Anybody on DU who voted for Gene McCarthy in '68?

[WI_DEM]

I would love to hear from you and what drew you to the man. I was only 4 in '68, but had I been of age I probably would have supported his lonely battle for the Democratic nomination and how he almost defeated an incumbent president in the NH primary and later won primaries in Wisconsin and Oregon (after LBJ withdrew). It should be recalled that in '68, many Democrats were not willing to publically take on President Johnson for the nomination (even though many had doubts about the Vietnam War), but McCarthy decided the president should be opposed and even when he was at 16% in the NH polls he was out there demanding that we get out of Vietnam. Then he surprised the political world by losing to Johnson by a narrow 49-42 percent. McCarthy proved that Johnson was vulnerable and that result may have been the final factor in determining Johnson's decision not to run again. It also was enough to convince Robert Kennedy to jump into the race--something McCarthy later felt was a "very ruthless" thing to do--since his coming into the race undermined McCarthy's own campaign.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I was too young, but worked on his campaign in college.

McCarthy was great -- I often wonder what would have happened if he'd gotten the nomination.

[WI_DEM]

4. It is interesting

I think he would have won California and maybe Oregon in the General election--two states which Humphrey didn't carry. However, I don't think he would have won Texas which Humphrey narrowly won due to his Johnson connections. McCarthy may also have prevailed in Wisconsin. With McCarthy as the nominee the election may have eneded up in the House (becuz of George Wallace getting 46 electoral votes) and becuz the Dems won the congress he probably would have been elected president. That is just my belief.

[HereSince1628]

12. My SO worked on his campaign too.

[kliljedahl]

2. I was a Young Democrat at the convention,

There as a page for our local delegation. Fresh out of high school & not old enough to vote yet. Probably would have supported Johnson until I got teargassed during a "night on the town". My perspective changed that night, for the better I think.








Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Cleita]

3. I did. He's one of those guys the Repukes

attack and destroy because they are popular and liberal like Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean.

[Faygo Kid]

5. I worked for him, as a junior in high school. First vote was McGovern.

It's a long time ago, but the Johnson Administration was spent. Lyndon Johnson was a great civil rights and social justice president. In my sophomore year in high school, I actually debated and supported the administration position (domino theory). Then, I was assigned to look at the history by a teacher, and write a paper. It was searing. I found that we had stopped free elections in the '50s because Ho Chi Minh would have won. I think at that young age I understood that this wasn't a "global war," but a national war that we had no business being part of. Gene McCarthy was smart, sharp as a razor, sincere, moral, and courageous to take on the powers that be then. He was an inspiration to a generation (not uniform), and I like many others felt betrayed when RFK entered the race after McCarthy had done the heavy work. Then that morning in June, and everything changed. The energy went out of the whole anti-war movement, and was replaced by raw anger, as reflected at the Democratic Convention. Nixon, Wallace, Agnew, Humphrey - it was a year that no one could make sense of (MLK was in April. Too much for this post). It was clear that Humphrey would win, but the anger was palpable. Yet, to his credit, he ran a campaign of social compassion and decency, and Ed Muskie was a great VP candidate. Another week, and he would have caught Nixon. RFK would have crushed Nixon. A bullet put Nixon in office, like a blow job put * in office.

[baby_bear]

8. I was about the same age, faygokid

I was 14, a sophomore in high school. My older sister and our parents worked for McCarthy, but I adored RFK. I will never forget that year. I remember my best friend's father, who was a highway patrolman in Southern California, celebrating when King was killed. It was the year when I saw for the first time the stark changes among and between people. I remember my father taking me to see RFK in the town square where we lived, just a few days before he was killed. My dad gave me a "bobby pin" to put on my clothes as a token of support. I remember my mother waking me up at 1 in the morning to tell me Bobby had been shot. I remember that, despite the inate goodness of Humphrey, he was too tied in with Viet Nam and Johnson for liberals and idealists not to resent him and want nothing to do with him. McCarthy should have gotten the nomination. Liberals should have been more open-minded about Humphrey. It took me a lot of years to realize that he was a good man. But McCarthy was the intellectual, and the peacemaker, and we loved him.

Everything fell apart then; the country was changed; liberals were demoralized. My parents broke up in October, even before the election. I read yesterday that McCarthy and his wife separated not long after the election.

I raise my glass to Clean Gene. And I shed a tear for all that was lost in 1968.

b_b

[catmother]

6. yes. i voted for him. i was 27 years old and against the war in

viet nam. feel like history is repeating itself as far as the war.

[recovering democrat]

7. I did.

First Democrat I supported. Fresh out of college with my Goldwater "YAF" credentials and extreme Southern bias against the Democratic "dixiecrats", I had learned enough about political dishonesty at too young an age. McCarthy convinced me all politicians were not like that. Sad.

[ducque]

9. I voted for him

This was the first Presidential election in which I could vote.

I simply could not stand Nixon. My reaction was really visceral against him; similar to my reaction to B**h. (But at least Nixon had a brain and used it! He actually knew something about issues, read up on things, and was able to nail subordinates who weren't fully up to speed on the issues.)

Johnson was very strong, and all of the CW was for Johnson. But Vietnam was strong. Many of my friends were sent there. Some of them never made it back. I was fighting like hell to keep out of Vietnam and to stay in graduate school.

Remember that one of the very strongest messages of Vietnam to the American people was a tremendous denouement: the government and all its officials were repeatedly lying to the people. Not just a few mistakes, not just a few mis-statements. Wholesale lying, statements consistently made up from whole cloth.

America still had some of the "50s" naivety. Everyone really wanted to believe in the basic good intentions of the government and the basic honesty of public officials.

Johnson was in place to be the first major politician under the "new" mentality: you're lyng now, you were lying then, and we don't trust a damned thing you're about to say. Now, what was it you had to say?

McCarthy brought a sense of "maybe it isn't really really so awful", "maybe there really are some people with brains and honesty who can be elected to national ofice".

The problem was then, as now, identical to Stevenson's sardonic assessment of 1954:

Newsman: "Mr Stevenson, don't you think every thinking man will vote for you?"

Stevenson: "Yes, sir, but I do need to get a majority".

Those two lines contain the whole of GOP success in the last 50 years.

[bemildred]

10. Aye. nt

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. I wore a button but I was only 18 and couldn't vote then.

[pinto]

13. I voted for him in the '72 Presidential election.

I was drawn to him for his populist history - which is one of the Midwest's best contributions to American politics - support of labor, support for social programs, his '68 primary run and his strong anti-war stand. His role in restructuring the Democratic nomination process between the '68 and '72 elections was (for better or worse, depending on your viewpoint) pivotal in party politics. He was intelligent, articulate and honest with a sense of humor that belied his stubbornness on matters of political principle.

I voted in Massachusetts, the only State he carried in the election. Still feel good about that vote.

(side note) McGovern voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which was used to justify overt escalation of the Viet Nam War. I think that's worth noting, given the current debates.

[eridani]

14. Yes, I did. It was my first vote ever.

Also was one of the Clean for Gene kids, though being a midwestern dweeb, I really didn't have to clean up too much. Didn't do anything again in presidential races until 2003. (I was in grad school in 1972, and too busy to do anything for McGovern except vote for him.)