Vital Concerns for the World: McGovern's death reminds us of a tragic moment

Monday, October 22, 2012

McGovern's death reminds us of a tragic moment

The passing of Senator George McGovern reminds us that it is possible for the wrong person to win an election. McGovern, a Democrat, ran in 1972 the most unsuccessful presidential campaign in American history: he was beaten by the slate of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew in a landslide: every state but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia supported the Republican ticket. But in less than a year Agnew was forced to resign because of charges that he had been involved in extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy. The next year, on August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon himself resigned, having been implicated in the Watergate break-in. Both Nixon and Agnew were guilty of major criminal behavior before the election took place but they took office with the largest mandate in history. Can we believe that McGovern would have been a better president? He would at least have been a very different president, and it is tempting to assert that he would have been better than Richard Nixon.

But elections turn on the stories that the candidates tell, and in the end the candidate that tells the most convincing story wins.

Is there anything to learn from this incident in the past?

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A major source of the American debt problem

Notable Concerns

"Not one has taken responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history." Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rica, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. AlJazeera 10/15/11
GE, America's largest corporation, paid no taxes last year even though it made 5.1 billion dollars profit in the country [and even more outside the country] [source: same as below]
In 2009 the richest 5% held 63.5% of American wealth; the bottom 80% controlled 12.8%. [source: same as below]
Between 2000 and 2007 the richest 10% in America benefited from all of the average growth in the period. In the post WW II period the top 10% benefited from only one third of the growth, the bottom 90% benefiting from the rest of the growth. [Economic Policy Institute, cited by Bob Herbert, NYT 3/26/11]
In 2010 a "premier" investment bank paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000. [Bill Gross Pimco Investment Outlook Feb, 2011.]
In 2005, one-quarter of the corporations in America making a trillion dolars in revenue paid no taxes.
The 833% Medical Insurance Ripoff: Medicare charges 3% for service; the health insurance companies in Missouri charge 25% for services
The richest 1 percent of Americans have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
The richest 1 percent of Americans receive more income than the bottom 50%. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/10/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-viral-speech-says-top-1$ >