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George McGovern Dead at 90

Wed, 10/24/2012 - 11:14 — Dave Culver
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Peace & Nonviolence
  • Although long dismissed or reviled by people within his own party for his 1972 campaign, McGovern and his supporters had something close to a last laugh. Roughly a year after that Election Day, during the unfolding Watergate scandal, his supporters printed up bumper stickers that read, "Don't blame me – I voted for McGovern."
  • On War and Peace, George McGovern Will Die Vindicated
  • Russell Means Has Left Us to Fight on for Ourselves

David Browne, Rolling Stone

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October 21, 2012 | George McGovern, the longtime anti-war congressman from South Dakota who notoriously suffered a devastating loss to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential campaign, died early Sunday morning at the age of 90. McGovern had suffered a head injury from a fall last December and was hospitalized this spring after several fainting spells. With his focus on peace and world hunger, McGovern was one of the leading liberal voices of his era – and the repercussions of his unsuccessful campaign for the White House were felt for decades to come.

Although he had been a Senator and Representative in his home state and had worked for John F. Kennedy's administration, McGovern was largely unknown by the time of the Democratic primaries in early 1972, Described by the New York Times as "a baldish former minister and rural radical," McGovern was a modest, low-key and reflective man, the antithesis of the savvy politician. "Above everything else," he said at one early campaign stop, "the citizens of this land are concerned about a restoration of credibility in the political life of their country."

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Related:

On War and Peace, George McGovern Will Die Vindicated, Conor Friedersdorf, the Atlantic
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Lydia Howell
The former presidential candidate warned of the folly of the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. Americans came to agree with him -- but only when it was too late.

Russell Means Has Left Us to Fight on for Ourselves, Dave Nalle, Blog Critics

  • His spirit will stalk the land like a giant so long as we remain strong in our belief in liberty and continue to take the fight he championed to the halls of power in every state and in the nation's capital.
  • Activist Russell Means a True Native Catalyst
  • George McGovern Dead at 90
     

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