Slog Comments
Sunday Morning News
2
Ex-politician kicks the bucket? I would expect that McGovern's passing would get a better lead-in than that. Chelsea, you are indeed very young.
Maybe Goldy or Eli will put a post with more reverence to a progressive Democrat of that anxious time who had great moral clarity.
Maybe Goldy or Eli will put a post with more reverence to a progressive Democrat of that anxious time who had great moral clarity.
3
What Pheobe said. George McGovern an 'ex-politician?' Not to pile it on, Chelsea, but if you're going into journalism you're going to have to have SOME knowledge of 20th century history. It wasn't that long ago.
7
Ditto on George McGovern. Learn your American political history and have a some respect for those who came before and paved the way.
8
Okay, it's this officer's SIXTEENTH internal investigation? I can't think of any other job where you'd get sixteen documented, investigated fuckups and not be fired.
10
Maybe it has been too long since I've scrutinized a Benjamin myself but the bill in that picture looks like a legit facsimile of a real bill.
But I can't really tell from the shitty picture.
Why do you say they don't look real?
But I can't really tell from the shitty picture.
Why do you say they don't look real?
12
Four tons of ivory? If anyone needs any further proof that China does not give a shit about the environment, this is it.
George McGovern led a highly principled bid for the White House exactly 40 years ago. He's one of the better politicians in US history and deserves more respect than this.
I'm of two minds on the Israel thing. On the one hand, they are an apartheid state and the Palestinians are getting a royal screw job that the West is turning their backs on. On the other hand, Israel is the only state in the Middle East that treats women and GLBT people with any respect at all. Its also a liberal democracy where dissenters can run for election. The Palestinian government is increasingly theocratic and hard-line. Both sides spout genocidal rhetoric. I want to side with the good guys and oppose the bad guys. Only, I can't tell which is which.
As for the counterfeit money, the video clip you linked to opens with a store clerk calling the people passing the fakes as "idiots". But if you've just been outsmarted by an idiot, what exactly are you saying about your own intellectual capacity?
George McGovern led a highly principled bid for the White House exactly 40 years ago. He's one of the better politicians in US history and deserves more respect than this.
I'm of two minds on the Israel thing. On the one hand, they are an apartheid state and the Palestinians are getting a royal screw job that the West is turning their backs on. On the other hand, Israel is the only state in the Middle East that treats women and GLBT people with any respect at all. Its also a liberal democracy where dissenters can run for election. The Palestinian government is increasingly theocratic and hard-line. Both sides spout genocidal rhetoric. I want to side with the good guys and oppose the bad guys. Only, I can't tell which is which.
As for the counterfeit money, the video clip you linked to opens with a store clerk calling the people passing the fakes as "idiots". But if you've just been outsmarted by an idiot, what exactly are you saying about your own intellectual capacity?
13
"Ex Politician Kicks the Bucket"
I realize you're an immature, unpaid intern who probably never heard of Vietnam, nevermind George McGovern, but that is a supremely disrespectful and classless line.
I realize you're an immature, unpaid intern who probably never heard of Vietnam, nevermind George McGovern, but that is a supremely disrespectful and classless line.
14
Fuck. Scott Johnson had a fucking heart attack. Man, he was gonna be a great judge for us here. Kickass lawyer (there aren't many), hilarious, gorgeous family, the best hair. Such a mensch. RIP ScoJo.
15
"kicks the bucket'? our Chelsea needs an education.
McGovern cared about his country and served in many capacities. Can we show some respect to a true patriot?
McGovern cared about his country and served in many capacities. Can we show some respect to a true patriot?
16
Leaving a pistol, cocked, with one in the chamber, on your nightstand, with kids in the house? What a great parent.
17
"Do you remember your President Nixon
Do you remember the bills we have to pay
Or even yesterday?"
Do you remember the bills we have to pay
Or even yesterday?"
18
I've had a busy morning so far, and just now got around to reading this. "Kicks the bucket?" Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a pogo stick. That should be illegal.
20
Here's a 1995 LA Times article about McGovern and his daughter Theresa. Sad, but well-written.
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-02-15/n…
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-02-15/n…
21
McGovern was the first politician I supported, and he captivated the youth of my day. And was direct and as honest as national politicians can be. I'm offended by the generic bullshit headline "Old Politician....".
Fuck you, you hipster-wannabe twit.
Fuck you, you hipster-wannabe twit.
