corrente

In honor of the Fourth, our nation's birthday:

First, let us define our terms.

What is the Bull Shop? Why, our present political discourse of course, and the lack of the genuine article. Think of the Bull Shop as a travelling road show: Its outlets can be found through-out the SCLM: The Bull Shop has been franchised by Rightwing talk radio, and made into a home office of sorts for the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and the religious right.

In addition, the shopping of bull is now almost synonymous with politics.

It shouldn't be.

That view, that politics is inherently corrupt, that the single identifying characteristic of a democracy is elections, and that elections are primarily a matter of perceptions, slogans, and being on message, and that candidates and their campaigns are rightly judged on their skills at presenting a simple, understandable argument, however lacking in facts, truth, or even logic, are among the outstanding products of the Bull Shop.

Politics ought to be understood as the way a democracy works, as the means by which the government governs with the consent of the governed.

What is The China? Why our beloved democratic republic, of course. And all that those words entail - the land itself, its history and ours, the people who were here and the people who came here, and have continued to come, that ever enriching flow of immigrants from everywhere, our founding documents, our arts and letters, that epic story, tragic and inspiring, by which we understand ourselves to be Americans.

The china are the common denominator that one would have thought unite all Americans. Not so, say the rightwing. I won't bore you with even a thumbnail account of the charges laid against us.

In response, there has been much lively discussion of how the left might better craft its messages. I think these discussions are useful; I think George Lakoff has something to contribute; I think thinking about memes and framing is okay.

What I'm more skeptical of is the notion that we have to find some liberal equivalent of rightwing rhetoric. Bull is the enemy of democracy. We don't need to refine our own version of it. Not with all that wonderful china that is only waiting to be taken out, dusted off, and made new again.

Recently, Farmer reminded us, by way of Lauren Bacall, that liberals can lay claim to their fair share of American icons.

Inspired by that post, Corrente is undertaking an on-going series which will attempt to browse among that endless variety of American china to find and mine those liberal elements that we feel speak to all Americans, (actually, most, or the majority will do). This project will also involve correcting, when necessary, some of that rampant rightwing historical revisionism that has so distorted the American story.

What better day than the Fourth of July to present for your re-evaluation, George McGovern. No, not the George McGovern of today, that charming, eighty-year old, still vital ex-Senator whom everybody now likes.

Imagine it's 1972; I know, many of you weren't born then, but neither were you around for most of American history. George McGovern, a soft-spoken Senator from a small western state, (or is South Dakota, mid-western?), challenges the entire Democratic power structure, insisting that a presidential candidate should be chosen by the people, not by party operatives and office holders. Not only does he win, he changes the nominating process permanently.

Candidate McGovern then proceeds to rack up one of the more complete defeats in American presidential history. He only wins two states, Nixon, 48, including, significantly, all of the South.

Three years later, when Richard Nixon was exposed in the various scandals gathered under the Watergate label as the corrupt, criminal, Tricky Dick he was in 1972, there was almost no discussion of McGovern having been vindicated, and almost no re-evaluation of the way Nixon won - branding McGovern as unAmerican, as lacking in patriotism, as not tough enough to guide the ship of state, as anti-main street America and anti-military, despite McGovern's history as a war hero who piloted 35 missions over Germany in WW2, an accomplishment, along with his Distinguished Flying Cross, which McGovern refused to mention during his campaign. Nixon, and his henchman, Spiro Agnew waged one of the dirtier campaigns in presidential annals, with the complete support of mainstream media.

Since then, McGovern has continued to be judged almost solely by his loss to Nixon, and the McGovern campaign has become the benchmark from which can be measured the slow decline of the Democratic party as a vital political force, able to articulate and speak to the aspirations of mainstream Americans, and that crucial moment when the Scoop Jackson Democrats were defeated by a coalition of flower power students and peacenik academics. McGovern, we're often told, made the Democratic party into a dovish, extreme, out-of-touch, losing party. Even his democratizing of the nomination process has continued to be seen as a negative achievement; nothing more dangerous than too much democracy.

Here's Howard Fineman playing historian in a column occasioned by the Rathergate memo scandal:

The crusades of Vietnam and Watergate seemed like a good idea at the time, even a noble one, not only to the press but perhaps to a majority of Americans. The problem was that, once the AMMP declared its existence by taking sides, there was no going back. A party was born.

It was not an accident that the birth coincided with an identity crisis in the Democratic Party. The ideological energy of the New Deal had faded; Vietnam and various social revolutions of the '60s were tearing it apart. Into the vacuum came the AMMP, which became the new forum for choosing Democratic candidates. A "reform" movement opened up the nominating process, taking it out of the smoke-filled backrooms and onto television and into the newsrooms. The key to winning the nomination and, occasionally, the presidency, became expertise at riding the media wave. McGovern did it, Gary Hart almost did (until he fell off his surfboard); Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton rode it all the way.

"AMMP" stands for American Mainstream Media Party, Fineman's invented concept for what he takes to have been some sort of alliance between the Democratic Party of McGovern and the press.

