No. Just no. George McGovern did not run on the economy and was not interested in the economy. He was a proto-neoliberal. McGovern ran on ending the war in Vietnam, a war Nixon was winding down in 1972. Judith Stein has written on this. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
George McGovern was just not interested in banking power. He didn't care. Most liberals didn't care at the time. Bernie is a throwback to populism, not 1970s neoliberal Watergate era stuff.
Here's a bitter fight over conglomerates where McGovern betrayed on behalf of big money.
Here's a bitter fight over conglomerates where McGovern betrayed on behalf of big money.
George McGovern benefitted from the reform commission in 1970 that *threw the white working class out of the Democratic Party.* The entire neoliberal world got their start under the McGovern campaign.
He is not like Bernie, at all.
He is not like Bernie, at all.
"Tom Turner, the black president of the Wayne County (Detroit) AFL-CIO Council, after visiting the headquarters of the McGovern campaign, said, “I didn’t mind a bit that they didn’t know what I was. What bothered me is that even after they found out, they didn’t give a damn.”
Here's McGovern's pollster. “In view of people’s general disaffection with politics and their image of unions, perhaps the best thing the McGovern campaign could have done would have been to cut loose and say that these union people didn’t want us.”
Polling in August 1972:
59 to 35%, Nixon favored on unemployment
61 to 43%, Nixon would pay more attention to the problems of working man
52 to 35%, Nixon more than McGovern would keep big interests from having too much influence over government.
59 to 35%, Nixon favored on unemployment
61 to 43%, Nixon would pay more attention to the problems of working man
52 to 35%, Nixon more than McGovern would keep big interests from having too much influence over government.