22
Funny, I was just thinking today that you have to laugh about death, because what other choice is there? Apparently, impotent misplaced rage!
Ignore them, Chelsea.
Ignore them, Chelsea.
23
Rough crowd in here today. I'm guessing Chelsea here was born a good twenty years after George McGovern last did anything newsworthy. He's about as relevant to her as Al Smith was to the McGovern Generation. If you're looking for people showing a lack of respect for the man, you should be looking at every Democrat who's run for anything since. Going down to world-record defeat will do that to a party.
McGovern was a good guy, and had a long career in the Senate before he won the nomination, but his campaign was doomed from the start, not by anything he did but by the radical left loons who sabotaged the party. Real FDR-LBJ Liberalism was, alas, dead by then, and Nixon was at the height of his bizarre, Dracula-like powers. He wasn't going to lose to Jesus Christ, let alone a mild-mannered man of principle who couldn't control his message.
McGovern was the wake-up call for the Democrats. Too bad they didn't hear it until twenty years later (Carter doesn't count, because Carter only got in when the Nixon Administration committed a most spectacular ritual self-immolation and crisped the party for a while). Sometimes you can't see the continuities until decades later, but Reagan was already starting to come in from the wings, and the old order was destroyed forever.
The thing to remember and learn about McGovern's loss was the insularity of it. Remember Pauline Kael, the great movie critic in New York, who said afterwards, "how could Nixon have won? I don't know a single person who voted for him." McGovern was the signal that we didn't live in the country we thought we lived in.
It's hard to believe now, but one of the great driving forces of FDR-LBJ liberalism came off of the Great Plains, in states like McGovern's South Dakota, states where Republicans tend to win 85% of the vote nowadays. There are counties in Eastern Montana, not that far from McGovern's home, that were actually run by the Communist Party in the time of McGovern's parents.
But yes, he was a great statesman, a great Congressman, and a great Senator. We'll never see a group like McGovern, Humphrey, Johnson, Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, Mansfield, Dirksen, Rayburn, Frank Church (liberal Democrat from Idaho!?), Muskie, Kefauver, Kennedy, Magnuson and Jackson again.
My God, there was even such a thing as a liberal Republican back then. It's no wonder that young people like Chelsea Kellogg here think it's all a fantasy. Give her some slack. Sheesh.
More...
McGovern was a good guy, and had a long career in the Senate before he won the nomination, but his campaign was doomed from the start, not by anything he did but by the radical left loons who sabotaged the party. Real FDR-LBJ Liberalism was, alas, dead by then, and Nixon was at the height of his bizarre, Dracula-like powers. He wasn't going to lose to Jesus Christ, let alone a mild-mannered man of principle who couldn't control his message.
McGovern was the wake-up call for the Democrats. Too bad they didn't hear it until twenty years later (Carter doesn't count, because Carter only got in when the Nixon Administration committed a most spectacular ritual self-immolation and crisped the party for a while). Sometimes you can't see the continuities until decades later, but Reagan was already starting to come in from the wings, and the old order was destroyed forever.
The thing to remember and learn about McGovern's loss was the insularity of it. Remember Pauline Kael, the great movie critic in New York, who said afterwards, "how could Nixon have won? I don't know a single person who voted for him." McGovern was the signal that we didn't live in the country we thought we lived in.
It's hard to believe now, but one of the great driving forces of FDR-LBJ liberalism came off of the Great Plains, in states like McGovern's South Dakota, states where Republicans tend to win 85% of the vote nowadays. There are counties in Eastern Montana, not that far from McGovern's home, that were actually run by the Communist Party in the time of McGovern's parents.
But yes, he was a great statesman, a great Congressman, and a great Senator. We'll never see a group like McGovern, Humphrey, Johnson, Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, Mansfield, Dirksen, Rayburn, Frank Church (liberal Democrat from Idaho!?), Muskie, Kefauver, Kennedy, Magnuson and Jackson again.
My God, there was even such a thing as a liberal Republican back then. It's no wonder that young people like Chelsea Kellogg here think it's all a fantasy. Give her some slack. Sheesh.
24
The negative (or the people who own those voting machine companies):
http://www.globalresearch.ca/does-the-ro…
Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 7. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.
