

14. My Mom was a big Dem, and all of her kids were involved in...

...politics (both her and my Dad were FDR Dems - my Dad, despite lacking a HS diploma, ran for and won a local school board commissioner race). Politics was as prevalent and natural in our house as breathing and eating.:thumbsup:

[MisterP]

16. he actually was ahead of Nixon in the earliest polls, as was Dukakis.

And Americans overwhelmingly supported Mondale's liberal positions over Dribbles', but thought "the Gippet," as he once called himself, was more "charming." It's almost like there was a movement to make sure Dems thought we "couldn't" run a real liberal because they supposedly lost on their own faults instead of being cheated...

[GOPBasher]

19. McGovern Rocks!!!

:headbang:

[Writer]

25. Yes, he's a bleeding heart liberal

Which is why he supported Gen. Wesley Clark in the primaries last year.

I recall being at a house party while he spoke in support of the apparently not-so-bleeding heart general.

I have to chuckle at the irony here.