How tough was it being a liberal in '72 and '84? Any stories?

[fujiyama]

I'm curious what it was like to live through those elections. As a young person it has been difficult having gone through 2 major losses ('00 and '04). Sometimes it's tough to guage though against Reagan and Nixon. I've heard many say this election has been the most difficult.

I was alive in '84 but was only 3. How does this compare to those elections? How was it going through the '72 election knowing that with the Vietnam war Nixon won in a landslide against a decent person like McGovern? Did anyone work for McGovern?

Ultimately how polarized was society in those election years? Obviously it wasn't as divided, but as a liberal was it even more frustrating because they won by such landslides? At least this time it was somewhat close.

[teach1st]

1. In '72 I felt much the same I do now..

I asked how people could be so stupid to vote for Nixon and worried about Democracy and the future of the planet. One the other hand, I was in my prime and tripping all over the country and there was still a pretty strong hippie support system.

On Edit: Although I can't compare, the country was pretty divided in '72, with the "Moral Majority" carrying Nixon to a disasterous 2nd term. Hoping the parallel carries through.

[knowbody0]

3. "us" and "them" back then

freaks - easy to spot. power in numbers
the biggest difference today is all ages included in this struggle. we have a voice, we have the numbers, we have a cause. united we will overcome these fools who believe the constitution is an out of date idea.

[MuseRider]

7. Wasn't it the "Silent Majority"

with Nixon? "Moral Majority" was Reagan I think.

[teach1st]

8. Yes, you're right...

...my memory is going in my old age!

Same people, though.

[MuseRider]

9. No worries,

mine too. I just had this argument with my husband not too long ago and since I was right for once I remember. LoL, sucks doesn't it?

[WI_DEM]

2. it wasn't that tough, believe it or not this country seemed more

liberal in 1972 (especially) and even 1984. In '72 the left was highly vocal fighting for equal rights for women, minorities, gays, and protesting in Vietnam. I don't see McGovern's defeat by Nixon in '72 as a rejection of liberalism. There were real liberals in congress too, not only among democrats but with Republicans, people like Case of NJ, Javitz of NY, Hatfield of Oregon--yes, back then the GOP had a very vocal left wing of their party who often voted with the Dems, my how things have changed.

[billkurtmeyer]

4. 72 was my first election - I was 17 and I worked my ass off in

Idaho - why? I mean it was Idaho what good was going door to door in Idaho going to do? But I was young, naive and felt good about myself and what I did. I remember election night 72 - being crushed - very very drunk and depressed and crying, and then 4 years later Carter whom I meet at a picnic right after he announced running for President, my thought was "nice man but he will never be President." Just goes to show you just never ever know.

I keep telling everyone, they (the repubs) have the rope - lots and lots of rope, be patient because they are going to hang themselves! Look how bad they have screwed things up, the hole is so deep they can't possibly climb out.

[MuseRider]

5. It felt like shit.

'72 was awful. It felt at the time like we were more polarized because we made ourselves visable by the way we dressed and acted. Parents hated us, business people hated us, you couldn't get served in some places. It was like wearing the LIBERAL tag all the time. We were proud of it but still it was hard. It was really bad because we were being sent off to die (I am female so I was not) and the guy who was doing it was re elected even after everything he had been doing. I was having babies in '84 so I was not quite as aware but I remember it was in some ways like this one. I did not think there was a chance in hell this country was stupid enough to fall for Reagan. Well, we did and it was difficult. This feels worst to me because they have this thing down, been working on it for years and we let it happen because I don't think any of us really thought that even they would want to do what they have done to us. This feels very much like the end to me and that makes it worse for me.

This is just a summary of my feelings, there is so much more and it would take a better mind than mine is at the moment to give you a better anwer. Just the way it felt.

[bobbieinok]

6. voted for dem candidate every election since 64

so voted for winner in 64, 76, 92, 96 (dem lost in 68, 72, 80, 84, 88, and 'lost' in 2000 and 2004)

son, now in mid-30s, asked us when he was in middle school why we kept voting when we always lost

landslides made me want to scream

[illflem]

10. Why change Dicks

in the middle of a good screw, vote for Nixon in '72

Ahh, the good old days when liberal wasn't a derogatory term.

[Red State Blues]

11. 1984

I had just turned 18 and it was the first election I got to vote in. I imagine that if you were gay in a major metropolitan area watching your friends die and the country completely not giving a shit it was probably just as bitter as the current election. Being from a Southern State the feeling I had was that the Democrats didn't even try with Mondale. You knew it was going to be a blowout before it happened. I remember feeling disgust that we had four more years of the monster but it didn't feel like the crushing defeat of the recent election.

[recovering democrat]

12. Depressing

Reagan election was just very sad as I recall. Not nearly as much conflict and anger. Long term negative impact of his campaign strategy and "moral majority" tactics have just increased over the years and are worse than ever now. As much as I never liked Reagan, I think Reagan would dislike Bush. Pretty sure he didn't like Bush Sr when he was VP.