Think for a moment; is it conceivable that McGovern could have lost forty-eight states if he'd had a mainstream national press trying to get him elected? Nor did McGovern win the nomination because he'd wowed the media with his slick operation. Fineman's entire column is, well, bullshit, not to put too fine a point on it.


So just how extreme were the ideas of George McGovern in 1972?

How out of touch? How dovish? How bluestate?

Here's your oppotunity to judge for yourself, as we proudly present McGovern's 1972 acceptance speech, delivered at the Democratic convention in Miami, unfortunately, around three o'clock in the morning. Almost no one saw it, or paid attention to it. The delay was caused by complications in choosing a vice-presidential running mate, and that disorganization was indicative of problems to come.

I remember hearing that speech and thinking to myself, my God, if people will just listen to him, this man could win. The speech was as simple, eloquent, straightforward and sensible as any presidential speech you've ever heard.

I've been looking for a copy of it for about a year. Re-reading it, I remain as impressed, and it occurred to me that an awful lot of younger liberals have never read it and might be astonished to see how un-extreme were McGovern's ideas. (I'm unable to give you a URL, because when I found it I copied it to my hard drive, and the url disappeared.) What follows is a slightly edited (to take out salutations, etc) version. We'd love to hear your reactions to reading it.

Miami Beach, Florida

July 14, 1972

Chairman O'Brien, Chairwoman Burke, Senator Kennedy, Senator Eagleton and my fellow citizens, I a’m happy to join us for this benediction of our Friday sunrise service.

I assume that everyone here is impressed with my control of this Convention in that my choice for Vice President was challenged by only 39 other nominees

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So tonight I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart.

This afternoon I crossed the wide Missouri to recommend a running mate of wide vision and deep compassion, Senator Tom Eagleton.

I'm proud to have him at my side, and I’m proud to have been introduced a moment ago by one of the most eloquent and courageous voices in this land Senator Ted Kennedy.

My nomination is all the more precious in 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 and next January we will restore the government to the people of this country.

I believe that American politics will never be quite the same again.

We are entering a new period of important and hopeful change in America, a period comparable to those eras that unleashed such remarkable ferment in the period of Jefferson and Jackson and Roosevelt.

Let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged few and let us find one million ordinary Americans who will contribute $25 each to this campaign, a Million Member Club with members who will not expect special favors for themselves but a better land for us all.

In the literature and music of our children we are told, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. And for America, the time has come at last.

This is the time for truth, not falsehood. In a Democratic nation, no one likes to say that his inspiration came from secret arrangements by closed doors, but in the sense that is how my candidacy began. I am here as your candidate tonight in large part because during four administrations of both parties, a terrible war has been chartered behind closed doors.

I want those doors opened and I want that war closed. And I make these pledges above all others: the doors of government will be opened, and that war will be closed.

Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics, and if we nurture the habit of truth in this campaign, we will continue to be truthful once we are in the White House.

Let us say to Americans, as Woodrow Wilson said in his first campaign of 1912, "Let me inside the government and I will tell you what is going on there."

Wilson believed, and I believe, that the destiny of America is always safer in the hands of the people then in the conference rooms of any elite.

So let us give your country the chance to elect a Government that will seek and speak the truth, for this is the time for the truth in the life of this country.

And this is also a time, not for death, but for life. In 1968 many Americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from Vietnam in peace, and since then 20,000 of our sons have come home in coffins.

I have no secret plan for peace. I have a public plan. And as one whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of Vietnam, I will halt a senseless bombing of Indochina on Inaugural Day.

There will be no more Asian children running ablaze from bombed-out schools. There will be no more talk of bombing the dikes or the cities of the North.

And within 90 days of my inauguration, every American soldier and every American prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and then home in America where they belong.

And then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad.

This is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. America must be restored to a proper role in the world. But we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves.

I treasure this nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the ablest men and women our party has to offer.

-- my old and treasured friend and neighbor, Hubert Humphrey;

-- a gracious and a good man from the state of Maine, Ed Muskie;

-- a tough fighter for his own convictions, Scoop Jackson of Washington;

-- and a brave and spirited woman, Shirley Chisholm;


-- a wise and effective lawmaker from Arkansas, Wilbur Mills;

-- And the man from North Carolina who over the years has opened new vistas in education and public excellence, Terry Sanford;

-- the leader who in 1968 combined both the travail and the hope of the American spirit, Senator Eugene McCarthy;

-- And I was as moved as well by the appearance in the Convention Hall of the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace. His votes in the primaries showed clearly the depth of discontent in this country, and his courage in the face of pain and adversity is the mark of a man of boundless will, despite the senseless act that disrupted his campaign. And, Governor, we pray for your full recovery so you can stnd up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion.

Now, in the months ahead I deeply covet the help of every Democrat, of every Republican, of every Independent who wants this country to be a great and good land that it can be.

