The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party by University Press of Kansas

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The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party by University Press of Kansas A Must-Read for Democrats!
I enjoyed The Liberals' Moment tremendously. The book is well-organized, clear, and most importantly, relevant to today's politics. It is relevant because it lays clear the central dilemma of the modern Democratic Party today: How do national Democratic candidates connect with the ideological passion of the party grassroots while still winning a majority in a general election? Miroff's first part of the book describes the actual 1972 campaign. The earlier 1968 Democratic presidential nomination campaign is briefly described. That contest situated George McGovern alongside Bobby Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Gene McCarthy and others as the party tries to pick up the pieces after LBJ declines to seek re-election. The book moves into the jockeying in the years before the 1972 campaign and describes the strategy and tactics of the campaign. In this, Miroff introduces us to McGovern's biography and the issues he cares most about. Two chapters are titled "The Left-Center Strategy" and "A Downward Arc." These describe the blueprints behind his 1972 campaign strategy and the successes and failures of it for both the primary and general election campaigns. The chapters also describe the chaotic Miami Beach Convention, the Eagleton affair and the principal architects and practitioners of the strategy and tactics of the campaign. A critical theme that is described is the intense campaign against McGovern by fellow Democrats that lasted into the convention itself. The attempt by Humphrey to reclaim his throne and the hostility of labor leaders all forced the campaign to fight a prolonged two-front war. The campaign was distracted from focusing on in Nixon until very late. In one sense, this made victory almost impossible in November 1972. However on the positive side, the joy of grass-roots politics comes across well. The strong showing in New Hampshire and his win in Wisconsin remind readers about the importance, and power, of idealism in American politics. The second part of the book is about the campaign's meaning. Among other topics, Miroff delves into how "radical" the campaign was. In one sense, it was radical because McGovern directly criticized the Vietnam War. The war was immoral (at least to McGovern). This kind of truth is radical. However there was also an image of radicalism that was painted by his opponents. Feminists, gays and lesbians and African-Americans found a visible place in the campaign. Their inclusion as a core, and noticeable, component of his campaign were an easy target in the culture war that was developing. The complicated relationships between important interest groups and the McGovern campaign are also described. The tension between electoral campaigns and identity politics is analyzed well: McGovern's campaign staff wanted to win while some interest groups seemed like they were more interested in representation and recognition. There is also description of the attack politics of the Nixon campaign. As Miroff states, "The master's campaign against McGovern became a seminal text for attack politics. It taught his Republican successors how to neutralize or co-opt issues normally belonging to liberals. It instructed them on how to play the cards of race, religion and class to divide the Democrats and pull together a Republican electoral majority." (p. 244) The last section of the book is over the party's identity. The post-mortems of the campaign are described. Why did McGovern lose so badly? Conservative Democrats viewed the loss as resulting primarily from ideology. Or was the loss caused by McGovern's personality or his handling of the Eagleton affair? It is here where Miroff has identified the ghost that keeps haunting the Democratic Party. It seems that the national media, pundits, consultants, and Democratic presidential candidates can't seem to get over this loss. Once "McGovern" is mentioned, Democrats and liberals seem to reflexively pull back from their convictions, become hesitant and doubtful and cede the power of political passion to Republicans. Miroff concludes with a chapter on some of the key people that worked in the McGovern campaign: Bob Shrum, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton (and his supporters) among others. Following these careers is instructive in understanding where the party is today. He also describes how McGovern has remained faithful to his liberal ideology since his 1972 campaign. In his epilogue, Miroff is clear on what he thinks the party should do: "An essential step in resolving the identity crisis of the Democratic Party is to recover what Democrats believe, their core-and liberal-convictions, and to refuse to conceal them any longer. Equally essential is the honesty to work through the traumas of liberal defeat, particularly 1972, and to learn from liberal failings." (p. 304-5) If "the traumas of liberal defeat" are explored more honestly by Democrats and liberals, there might be some uncomfortable questions that become more visible. In particular, how does the party create an ideological model that can win the presidency while still remain true to the strong anti-war feelings of the party's grassroots? This is where Vietnam is connected to Iraq; 1972 to 2008. The Liberals' Moment is excellent political history. It is also a work of political analysis which is precise and pertinent to today.
The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party by University Press of Kansas Masterful and penetrating
Bruce Miroff's "The Liberals' Moment" is an in-depth look at the McGovern presidential campaign of 1972 and its aftermath. It's a reminder of that era when the decade of the 1960s was quickly running out of time, in a sense, largely ending with McGovern's colossal defeat and the impending Watergate crisis. Miroff makes no apologies for the campaign and sees it in a broader light than just the run of the last true liberal for president on a major party ticket. The author covers so many angles...all with clarity. Yes, it was a race about the war in Vietnam and ideology, and it was prompted in large part by grassroots from young people. But it was also a campaign that had an ugly flip side...one has largely forgotten the damage that Hubert Humphrey did to McGovern in the run-up to the Democratic convention in Miami Beach and the loss of "traditional" Democrats...blue-collar workers and ethnic voters. But the campaign, itself, from the Eagleton affair to the "demogrant", right up to Election Day.....we all knew McGovern would lose but for those of us who voted for him (it was my first presidential vote cast as a nineteen-year-old) this was as passionate as campaigns get. And quite rightly, as Miroff points out, that holds true for many of us today. The legacy of the McGovern campaign is covered well and Miroff balances things to a tee. He's also good at telling us what happened to all those people who were "high-ups" working for McGovern. It's fascinating when he compares McGovern to other candidates who ran in succeeding years for the presidency and how they never had a clear and succinct message. Unfortunately, we're seeing some of those same things appear in the presidential race in 2008. Finally, Miroff has a few kind words about George McGovern, himself. McGovern has never left his embrace of liberalism and I marvel when I see him now occasionally on tv.....the old warrior of the left still unapologetic and unreconstructed, saying things that make even more sense today. "The Liberals' Moment" is a fine piece of work and I highly recommend it.
The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party by University Press of Kansas Book Description
When George McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election, Richard Nixon's landslide victory buried more than an insurgent campaign. In resurrecting the largely forgotten story of McGovern's remarkable presidential bid, Bruce Miroff reveals how his crushing defeat produced an identity crisis for liberals torn between their convictions and the political calculations required to win elections-a dilemma for Democrats that has never gone away. Miroff follows the campaign from its surprising rise to its catastrophic fall to remind us how a dark-horse candidate captured the nomination--and then disastrously chose a running mate with a hidden past. Drawing on interviews with dozens of participants--including McGovern himself--who share a wealth of anecdotes and insights, Miroff traces the insurgency to the political struggles of the sixties, explores McGovern's ideology, and assesses the Republican attack politics that linked McGovern to "acid, amnesty, and abortion." Miroff shows how the transformative election of 1972 signaled a major shift in the Democratic base--from urban blue-collar New Dealers to suburban, issue-oriented activists (feminists and gay rights advocates among them)--as the party shed its Cold War past and embraced an antiwar orientation. He also illuminates how the McGovern campaign mastered the new game of presidential primaries and explores the formative experiences of a generation of talented young political actors, including campaign manager Gary Hart, political newcomer Bill Clinton, and future party strategists Bob Shrum and John Podesta. In excavating the 1972 landslide, he follows the subsequent careers of the young McGovernites and describes the loss's effects on later Democratic presidential campaigns. By tracing the transformation of American liberalism and sixties idealism from their political crash in 1972 to the muddled centrism of the twenty-first century, The Liberals' Moment shows what the McGovern insurgency has to teach us today--and identifies what Democrats must do in order to reassume the mantle of progressive change.