Word: mcgoverns
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...McGovern decided to confront this New Right adversary from his new seat on the sidelines. In addition to his plans to taking it easy, McGovern has a political project as well--a new citizen action committee called "Americans for Common Sense" (ACS). The title, drawn from Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet, reflects the committee's objective: to inject "common sense" into the current political debate, which McGovern believes is dominated by the irrational messages of the New Right. ACS will act both as an information clearinghouse on New Right groups and as an organizing committee in support of progressive causes...
...McGovern seems to separate the current president from some of his hate-mongering supporters. "Well, he's probably the kind of guy you wouldn't mind going fishing with for a weekend," he laughs. McGovern believes that Reagan himself probably makes very little of his own policy, merely acting as a spokesman for business interests and leaving more sophisticated policy-making to people like Alexander Haig and Caspar W. Weinberger '38. McGovern takes particular issue with Reagan's defense budget and claims "at least 30" senators agree with him. But he says the 30 are unwilling or unable to speak...
...McGovern doesn't mention a return to electoral politics. Though chastened by defeat, he still possesses confidence in the progressive cause. He steadfastly refuses to paint any disaster scenarios for the future under Reagan. Moreover, McGovern retains his faith in reasoned political debate--he firmly believes that people with sound ideas and clear thinking can defeat the irrational Right, if only they have the courage to speak...
THIS ABIDING FAITH in the power of reason was the guiding principle of McGovern's political career--as such, it was both his greatest virtue and the source of his ultimate failure. On the one hand, it gave him the determination to speak his mind, to take principled but unpopular positions on civil rights, on political reform, and on Vietnam. And his faith gave him the confidence to believe in the underlying sincerity of his political opponents: that is why he could be friends with Barry Goldwater, and why he thinks it is possible to out-argue the New Right...
...other hand, as 1980--and the debacle of 1972--showed, McGovern's faith obscured his vision of political reality. The genius of the New Right groups who defeated him was to recognize that one can't afford to trust one's political opponents the way McGovern did. The Right doesn't just disagree with its adversaries--it hates them. To the New Right, Barry Goldwater's friendship with McGovern is a form of treason, or at least an inadmissible sentimentality in the midst of the struggle against liberalism...