Bernie Sanders Is George McGovern

[Sloumeau]

From The Atlantic

[link:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/bernie-sanders-george-mcgovern/606883/|

...
To start, let’s play a game of “Name That Year.” Here are four clues.

A profoundly unethical Republican sits in the White House during a fairly strong economy.
In the Democratic primary, the early front-runner and establishment favorite is a veteran East Coast senator.
But after months of leading in the polls, he falters in the early primaries, soon after the GOP president and his cronies concoct a scheme to undermine him —part of a dirty-tricks campaign that ultimately figures in an impeachment inquiry.
Rising at the perfect moment to steal his momentum is a left-wing senator from a small, lily-white state. This senator advocates for single-payer health care and calls for the redistribution of wealth to the middle and lower classes. Over time, he consolidates the left-wing vote and bypasses an apoplectic Democratic elite with a grassroots campaign that—somewhat ironically, given his age— depends on the enthusiasm of young voters.

This is clearly a fitting description of the 2020 political landscape. Clues one through four refer, respectively, to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, the Ukraine scandal involving Burisma and Hunter Biden, and the thriving campaign of Bernie Sanders.

Every word of this description applies just as equally to 1972. Nixon was the incumbent. For much of the Democratic primary, his most likely challenger seemed to be Edmund Muskie, the long-serving senator from Maine, who had been nominated for vice president four years earlier. In February 1972, operatives for the Nixon campaign placed a forged letter in the Manchester Union-Leader newspaper, claiming that Muskie was prejudiced against French Americans. (The forgery is now known as the “Canuck letter.”) Muskie’s downfall provided an opening for McGovern. The left-wing senator drew enthusiastic support from newly enfranchised teenagers and won the Democratic nomination—before getting trounced by Nixon in November.

The similarities between McGovern and Sanders go far beyond the plot points that connect the stories of their ascendance. In matters of policy, rhetoric, and demographics, there is little doubt that McGovernism animates the Sanders campaign.

Many of Sanders’s policy priorities were central to McGovern’s platform 48 years ago, starting with health care. “McGovern called health care a human right and backed a free-at-the-point-of-service single-payer health-care plan,” says Joshua Mound, a historian at the University of Virginia who has written about the similarities between Sanders and McGovern. “He also proposed increased Social Security benefits, boosting union rights, steep hikes in taxes on the rich, and a universal basic income,” which he ultimately reworked into a jobs-guarantee proposal. Sanders’s policy platform includes all of those measures, right down to the federal jobs guarantee. It’s also worth pointing out that while McGovern’s pacifism (which was core to his rise to prominence on the left) finds its clear echo in Sanders, the Vietnam War made his foreign policy position more salient in 1972.
...

Read the whole article if you can.

[Stuart G]

1. So, I am not the only one who thinks this. Someone else thinks the same thing..K and R

[saidsimplesimon]

2. Sanders is no McGovern, (big grin here)

Yes, I was, if anything, more idealistic back in the day.

[Wellstone ruled]

24. Have to so agree.

Sanders has been peddling the same line for forty years,never bothering to update a single phrase. McGovern was a Idealist but he knew you had to be a Realist as well.

[yaesu]

3. now that's a petty funny satirical article, did the Atlantic take over the Onion?

[wyldwolf]

4. His campaign also resembles that of Ted Kennedy's in 1980

Especially the Bernie Bro part.

[DBoon]

7. Ted didn't win that one

but did help damage Carter's reelection prospects

[comradebillyboy]

52. Indeed people try to overlook Teddy's 1980 sabotage of

Jimmy Carter. It's one of many reasons I never cared for him.

[brush]

55. Sanders wanted Obama primaried in 2012. Guess he didn't want to do it himself though...

as Kennedy did.

[Zolorp]

5. I have resigned myself to Sander being nominated and the a devastating defeat for Democrats nationwi

I am preparing for the inevitable dystopian future.

