Revisionist historians usually wait more than 25 years before coming up with radical new theories to explain old events. George McGovern, the Democratic party’s candidate for president in 1972, has jumped the gun by a few years. In a February 26 letter to the Wall Street Journal, he cited six reasons he lost 49 states to Richard Nixon, all of which he says “had little to do with ideology.” Among them: The failure of the AFL-CIO to endorse him ” made it virtually impossible for me to mobilize organized labor,” and he wasn’t able to deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention ” until after 2 a.m., long past the bedtime of all but a tiny portion of the voters.”
McGovern conveniently forgot to mention some of his less popular positions, ranging from his isolationism (“Come home, America” was the refrain from his convention speech) to his support for decriminalizing marijuana use. Nor should it be forgotten that his party had adopted a platform that was pro- busing and that called for amnesty for draft dodgers, ending capital punishment, and forbidding the sale of handguns. But give McGovern credit: He has handed some revisionists a new myth they can try to peddle for the next couple of decades.
