missed his birthday, but Oct 21st is George McGovern Day. He would've been 98. Happy Birthday, king

George McGovern helped found and served as the first director of Food for Peace and then served in the Senate from 1963 to 1981. He was the first congressman to voice opposition to US involvement in Vietnam. In 1965 he proposed a peace plan to get US troops out.

After Robert Kennedy was assassinated, he stood in for his delegates to champion his ideas at the disastrous 1968 Democratic Convention. He then worked to reform the primary system and mandated quotas for proportional black, female, and youth delegate representation.

During his time in the Senate he fought for farmers and the South Dakota Sioux, for which he was honored with the name "Great White Eagle.". He also clashed with the beef and sugar industries when fighting for nutrition labels and health safety laws.

He declined a position on the powerful Senate Rules committee, fought with fellow Democratic senators Fulbright and "Scoop" Jackson. "Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. " -1970

He was the first to announce his candidacy for the Presidency in the 1972 election. He would run against big names George Wallace, Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, "Scoop" Jackson, and Shirley Chisholm.

Although Humphrey would receive slightly more votes in the primary, McGovern would win the most states and build a massive anti-war movement that would earn him the nomination. This would be the first Democratic platform that would formally recognize rights for gays and women.

Despite trying to build bridges within the Democratic party, most party leaders, governors and senators seeking reelection would distance themselves from him. Jimmy Carter would build a failed Stop-McGovern campaign chiding his "radical agenda".

After half a dozen politicians declined to be his running mate, McGovern choose fellow senator Thomas Eagleton from Missouri. Ten days later the discovery that Eagleton had received electroschok therapy for depression would force him to drop out, heavily damaging the campaign.

Eagleton would be replaced by former ambassador to France, Sargent Shriver. 1972 was a landslide for Nixon, one of the biggest in history. McGovern would only win 17 electoral votes, Massachusetts and DC. Democrats would keep both the Senate and the House.

McGovern soldiered on from his massive loss and continued to work hard in the Senate, leading the McGovern commission to investigate nutrition and hunger in the US. He would reluctantly seek a fourth term in the Senate, now disillusioned by Democrats lurch to the right.

He would be defeated, in part by attending an all-gay fundraiser, likely knowing attending would cost him the race. He would enter the 1984 Democratic primary mainly to influence the ideology of the race. He would drop out and host an episode of SNL.

McGovern would return to private life, founding the McGovern-Dole program with Bob Dole, a government program that selects an impoverished nation annually to send food and educational aide. He would also write a popular biography on Abraham Lincoln.

George McGovern was a preachers son, a WWII air force veteran, a historian, a patriot, and a loving father. In my opinion, he was the best of us. He fought for a UBI, gay rights, a dovish foreign policy when it was deeply unpopular.

And, in my opinion, would've made the greatest president we would ever have. Too often I see Democrats fail to understand the lessons of his loss. Too often I see people deride "radical" left ideas as electoral failure. This is untrue. A lack of party unity is to blame, fully.

1972 was the last chance for American greatness, and that is a failure not of a party or a candidate, but of a whole nation. Nixon's abuses of his office would continue for another year and a half and would irrevocably damage US citizens trust in the government.

McGovern would endorse Obama in 2008, later express his disappointment with him, and die in 2012, age 91.

He was, and will always be, our greatest public servant.

For those of you who finished this thread, here is my self insert:

I wrote an EP about this American tragedy, enjoy https://open.spotify.com/album/265bRcrujwa5RgjrgabDhU?si=CLtRoB7JRQKCmUOLBQccPQ