Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Contenders George McGovern 202407

In 1968, Many Americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from vietnam in peace. And since then, 20,000 of our sons have come home and coffins. I have no secret plan for peace, i have a public plan. As one whose heart has eight for the past ten years over the agony of vietnam, i will halt the senseless bombing of indochina on inaugural day. It was 1972, 2 30 in the morning, and then president ial nominee George Mcgovern delivered his acceptance speech. A few weeks later he would lose badly to president nixon. Tonight, the candidacy and legacy of mcgovern. Joining us from there is president ial author scott faris. Scott, it is 2 30 in the morning when mcgovern delivers his acceptance speech in miami. Why . Well, the reason i think it was sort of emblematic of the whole distrust of the Mcgovern Campaign was, it was an insurgent campaign run against the establishment. What had happened was, as you heard senator mcgovern there, he was very strong on the issue of vietnam. I think one of the things that has drawn me to writing about senator mcgovern as one of the most influential of those who ranted the presidency, but was not successful, is that he adopted the vietnam war issue and i think he did two things. One, he spoke about that war in ways that no president ial candidate had spoken about war before. It wasnt language, as you heard, that was fairly mild for what he had said in the campaign, very Strong Language that unsettled a lot of americans and caused them to worry about how he would end the war. And so its the insurgent campaign to end the war against the established democrats. And there was a lot of conflict there that eventually lead over into the convention and there was some four fights. There was some issues in the california delegation. There was an issue of who he was going to select as his Vice President ial running mate and the convention got out of hand for him. When it was time for him to accept his nomination, it was 2 30 in the meaning warning. Instead of speaking in front of 75 millions americans in primetime, he spoke about 15 million. We are going to do a deep dive into the 72 campaign and the convention as well. But first, joining us here from our studios in washington is jewels witcover. He covered the Mcgovern Campaign for the los angeles times. Here to talk about the Media Coverage of the campaign. Mr. Witcover, what is the atmosphere at the convention in 1972 . Exhaustion. Exhaustion. [laughs] one of the reasons mcgovern gave the speech the late was that fights continue to go on over various issues of the platform including, obviously the one vietnam, even though the platform had been adopted. It also played out the next morning when the staff met to choose a Vice President or to decide who should be asked to be Vice President. It was done in a very hurried and unsettling way, to the point, and the couldnt fusion im sure will get you in this discussion, it that it led to was probably the most disastrous part of the Mcgovern Campaign. And that was the selection of a Vice President ial nominee. And the Convention Hall that night, are the people with him . Are they still there . Its 2 30 in the morning. Yeah, the mcgovern followers at the convention, many of them had never been to a convention before. As a result of new rules and selection of delegates, initiated in developed by mcgovern himself on a commission, you had a lot of people there who had never been to any convention. They had not been involved in much politics before them. So it was a great experience for them. For any convention, staying up until 2 00 in the morning is not unusual. But was unusual was mcgovern was forced to give that very important speech early in the morning. Right, we will talk about the reforms that led to those types of people at the convention. Scott harris, let me go back to you in mitchell, south dakota at the mcgovern museum there. What is happening in our country at this time in 1972 that leads to the triumph of an anti war candidate to win the nomination for the Democratic Party . The great political legacy of George Mcgovern is that he quite literally changed the complexion of the modern Democratic Party. Before mcgovern, the democrats had built their base around what was called the new Deal Coalition. It was an amalgam of urban ethnics, catholics and jews, southern populists and organized labor. But by 1968 in 1972, because of the divisions that were exposed over the division of vietnam, senator mcgovern who was one who thought the Democratic Party needed to badly reform or it was going to talk. He saw the party was losing southern white populists who were became meeting southern white republicans over the issue of civil rights. You saw that organized labor was shrinking in influence and size. So he looked out at the Political Landscape and saw that there were opportunities for growth. He reached out to minority groups that have previously been ignored by both parties, such as hispanic americans. Reaching out more to women who had strongly voted on the republican side. Reaching out to the youth vote, 1972 was the first year that 18 year olds we get to vote in the United States. He was trying to put together a new coalition, he called it the new politics coalition, to meld with a new Deal Coalition to rule the democratic majority. Coming out of the 68 convention, he chaired a commission on reform. He changed the delegate selection process. He was very proactive in terms of trying to bring women, minorities and the young into the party. And again, when there are winners there are also losers. Other elements of the Democratic Party, particularly organized labor, resented that their influence would diminish. So there was a wild ride, but because of the reform senator mcgovern had was able to put through the party with his commission, he had an advantage as an insurgent in upsetting the preferred establishment candidate, or at least the one that had been considered the favorite, and musky, who had been humphreys running mate in 68, called the establishment kind of offguard. And again, as his success built up, it caused a lot of tension with what was called the democratic regulars. So it was a very tumultuous year for the Democratic Party in 