'72 was very angry and the anti-war movement was really active and involved in this election, and lots of conflict everywhere. I just had a baby and went back to work. They made me park my car in the back of the building instead of the regular parking lot because they didn't want customers to be able to see my McGovern bumper sticker. They wanted me to remove it but they wouldn't insist because, as one person told me, "they are afraid you will get hippies to picket in front of the building".

[AndyTiedye]

13. This is Far Worse than '72 or '84

Even though we lost by landslides in those elections, there was no
question that democracy would continue, and we might still win another
election some day. While we did much better percentagewise in this
election, we have lost ALL power in Washington. Dems will not even be
able to filibuster all the Dominionist judges and Supreme Court justices
anymore, because the repubs are changing the rules.

'72 and '84 were losing a battle. This was losing the war.

[Bigmack]

16. Tip O'Neal and the Dems..

had power, so they could fight Reagan. I really think Reagan was dumb, but the Bushies are MEAN and dumb. Big Difference!

We've lost the war, alright. Even if the Dems take the House, the Senate, or both in 2006... the damage is done.

The fundies have crawled out from under their 12th Century rocks, and they ain't going back in. If (when) Bush is shown to be the incompetent asshole he is, the fundies will still be there.

You're right, Andy. We've lost the war.

[autorank]

14. '72 was a real beating, just awful. '84, we were used to it

1972: McGovern, bless his soul for eternity, was a less than compelling candidate. He was nominated due to his diligent adherence to rules made up after the '68 convention. Two snippets into the campaign: his acceptance speech came on some time after midnight and he vowed to visit every one of the 50 states. Nixon ran the first modern campaign--phony focus groups, no truth to any of his positions. The only solace after '72 was that Nixon was not a total and complete dumb-f**k. A whore to capital, a shady character, a man who committed great violence...yes to all of those. But no one, no one at all comes close to the utter stupidity and destructiveness (on a global scale) of *. And we still had congress.

1984: Mondale told the truth, we needed to raise taxes. Reagan had an overload of common charm. He took a bullet and came out joking. People liked him and H.W.* ended up raising taxes five years later. And we still had congress.

These were both lop-sided victories by the Republicans. 2000 and 2004 were either or both stolen/rigged. And we don't have congress. This sucks much much worse than either of those two elections IMHO.

Corporate America controls the media and we get manufactured news.
Corporate America now controls the voting machines and we get manufactured elections.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[urbanguerrilla]

15. the party establishment screwed McGovern in '72

if he had run at least as good a campaign as even Kerry, it would have been closer or even a slim victory.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. In 1972, the media were more balanced in the true sense of the word,

and the fundies, while crazy as always, were not a major presence in anyone's mind.

I understood in 1972 that Nixon's election was a reaction against "future shock," given the overwhelming cultural changes that had occurred since 1964. Until 1964 or so, the 1960s were just an extension of the 1950s--and then all of a sudden we had new trends in pop culture, a complete change in fashions, black militancy, the women's movement, the sexual revolution, and masses of young people questioning U.S. foreign policy and refusing to go into the military. To the World War II generation, which was still stuck in the mentality of 1) The U.S. is always the good guys, 2) Everything Communist is totally evil, and 3) Everything was fine until these troublemakers stirred things up, the whole youth culture was deeply offensive, and voting for Nixon was their passive protest. It didn't help that the most visible protests occurred at elite institutions, while blue collar youth were being sent to Vietnam to die.

But 1972 didn't seem like the next swing in a downward spiral. I voted for McGovern and was disappointed but not surprised that he didn't win, because I knew that a lot of Middle Americans thought of him as "the hippie candidate." Besides, Nixon wasn't bad at actually governing the country, even though he was ruthless and devious about maintaining power. I have to admit that he was competent and respected by world leaders, unlike a certain second-generation occupant of the White House I could mention.

I figured that we could simply ride out Nixon's second term and try again in 1976.

In 1984, I knew that the Dems were doomed the minute they nominated Mondale--not because he was "too liberal" (he was in fact in the mainstream at the time) but because he was the second worst campaigner I've ever seen. He had a political "tin ear" and just didn't come across well on TV. I'm from Minnesota, and I found his campaign painful to watch, sort of like a car crash in progress.

In both 1984 and 1988 I wondered aloud if someone had bribed or blackmailed the top Dems to throw the election--that's how bad those campaigns were.

[American Tragedy]

18. I wasn't around then, but I've asked my elders about it

My parents and grandparents, who all voted McGovern and Mondale, tell me that it was a crying shame, but there wasn't nearly as much pressure and desperation for participants in those campaigns. They particularly loved George McGovern, but they already knew that it was hopeless from the very beginning so it didn't hurt so much. Also, Nixon and even Reagan were not total dumbfucks like our fearless leader today, although they were far lesser men than their maligned competitors.