The positive (or a truly epic, many years long in progress, major lawsuit against the top private equiteers, scumbags, thieves, i.e., Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Apollo Management et al.):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/110039863/A-La…
Private equity leveraged buyout firms have an enormous impact on all facets of the lives of the majority of people, regardless of their ignorance of such impacts (beyond the standard destruction of companies, R&D divisions, jobs, employment, and massive offshoring of jobs) --- and the usual creation of debt to the national debt and the destruction of the national tax base (their billionaires' fortunes are based on said debt creation and tax revenues destruction) --- their perfidy has dramatically increased medical costs for the vast majority of Americans.
The top two cost drivers in the American healthcare sector: private equity leveraged buyouts (LBOs) across the entire spectrum of the healthcare sector (private hospitals and clinics, medical instrument companies, medical personnel agencies, pharmaceutical companies, prosthetics companies, research labs, etc., etc., plus the same applies to their usage of SLABS (Student Loan Asset Backed Securities, etc.).
The second major cost driver: hedge fund speculation across the healthcare sector (both general hedge funds and dedicated hedge funds, i.e., in 2007 there were at least 90 dedicated healthcare hedge funds).
More...
From the Land of WTF ? ? ?
The negative (or the people who own those voting machine companies):
http://www.globalresearch.ca/does-the-ro…
Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 7. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.
The positive (or a truly epic, many years long in progress, major lawsuit against the top private equiteers, scumbags, thieves, i.e., Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Apollo Management et al.):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/110039863/A-La…
Private equity leveraged buyout firms have an enormous impact on all facets of the lives of the majority of people, regardless of their ignorance of such impacts (beyond the standard destruction of companies, R&D divisions, jobs, employment, and massive offshoring of jobs) --- and the usual creation of debt to the national debt and the destruction of the national tax base (their billionaires' fortunes are based on said debt creation and tax revenues destruction) --- their perfidy has dramatically increased medical costs for the vast majority of Americans.
The top two cost drivers in the American healthcare sector: private equity leveraged buyouts (LBOs) across the entire spectrum of the healthcare sector (private hospitals and clinics, medical instrument companies, medical personnel agencies, pharmaceutical companies, prosthetics companies, research labs, etc., etc., plus the same applies to their usage of SLABS (Student Loan Asset Backed Securities, etc.).
The second major cost driver: hedge fund speculation across the healthcare sector (both general hedge funds and dedicated hedge funds, i.e., in 2007 there were at least 90 dedicated healthcare hedge funds).
25
Friendly note to Chelsea: first president many of us voted for --- from the combat zone ---(Vietnam unwar at that time) was George McGovern, sadly, he didn't win.
26
George McGovern was so much more than some guy who ran for President in 1972. Maybe that fact wasn't on one of the many standardized tests you undoubtedly call your education, Chelsea, but it's true.
I know these comments are a bit harsh, dear, but you need to learn from this mistake, and do better the next time. Unless your career goal is television news, in which case you are on the right track.
I know these comments are a bit harsh, dear, but you need to learn from this mistake, and do better the next time. Unless your career goal is television news, in which case you are on the right track.
27
Yeah, I was born in 1984 and I only heard about McGovern via Knute Burger.
I know who Scoop Jackson is because I took a class in the Jackson School if Intl Studies.
I still remember quite a bit of German from my high school German class. I had a wonderful fantastic awesome German teacher. Our Civics teacher wasn't that great. It was mostly just a siers of partner/group poster projects that we presented to the class, and that is how most of the material was taught. And, actually, I don't think we really ever talked about individual politicians.
I know who Scoop Jackson is because I took a class in the Jackson School if Intl Studies.
I still remember quite a bit of German from my high school German class. I had a wonderful fantastic awesome German teacher. Our Civics teacher wasn't that great. It was mostly just a siers of partner/group poster projects that we presented to the class, and that is how most of the material was taught. And, actually, I don't think we really ever talked about individual politicians.
29
It's the morning news, not the mourning news.
It wasn't like the NY times headline for his death, you people need something real to get upset at in your lives.
Chelsea don't worry, only assholes get upset over stupid things like this, acting as if he was their father or something. They just don't have anything better to do than try to make you feel like shit for doing your job, which is to make silly headlines for sometimes serious events.
It wasn't like the NY times headline for his death, you people need something real to get upset at in your lives.
Chelsea don't worry, only assholes get upset over stupid things like this, acting as if he was their father or something. They just don't have anything better to do than try to make you feel like shit for doing your job, which is to make silly headlines for sometimes serious events.
