PRINCIPLE UBER ALLES

Ignore Pollsters -- Just Tell the Truth: McGovern tells his detractors that losing is no sin but dishonesty is. (George McGovern, July 13, 2003, LA Times)

In 1972, my campaign for president was buried in a landslide. I lost everywhere except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Richard Nixon was reelected with more than 60% of the vote.

But have I ever wanted to trade places with him? Not for one minute. Were the voters of the 49 states who went for Nixon wiser than the people of our national capital and Massachusetts who voted for me? Not in my book.

These days, my name is back in the news. I'm being held up as some kind of sober warning to Democratic candidates. Don't be another George McGovern, the warning goes. Don't be too liberal. Don't be too outspoken. Watch what you say and play to the middle, so that you don't end up losing 49 states, too.

It may not surprise you that I regard this as political baloney. I said exactly what I believed in 1972. I told the truth while my opponent betrayed the American public and violated the law repeatedly, engaging in campaign finance dishonesty and illegal wiretapping, invading the confidential files of a doctor, urging the CIA to halt an FBI investigation--to say nothing of running unethical and unlimited campaign advertising that distorted my positions on major issues. These kinds of tactics got him elected--but they also made him the only president in our history forced to resign in disgrace. [...]

Of course, we all like to win--especially against great odds. And I think it's extremely important for the Democrats to win in 2004. But not at the price of their souls.

One of the more peculiar features of the current political clime is the oft-noted tendency of the far Right and the Left to mimic each other's arguments. Here's an example that must be especially embarassing for conservative critics of the President as George McGovern--whose nobility-drenched self-assessment is rather silly anyway--makes the case that it was important for him to remain ideologically pure in 1972, even if that meant the nation got Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Watergate, and more Vietnam. Talk about elevating your own selfish concerns above the needs of your country and your fellow citizens. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 19, 2003 10:29 AM