George McGovern

George McGovern died this week at age 90. Barry Goldwater died a few years ago at age 89. I often think of the two together. Both men were westerners. Both were flyers who served in World  War II. Each spent a number of years in the U.S. Senate. Both were serious and important critics of the political establishment and conventional wisdom of their day. Both gave the impression of being fairly decent and interesting human beings with lives and interests apart from power and politics.  In 1964 Goldwater ran a campaign for president based on strong principles and ideals, directly and unapologetically stated, against an unprincipled scoundrel and lost in a landslide. In 1972 McGovern ran  a campaign for president based on strong principles and ideals, directly and unapologetically stated,  against an unprincipled scoundrel and lost in a landslide. Goldwater ran as an unconventional conservative with a number of libertarian overtones who disdained much of his party’s  Eastern establishment. McGovern ran as an unconventional leftist who disdained much of his party’s union and big city political machine establishment. Of course the two men’s  beliefs were quite different and generally opposed to each other.  (I agree with a good number of Goldwater’s ideas and policies and disagree with almost all of McGovern’s except his opposition to the war in Vietnam.) But their two failed campaigns, together with the flagitious administrations of the two men who defeated them,  helped teach many in my generation a healthy skepticism about  government,  the political establishment (including its media arm), and the wisdom of voters that has served them well. That may not be a legacy either would have preferred, but it is not bad. It is a lesson that members of younger generations are having  to learn the hard way courtesy of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.