30
@23, beautifully put. It's so easy to forget how damn appealing it can be to give up accomplishing anything using actual politics. Echo chambers are warm and cozy places. No grubby ethical compromises or gray areas. Your hands stay perfectly clean.
31
@ 26 Calm down, not everyone looks at McGovern as the mssiah like many on the left do. Was the man a great American and a Patriot? Yes. But no need to throw a hissy fit just because someone doesn't have the same opinion of them as you do.
32
@23, One can always trust Fnarf to throw the left (he calls it 'radical left') under the bus. McGovern lost spectacularly mainly because he was abandoned by socially conservative Southern Democrats who have now become the base of an ultra-conservative GOP. Good riddance, I'd say. Now, if we could only get the corporatists to do the same.
33
Doomie @24, I appreciate your repeated efforts to get the word out about the Romney clan's recent investments in electronic voting—but I think maybe a better link would be the earlier Bello/Fitrakis article in OpEdNews, because it specifically mentions the state of Washington:
In all 234 counties of Texas, the entire states of Hawaii and Oklahoma, half of Washington and Colorado, and certain counties in swing state Ohio, votes will be cast on eSlate and ePollbook machines made by Hart Intercivic. Hart Intercivic machines have famously failed in Tarrant County (Ft. Worth), adding 10,000 non-existant votes. The EVEREST study, commissioned by the Ohio secretary of state in 2007, found serious security flaws with Hart Intercivic products...
34
@23: So being young is an excuse for being ignorant of history? We're talking about the Democratic nominee for president, among other things. Youth is no excuse when it would take seconds to do a Google search and learn a little bit before posting a snarky, ignorant headline.
35
@32, I don't think it's true that Fnarf's approach to those who insist they're not the radical left has been to throw them under the bus. What he does is merrily point out that under the bus is where they keep throwing themselves.
36
I am very calm, Seattle14 - and if you think that what I said was a "hissy fit", you don't know from hissy fits.
My point was that to be a good journalist, you need to know your history and have perspective. If you want to be taken seriously as a person - and this is particularly true of young people entering the workforce and hoping for a career in anything other than gossip TV - you have to show you know a little something about the world before you appeared on it. To reassure mediocrity, as the troll and a few others are doing so compassionately here, is to ensure it blossoms.
If anyone cares, Norah Ephron was writing for Esquire in the early 70's, and she wrote a great piece in about the 1972 Democratic convention from a feminist perspective. I think it is in her collection of essays called "Crazy Salad". The DNC, as Fnarf points out, was a real mess that year, and you can see that in her writing.
My point was that to be a good journalist, you need to know your history and have perspective. If you want to be taken seriously as a person - and this is particularly true of young people entering the workforce and hoping for a career in anything other than gossip TV - you have to show you know a little something about the world before you appeared on it. To reassure mediocrity, as the troll and a few others are doing so compassionately here, is to ensure it blossoms.
If anyone cares, Norah Ephron was writing for Esquire in the early 70's, and she wrote a great piece in about the 1972 Democratic convention from a feminist perspective. I think it is in her collection of essays called "Crazy Salad". The DNC, as Fnarf points out, was a real mess that year, and you can see that in her writing.
37
@23 The ignorance of the Watergate beak-ins is astounding. It wasn't just spying on the Dems, it was a whole-scale rigging of the election using every federal agency available. Nixon chose McGovern to run against because he was the weakest candidate the Dems had. Every other Dem had their campaign sabotaged in the primary by the WH. This is not to take anything away from Mr. McGovern, who I honestly admire. But to ignore Nixon's perfidy is like ignoring Bain Capital when discussing Romney.
38
Reminder!: Presidential candidate Jill Stein will be appearing at Town Hall Seattle tonight at 7:00 pm with WA state representative candidate Kshama Sawant.
Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson will be participating in two more debates:
● Monday -- During the final private debate between Obama and Romney, Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson will give their own answers to all debate questions in an expanded debate at Democracy Now!.
● Tuesday -- Free and Equal Elections Foundation will host a debate in Chicago between Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Gary Johnson, and Virgil Goode. This debate will be moderated by Larry King (who is currently accepting suggestions for debate questions on Reddit), and will be broadcast live on the Al Jazeera English network, as well as streamed live from the Free and Equal website, ORA TV, and RT.com.
More...
Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson will be participating in two more debates:
● Monday -- During the final private debate between Obama and Romney, Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson will give their own answers to all debate questions in an expanded debate at Democracy Now!.