[Woodycall]

37. Yeah, the national polls are all fake news...

[Cha]

48. It's not over yet.

[Fran2020]

6. Not McGovern, Bernie is FDR! Freedom from want! Freedom from fear!

[Zolorp]

9. Thank you

I needed a good deep belly laugh this morning.

[NBachers]

31. I echo your sentiments - That was laugh-out-loud ridiculous. This is the point where I get up and

step away from the computer and go off to make something of the day.

[Stuart G]

10. Bernie is not..FDR. Bernie is different, and times are different.

[Fran2020]

12. Times are different from McGovern too. Bernie represents FDR values.

[brush]

56. Enjoy your stay.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Oh, please.

Magic Bernie is going to give everybody free college and free health care and unicorns and rainbows with a single stroke of his magic jabbing finger!

Right.

[lapfog_1]

14. oh FFS... Bernie scares the shit out of me.

Freedom from fear?

[Fran2020]

17. Freedom from fear is one of FDR's Four Freedoms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms

[lapfog_1]

18. What... you think I didn't know that?

Bernie is not FDR.

We are not in a depression.

[wyldwolf]

16. LOL

[andym]

28. FDR would have been trounced in 1924 or 1928 if he had run for President

and as VP candidate he was trounced in 1920. It was only in the most dire of circumstances that he was elected in 1932-- an election during which he declined to state specifics on what he would do to bring America's economy back.

[Sloumeau]

47. This is correct.

If, before the 1932 election, FDR had told everyone in detail exactly what he would do in his upcoming four terms, the rich would have done anything to keep him out of office, and they probably would have succeeded. As it was, a worker tried to kill him shortly after he was elected. [link:https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-escapes-assassination-in-miami|]

In addition, there was also a coup attempt against FDR where bankers tried to install a fascist dictator instead.

https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/fdr-coup

I don't think a Bernie nomination will be smooth sailing at all.

[ehrnst]

35. Bernie is no FDR...

FDR:

Experienced federal bureaucrat
Beltway insider
Ivy league education
From a political dynasty
Charisma
People skills
Buoyant personality

[Woodycall]

39. All of this concern...

over Bernie Bros walking away if he is not the nominee is horse shit as far as I'm concerned. What keeps me up at night is the Biden Boomers pulling that very stunt. They have had everything their fucking way since rock n' roll and the hula hoop and they want their boomer president now. I know because I am one.

[empedocles]

8. McGovern was a very decent, idealistic, clean guy. Supporters were more

. . .

[yardwork]

15. Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing.

[anamnua]

46. Amen

If only Watergate had happened 6 months earlier.

[nobuddy]

11. It's exactly the same

1972 United States presidential election

Real Clear Politics: Sanders vs Trump

[NeoGreen]

19. This...

...bombastic claims that Sanders = McGovern should be corrected with empirical data.

[nobuddy]

21. But gut feelings outweigh evidence

open your eyes!!

[progressoid]

49. Wow, that's quite a difference.

[Fiendish Thingy]

20. One massive difference: Nixon had 68% approval rating

Other notable differences include the shift the American electorate on various issues.

This is a fear mongering article; anyone who thinks Trump will win 48 states is delusional. If Trump wins again, it will be by a narrow margin in a handful of states, and he will likely lose the popular vote again.

[Moderateguy]

22. And here we have 30% of people that will vote for Trump

Even if he shoots a beloved member of their family in the middle of 5th Avenue

[TwilightZone]

27. Nixon's approval rating was not 68% during the campaign.

It ranged from 50% to around 60% for most of 1972, prior to the election. It rose to 67% *after* inauguration. He was at 52% at this time in 1972.

https://historyinpieces.com/research/nixon-approval-ratings

[Tom Rinaldo]

23. 48 year old comparisons Fail.

The average age of an American is just over 38 years old. A clear majority of Americans were not even alive 48 years ago, in 1972. The end of World War II was just 27 years in the past, looking back from 1972. Turn back the clock 48 years from 1972 and Calvin Coolidge was our President, during the Raring 20's.

