What if George McGovern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern), the Democratic candidate for president in 1972, had won? What would a McGovern presidency have been like? How would he have dealt with Vietnam? Or with other problems arising from 1973-77?
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a “What if?” discussion of a McGovern presidency is almost as preposterous as debating “What if 2 + 2 made 5?” The classically tragic thing about Watergate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate) was that, from Nixon’s POV, it was completely unnecessary. McGovern was identified with (and supported by) the '60s counterculture, which was deeply feared and hated by a lot of voters. Nixon could have defeated him handily without any cheating or dirty tricks. As it was, he beat McGovern 60% to 38% of the popular vote. OTOH, it was an election with very low turnout, and if the Watergate scandal had broken before the election, it just might have turned out a lot more anti-Nixon voters. So let’s assume that happened, and it was enough to give McGovern the election. What then? What kind of America would we be living in today?
I think there would have been virtually no difference vis-a-vis Vietnam. The U.S. pulled its troops out of Vietnam in January 1973, which still would have been the last month of the Nixon presidency had McGovern won. After the pullout, there was insufficient support in Congress for military aide to South Vietnam; I can’t imagine there would have been any more support with McGovern in the White House.
Brain Glutton, 1972 was the first election in which 18-year-olds were eligible to vote. Lots of people thought, quite reasonably, that this would skew the election to the left.
Add in an unpopular war and an unprecedentedly prominent (and numerous) youth culture, and it’s easier to understand why Nixon thought Watergate worth the risk – to quote Nirvana (or whoever first said it), just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you.
What would have happened? Well, McGovern would have appointed liberals like Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court, and abortion would have been legalized.
And a left-winger like McGovern would surely have expanded government domestic spending many times over, even resorting to insane measures like price controls.
McGovern wouild undoubtedly have pulled our troops out of Viet Nam and let the communists take over.
My WAG is a low turnout. Younger folks don’t have as high a turnout. The percentage of voters in the population increases with age.
I’d have voted, and for McGovern, but I was only 15.
I’d like to add, since I don’t want to bump the other thread, that the reasoning behind the Game 1 starter for the Mets in the 1962 World Series was flawless.