● Tuesday -- Free and Equal Elections Foundation will host a debate in Chicago between Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Gary Johnson, and Virgil Goode. This debate will be moderated by Larry King (who is currently accepting suggestions for debate questions on Reddit), and will be broadcast live on the Al Jazeera English network, as well as streamed live from the Free and Equal website, ORA TV, and RT.com.
39
@35, Not true. McGovern getting pummeled at the box has more to do with the 60's youth/antiwar movement that caused an irremediable spit among Democrats and the fear-mongering of the GOP than anything radicals did or didn't do. Pretending otherwise is an attempt to throw the left under the bus. As a matter of fact, establishment Democrats have used McGovern's loss against the left as much as conservatives have done so against Democrats in an attempt to preserve the status quo. Fnarf was just continuing with that tradition.
40
@31: Nothing to do with opinion, despite your attempts to inject them. McGovern was hugely influential at an important period in U.S. history. Anyone pretending to be a newsperson should either know that or at least be able to take a little time to do some research.
And accusing someone of having a "hissy fit" is just plain weak.
And accusing someone of having a "hissy fit" is just plain weak.
41
How "liberal" is Barack Obama? On a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 representing Roosevelt (I assume FDR), Obama rates "about 35", according to The Nation's Eric Alterman.
Noam Chomsky on how to vote in this election:
Chris Hedges on how to vote in this election:
Noam Chomsky on how to vote in this election:
I happen to be in a non-swing state so I can either not vote, or vote as I probably will for Jill Stein, Green candidate, in the hope that it might be the beginning of some genuine electoral alternative over time.
Chris Hedges on how to vote in this election:
HEDGES: [...] I intend to vote, but I will not vote for Barack Obama. I'll vote for a third-party candidate: Rocky Anderson, or Jill Stein from the Green Party.
JAY: Would it make any difference to you if you were in a swing state where a few votes might matter?
HEDGES: No, because the problem is that we who care about the underclass, who care about protecting what's left of our anemic democracy, who care about battling back against corporate power, have no influence within the Democratic Party. [...]
42
@39 - What a lovely supporting narrative you've constructed. You remind me of ignorant tea party members who want to believe so badly that their fantasies become their truth.
44
Those pesky Rodents of Unusual Size. They used to only be bitey and scary. Now they're into counterfeiting?
45
@43: What a perfectly stupid thing to say. There is no semblance of reality in your remark.
Who cares if anyone gets hurt? I do. It's exactly because social health is being undermined that we need to manifest a greater change. Society suffers because people like you defend the plutocratic status quo.
Who cares if anyone gets hurt? I do. It's exactly because social health is being undermined that we need to manifest a greater change. Society suffers because people like you defend the plutocratic status quo.
46
@45 - Aren't you precious. How many times in our nation's history has a third party acted as more than a spoiler? What do you think another republican administration would be like? Hugs and puppies? Because that's who gets elected - you'd rather they win than support the Dems and you don't care if that has real consequences. Purge it with fire!
Let me know when you've taken over a statehouse or two and we can figure out what's supportable at the federal level.
Let me know when you've taken over a statehouse or two and we can figure out what's supportable at the federal level.
47
good god people leave Chelsea alone.
after all, she is typical of the average Obama voter.
however the Troll would like to have seen the clip of the day be McGovern's " Come Home America" speech from the convention.....
after all, she is typical of the average Obama voter.
however the Troll would like to have seen the clip of the day be McGovern's " Come Home America" speech from the convention.....
48
@45. At what point does voting for the lesser of two evils become unacceptable? He's not making the step of encouraging a vote FOR Romney, which would certainly be purging with fire. Eventually liberals will have to take a stand, or the Democrats will just keep sliding right.
50
Catalina, thanks for jogging my memory. I'm off to dig out my beloved dog-eared copy of Crazy Salad.
51
@48, at no point does voting for the lesser of two evils become unacceptable. Whoever you vote for, you've got them for 4 years. A horrible amount of damage can be done in 4 years. If you want to be pure, please do it in some other country.
52
@42, It is interesting to note that your post is fact free, yet long on ad-hominem.
Otherwise, it is well known that McGovern lost because of an 'anybody but McGovern' coalition made up of Democrat warmongers (such as union leader Meany) and southern Democrats who believed the "abortion, amnesty, acid" slur, so it is not "my narrative" as you claim.