Television's first prime time network color series was The Marriage, a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC in the summer of 1954. So McGovern ran for President 18 years after the first prime time TV color broadcast: But it was not until the mid-1960s that color sets started selling in large numbers, due in part to the color transition of 1965 in which it was announced that over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color that autumn. So Black and White TV still predominated 7 years prior to the 1972 election. And people insist on using a 48 year old election campaign with hundreds of shifting variables to tell us what will happen in 2020?

[ibegurpard]

33. The Boomers continue to think the world revolves around them

[Politicub]

25. When democrats run from the idea that healthcare is a human right

it makes me angry. This message needs to be central to our platform. There are different ways to get there - using the ACA as a platform on which to build will get us there. But no democrat should be saying that only the privileged are deserving of the best care.

Perhaps McGovern was before his time or was a bad candidate on the stump. I was two years from being born when he ran.

[emmaverybo]

26. None of our candidates are saying that. Do understand, however, that as in Europe, privileged

will mean superior care paid out of pocket. Complex cases which need better grade specialists, more appointment time, and testing are not as well served within “the system” and thus the haves
do get better quality.

As well, many have private insurance which helps with longer wait times on procedures or surgeries, to see specialists, top specialists etc.

We need not to rush into a botched up system no better than cobbling together what we have now., possibly worse for some.

[uponit7771]

29. K&R, ✨✨✨✨Sanders has no consistent swing state appeal !!!!✨✨✨✨

[Raftergirl]

30. I was alive and active during that election - though just two years two young to be able to vote.

Obviously didn’t turn out how I expected.

Still waiting for the “youth” vote to get off their arses and vote.

Had a Bernie voter tell me the other the young don’t vote because our elections are on a Tuesday and they have better things to do.

[SoFlaDem]

38. Like go to work

or lose their jobs? Broad brush much?

[Raftergirl]

42. Well if the youth want Bernie to win

which I am told they do - how do they expect that to happen if they can’t be bothered to vote because it’s inconvenient for them?

[SoFlaDem]

43. So all the millennials aren't going to vote because it's inconvenient?

Never mind the offensive stereotype, at least that means you won't have to worry about Bernie getting enough votes to win the nomination (they aren't voting, after all).

[AtheistCrusader]

32. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

Bernie's not even my candidate and this... wow this... I just hurt my eyes rolling them.

[SunSeeker]

34. He's Jeremy Corbyn. nt

[Gothmog]

36. sanders would do worse than McGovern

sanders would turn out trump's base

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[rzemanfl]

40. Bookmarking. n/t

[paleotn]

41. Are we in 1972 again?

I remember 1972. Could have sworn we'd moved on from then. Society evolved. I grew up. Got educated. Married. Worked for years and years and the whole world changed completely. Or are you now going to take us back to 1956 or 1952 and start calling him Adlai Stevenson? Now that one I don't remember since I wasn't even alive yet. But I do know the orange shithead isn't Tricky Dick and sure as shit ain't Ike, and the American electorate is very different from the days of the Vietnam war, dixiecrats and George Wallace having an electoral prayer, so the whole premise falls apart around the writer's ears. Please.....

[Sherman A1]

44. Pardon me for a moment

[anamnua]

45. Glad you made this point.

I’ve always feared that Sanders/Trump would end up like McGovern/Nixon.
And McGovern was a paid up democrat.

[Gothmog]

50. James Clyburn think that sanders is indeed McGovern

Link to tweet

[kimbutgar]

51. Yes, my older sister is a liberal but she thinks Bernie is a communist and is scared of

4 more years of mf45. She can’t stand him and thinks he is just as bad as mf45.

[dumptrump1]

53. then Joe biden is Walter Mondale

Former VP after 4 years, moderate, running against a washed out television star. Expect to win nothing more than Delaware if we are lucky.

[HarlanPepper]

54. Really you think he'd lose 49 states?

Hard to take someone seriously with that POV. Easy to laugh at though.

[dumptrump1]

57. its just as realistic as bernie losing that many. And joe has a lot more

In common with Mondale than bernie does with McGovern. We need a billionaire to do the real damage, though