George McGovern's Garden [View all]

[H2O Man]

….and I will leave
But the birds stay, singing
And my garden will stay,
With its green trees,
With its water well.
Many afternoons the skies will be
Blue and placid, and the bells
In the belfry will chime,
As they are chimming this very afternoon.
The people who have loved me
Will pass away, and the town
Will burst anew every year.
But my spirit will always wander
Nostalgic in the same recondite
Corner of my flowery garden.
-- Juan Ramon Jimerez; El Viaje Definitive (The Definitive Journey)

George McGovern created a beautiful garden here on earth. Now, upon his death, the news media will invest a small corner of their product to the man and his garden. But these reports pale in significance, to me, to the posts on DU:GD that tell of forum participants having cast their vote -- often, their first actual vote, and other times, in a grade school “mock” election -- for Senator McGovern.

Much of the corporate coverage will center upon his 1972 run against Nixon. Although it was an important part of his political career, I would advise against separating it from that career in its entirety. Indeed, it is best to view it in the context of not only McGovern’s pre- and post-1972 career, but more, as the result of the first actual “grass roots” campaign that led to a major party nomination. And add that it was against the active, wide-spread Watergate corruption of the Nixon administration.

Watergate was not, of course, a mere example of political corruption. It involved gross violations of the law, a severe threat to the Constitution, and the decay of the social fabric. Yes, Nixon won the election. And yes, McGovern’s fall campaign involved serious errors by both the candidate and his staff. These facts were part and parcel in 1972. But there was more -- much more -- and that is exactly why the ‘72 contest is generally lost in the current study of historic presidential campaigns.

That McGovern’s grass roots campaign won the democratic primaries is as important, as it is historic. That his grass roots campaign lost in November was not shocking -- no political party or movement tends to capture the White House on its first try. And that was compounded by the lack of energetic support from the Democratic Party machine for the McGovern campaign.

I will remember George McGovern for many reasons: his honesty (rare indeed at that level of politics), his passion, his optimism, and his compassion. These were what McGovern planted in his garden. The harvest is found in the assistance to the poor and needy in our society. The hungry fed, the naked clothed.

And it is still more: that harvest includes the wonderful, though saddened, comments that our friends in the Democratic Underground are expressing today. A part of this saddness is the recognition that just as “time” moves forward, our experiences -- including many of the most meaningful -- are now becoming the more distant past.

George McGovern lived for 90 years; in that time, he made a meaningful contribution to the Good Fight. He tended his garden in an honorable way ….not only far more so than Dick Nixon, but than almost any other politician of the past 100 years. We can keep that garden alive, by taking a small sprout from George’s garden, and nurturing it in our own. And that is the most important tribute we can pay to this honorable man.

Thank you,
H2O Man