Otherwise, it is well known that McGovern lost because of an 'anybody but McGovern' coalition made up of Democrat warmongers (such as union leader Meany) and southern Democrats who believed the "abortion, amnesty, acid" slur, so it is not "my narrative" as you claim.
53
@51, It's not about purity, it's about holding Obama accountable, which Dems loyalists have refused to do early, in the middle and late in his presidential term. If Obama loses in a few weeks (I hope not), it'll be your responsibility for refusing to push him to do what the majority of people want. I am not against compromising on my ideals, but I am definitely against giving blank checks to politicians, which you appear ready to do yet once again.
54
So "holding Obama accountable" amounts to bursting into tears and locking yourself in the powder room when you sense you aren't getting your way on every single part of the game? And if Obama loses, it's not your fault?
Ok,
Ok,
55
Chelsea---Look, I don't know how long you've been at this, but today was a disaster. I was in radio when I was your age, and I had to prepare and record the morning news. Honey, if you don't know the names, Google them. Consider it part of your education. You have to understand what you're putting out there or you're gonna make a fool of yoursellike you did today. This is not nothing; it's actually very important.
56
@32, you say "good riddance", even though that condemns you to a lifetime of 37 percent of the vote. That's a pretty classic demonstration of what's wrong with the radical left. So, uh, thanks for that.
Some of us actually like to win once in a while, which means making sure that bad-smelling fist-pumping revolutionaries are kept as far away from one's campaign as possible, because they scare voters. McGovern didn't do that. He embraced the hippies, and it cost him big.
You don't understand that because in your narrative the only visible figure is the giant gas cloud of evil named Richard Nixon. The perfidy of Nixon, yes, yes. But the question you never ask is WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Nixon succeeded spectacularly because he played McGovern and the Democrats like a fiddle. Of course, he ended up playing himself, too.
@37, you give far too much credit to the buffoons at the Watergate. Nixon didn't choose McGovern; Democrats did. And there was no one else; Humphrey wasn't going to beat Nixon; neither was Muskie or Jackson. Shirley Chisholm? Gimme a break.
@39, the 60s youth/antiwar movement WERE the radicals. You think I'm talking about the Old Left pamphleteers? By 1972 they didn't matter at all. It was the hippies that did McGovern in, because most Americans didn't like them -- or at least they didn't like the ones who got all the press, like the objectively horrible Jerry Rubin, who was a master of self-promotion and nothing else. In 1972, you may recall, he had wormed his way to the side of John Lennon, who went into full-on black-glove smash-the-state advocacy of violent revolution (which he characteristically completely abandoned ten minutes later, but the damage was done).
Nixon exploited that crap for all it was worth. The hippies were like Occupy: media-friendly, angry, stupid, guaranteed to deliver a well-rehearsed patter about how the entire structure of society needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, by us, and always a chance that some of the chicks will get their tops off. That shit was never going to play in most of America after Charles Manson. Nixon didn't create Charles Manson (though Christ knows, it's possible he created Jerry Rubin).
Hippies killed McGovern. Nixon understood that, and used it. There are plenty of Democrats who still don't understand that today, forty years later. The willful blindness of some lefties makes Southern apologists for the Confederacy look almost sane.
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Some of us actually like to win once in a while, which means making sure that bad-smelling fist-pumping revolutionaries are kept as far away from one's campaign as possible, because they scare voters. McGovern didn't do that. He embraced the hippies, and it cost him big.
You don't understand that because in your narrative the only visible figure is the giant gas cloud of evil named Richard Nixon. The perfidy of Nixon, yes, yes. But the question you never ask is WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Nixon succeeded spectacularly because he played McGovern and the Democrats like a fiddle. Of course, he ended up playing himself, too.
@37, you give far too much credit to the buffoons at the Watergate. Nixon didn't choose McGovern; Democrats did. And there was no one else; Humphrey wasn't going to beat Nixon; neither was Muskie or Jackson. Shirley Chisholm? Gimme a break.
@39, the 60s youth/antiwar movement WERE the radicals. You think I'm talking about the Old Left pamphleteers? By 1972 they didn't matter at all. It was the hippies that did McGovern in, because most Americans didn't like them -- or at least they didn't like the ones who got all the press, like the objectively horrible Jerry Rubin, who was a master of self-promotion and nothing else. In 1972, you may recall, he had wormed his way to the side of John Lennon, who went into full-on black-glove smash-the-state advocacy of violent revolution (which he characteristically completely abandoned ten minutes later, but the damage was done).