This is going to be a national campaign, carried to every part of the nation -- North, South, East and West. We’re not conceding a single state to Richard Nixon.

I should like to say to my friend, Frank King, that Ohio may have passed a few times in this convention, but Tom Eagleton and I are not going to pass Ohio.

I shall say to Governor Gilligan, Ohio is sometimes a little slow in counting the votes, but when those votes are counted next November, Ohio will be in the Democratic victory column.

Now, to anyone in this hall or beyond who doubts the ability of Democrats to join together in common cause, I say never underestimate the power of Richard Nixon to bring harmony to Democratic ranks. He is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge made ten years ago -- that next year you won't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore.

We have had our fury and our frustrations in these past months and at this Convention, but frankly, I welcome the contrast with the smug and dull and empty event which will doubtless take place here in Miami next month.

We chose this struggle, we reformed our Party, and we let the people in. So we stand today not as a collection of backroom strategies, not as a tool of ITT or any other special interest. So let our opponents stand on the status quo while we seek to refresh the American spirit.

I believe that the greatest contribution America can now make to our fellow mortals is to heal our own great but very deeply troubled land. We must respond -- we must respond to that ancient command: "Physician, heal thyself."

Now, it is necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile forces that we’ll be militarily strong. America must never become a second-rate nation. As one who has tasted the bitter fruits of our weakness before Pearl Harbor in 1941, I give you my pledge that if I become the President of the United States, America will keep its defenses alert and fully sufficient to meet any danger.

We will do that not only for ourselves, but for those who deserve and need the shield of our strength -- our old allies in Europe and elsewhere, including the people of Israel who will always have our help to hold their Promised Land.

Yet I believe that every man and woman in this Convention Hall knows that for 30 years we have been so absorbed with fear and danger from abroad that we have permitted our own house to fall into disarray.

We must now show that peace and prosperity can exist side by side. Indeed, each now depends on the existence of the other. National strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad.

National security includes schools for our children as well as silos for our missiles.

It includes the health of our families as much as the size of our bombs, the safety of our streets, and the condition of our cities, and not just the engines of war.

If we some day choke on the pollution of our own air, there will be little consolation in leaving behind a dying continent ringed with steel.

So while protecting ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home. And this is the time for that task.

We must also make this a time of justice and jobs for all our people. For more than three and half years we have tolerated stagnation and a rising level of joblessness, with more than five million of our best workers unemployed at this very moment. Surely, this is the most false and wasteful economics of all.

Our deep need is not for idleness but for new housing and hospitals, for facilities to combat pollution and take us home from work, for better products able to compete on vigorous world markets.

The highest single domestic priority of the next administration will be to ensure that every American able to work has a job to.

That job guarantee will and must depend on a reinvigorated private economy, freed at last from the uncertainties and burdens of war, but it is our firm commitment that whatever employment the private sector does not provide, the Federal government will either stimulate or provide itself.

Whatever it takes, this country is going back to work. America cannot exist with most of our people working and paying taxes to support too many others mired in a demeaning and hopeless welfare mess.

Therefore, we intend to begin by putting millions back to work and after that is done, we will assure to those unable to work an income fully adequate to a decent life.

Now beyond this, a program to put America back to work demands that work be properly rewarded. That means the end of a system of economic controls in which labor is depressed, but prices and corporate profit run sky-high.

It means a system of national health insurance so that a worker can afford decent health care for himself and his family.

It means real enforcement of the laws so that the drug racketeers are put behind bars and our streets are once again safe for our families.

And above all, above all, honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system.

The tax system today does not reward hard work: it’s penalizes it. Inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all. But wages on the assembly line or in farming the land, these hard – earned dollars are taxed to the very last penny.

There is a depletion allowance for oil wells, but no depletion for the farmer who feeds us, or the worker who serves as all.

The administration tells us that we should not discuss tax reform and the election year. They would prefer to keep all discussion of the tax laws in closed rooms where the administration, its powerful friends, and their paid lobbyists, can turn every effort at reform into a new loophole for the rich and powerful.

But an election year is the people’s year to speak, and this year, the people are going to ensure that the tax system is changed so that work is rewarded and so that those who derive the highest benefits will pay their fair share rather than slipping through the loopholes at the expense of the rest of us.

So let us stand for justice and jobs and against special privilege.

And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, "America -- love it or leave it. " We reply, "Let us change it so we may love it the more."

And this is the time. It is the time for this land to become again a witness to the world for what is just and noble in human affairs. It is time to live more with faith and less with fear, with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we are truly brothers and sisters.

So join with me in this campaign. Lend Senator Eagleton and me your strength and your support, and together we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.

From secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America

From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America.

From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex; from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of the neglected sick -- come home, America.

Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.

Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world, and let us be joyful in that homecoming, for this "is your land, this land is my land -- from California to New York island, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters -- this land was made for you and me."

So let us close on this note: May God grant each one of us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home.

And now is the time to meet that challenge.

Good night, and Godspeed to you all.