Nixon exploited that crap for all it was worth. The hippies were like Occupy: media-friendly, angry, stupid, guaranteed to deliver a well-rehearsed patter about how the entire structure of society needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, by us, and always a chance that some of the chicks will get their tops off. That shit was never going to play in most of America after Charles Manson. Nixon didn't create Charles Manson (though Christ knows, it's possible he created Jerry Rubin).
Hippies killed McGovern. Nixon understood that, and used it. There are plenty of Democrats who still don't understand that today, forty years later. The willful blindness of some lefties makes Southern apologists for the Confederacy look almost sane.
58
That fucking cop needs to be in jail. I'm a bit of a gun nut, but I have no tolerance for reckless jackasses like that. Unfortunately, they are all too common among gun owners.
Regarding the salon shooting discussion: I am continually baffled by the fact that my government takes my vehicle ownership and use very seriously and -- for the most part -- doesn't give a shit about the arsenal in my safe.
Regarding the salon shooting discussion: I am continually baffled by the fact that my government takes my vehicle ownership and use very seriously and -- for the most part -- doesn't give a shit about the arsenal in my safe.
59
@56, Well, thank you for showing that hippie-punching and rants about fist pumping revolutionaries isn't the prerogative of Republicans. The "hippies" (i.e. youth who didn't want to die in Vietnam, and feminists) won for America was never the same after the 60's cultural revolution, including the Democratic party that exploded under the weight of its contradictions. Most importantly, the "hippies" gave a chance to the 1000's of young American men and who knows how many Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotians who died in SE Asia during the 2nd Nixon administration but it wasn't to be, thanks to the reactionary establishment and its media that painted McGovern as if he were embracing a "radical" agenda (rings a bell?). McGovern didn't embrace the "hippies": he was neither for legalizing MJ as was claimed (little less acid), nor was he for a federally mandated right to choose to have an abortion or giving amnesty to deserters. McGovern wanted what the overwhelming majority of Americans wanted: to pull out of Vietnam that most viewed as an immoral war.
Winning isn't solely about winning elections (although it is eventually necessary) and, anyway, there nothing eternal about 37% of voters when half of Americans are disfranchised and most Americans want progressive policies. Social movements, which you deny have any importance, have shown this to be true time and time again. As for the Occupy movement, it accomplished more in a few weeks than DLC sycophants accomplished in 4 years: it radically changed the national discourse from fear mongering about the national debt to that of economy crushing inequalities unseen in >80 years.
Winning isn't solely about winning elections (although it is eventually necessary) and, anyway, there nothing eternal about 37% of voters when half of Americans are disfranchised and most Americans want progressive policies. Social movements, which you deny have any importance, have shown this to be true time and time again. As for the Occupy movement, it accomplished more in a few weeks than DLC sycophants accomplished in 4 years: it radically changed the national discourse from fear mongering about the national debt to that of economy crushing inequalities unseen in >80 years.
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@54, I knew Obama could lose when he appointed the same neoliberal gang to his administration and he sent Rahm tell the people who elected him to go home and leave the business of policy making to the usual politicians. It has nothing to do with me, no matter how I vote, and everything to do with the millions who feel that Obama never gave himself the chance to deliver on his 2008 populist rhetoric. Holding him accountable isn't about me either, it's about giving Obama a chance to redeem himself thereby showing to those who wouldn't otherwise bother to vote that not everything is lost, that their vote count.
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Fuck anybody who came in here to tell an intern she wasn't showing sufficient obeisance to the memory of George McGovern and to complain about typos. You're the reason the internet is terrible.
Also you all missed that "take" in the second-to-last story should be "taken".
Also you all missed that "take" in the second-to-last story should be "taken".
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Wow, you people got a little too pissed off about the George McGovern line.
It's a blip-blip news rundown of multiple stories. I'm not sure why you expected the intern to interrupt the rundown to write a treatise on how George McGovern parted the Red Sea and led the Democrats to the Promised Land. Is this some sort of a joke?
It's a blip-blip news rundown of multiple stories. I'm not sure why you expected the intern to interrupt the rundown to write a treatise on how George McGovern parted the Red Sea and led the Democrats to the Promised Land. Is this some sort of a joke?
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