1972. Even as the republicans were sort of solidifying around Richard Nixon and nixons presidency, his high point, which probably 1972. He famously went to china that year, among other things. We will definitely talk more about that later on in the program. But part of senator mcgoverns acceptance speech on that night in 1972 was about reforming the Democratic Party. He also takes aim at the Republican Party and what they are doing at their convention, which is being held shortly after the democrats also in miami. Take a look. We have had our fury and our frustrations in these past months. And at this convention. But frankly, i welcome the contrast with the smog and dull and empty event which will doubtless take place here in miami next month. We chose this struggle. We reformed our priority. We let the people in. So we stand today not as a collection of backroom strategists, not as a tool of itea or any other special interests. Scott faris, George Mcgovern in 1972 saying we let the people in. Take us back to that, to the 1968 convention win Hubert Humphrey gets the nomination and draw a clear connection for our viewers between the 68 convention and mcgovern winning in 1972. Lets go back even to 1967. This is when the Anti War Movement is really starting to pick up steam. They are very frustrated, the president Lyndon Johnson is maintaining the course of vietnam and continue to believe that america can achieve an outright victory in vietnam. So they start shopping for an alternative to johnson, someone who will challenge johnson in the primaries, which is pretty unprecedented. You think in American History about the only other prior to 1968 were a party try to challenge a sitting president of its own member was 1912 when you had a former president , theodore roosevelt, challenging a sitting president for the nomination. But they wanted to pressure johnson to try to quickly end the war and deescalate in vietnam. They searched for a number of people. They approach senator mcgovern. He declined. Senator mccarthy the minnesota decided to run as an anti war candidate. When he entered the New Hampshire primary of 1968, he surprised the political world by having a very strong showing by against president johnson. He did not win, but he got enough of the vote that it may johnson aware that he was going to have a very tough time winning renomination. So johnson decided to withdraw from the race. In the meantime, senator Robert Kennedy, president kennedys brother, had also entered the president ial contest and they were both going after him. Of course, Vice President Hubert Humphrey decided to enter to carry the standard for the johnson administration. At that point, the Vice President humphrey still supported the war policies of president johnson. Senator kennedy of course was assassinated in june and so that really left only senator mccarthy to sort of be the insurgent candidate. Senator kennedys followers and senator mccarthy entered a token candidacy. Theres a lot of bad blood between democrats and kennedy forces. But ultimately, the nomination went to cuba humphrey, which infuriated the reformers and the Anti War Movement because, not only had senator from free not won a single primary, he had not even entered a single primary. So it was evidence to the reformers and the anti war insurgence that the Democratic Party was still being run by the big city political bosses, by the political machines, and they wanted to have the process more open and have underrepresented constituencies like women and minorities and the young brought into the process. They wanted the entire process opened up so it wasnt in caucuses that sometimes were held almost secretly in peoples homes. So it was the disillusionment with how Hubert Humphrey was selected in 1968 that put pressure on the Democrat Party to reform. Senator humphrey, Vice President humphrey, and trying to appease the insurgents, decided to form this commission that would talk a little bit about more to suggest reform to the party. That was the background. It was really the humphrey nomination that really enraged the reformers and to cause them to demand fundamental change. Lets stick to the 68 convention. Jewels, you are covering it, whats the mood at the 68 convention . What is happening in the hall and outside . Again, it was chaos. It was a much more tumultuous convention than the 72 convention because the party itself was so divided over the war and personalities. Thats the year in which writes in the streets of chicago where the Police Department pressed to the point where it was called a police right. There was a big fight over the vietnam plank that the antiwar forces. But it generated tremendous heat and it continued through the convention. Even after the nomination of three, i remember i was there and i remember humphrey was a very sad figure in his own very supposedly celebratory moment. He knew what was going on out in the streets and even on the floor of the convention. There was such criticism of him and of the continuing of the war. So that was, and my experience, the most disruptive, but also the most excited convention in my time. Yeah, and compare how humphrey was chosen as the nominee in 68 to, four years later, the win a governess chosen as the nominee. A lot of it had to do with the mcgovern reform rolls. In 1968, delegates were largely selected as they had been for years by appointment a party bosses and governors. If you are a party official, you got a free ticket to the 1968 convention. That was by nature of your influence or your official position as an officeholder or as a party officeholder. In 1972, those people, in order to get to the convention, had to actually run as delegate supporting one of the primary candidates. A lot of them picked the wrong horse in 1972 because they supported and musky, who is establishment candidate, and he had all those officeholders pulling for him. But when his campaign disintegrated, they were all left out of the Convention Hallway. As i said before, there were so many people who had never been to a convention before they filled the seats with the high and mighty of those who went to the convention in 68. Jules witcover covering the convention for the los angeles times. Hes here part as our Contender Series this evening here in washington to help us in coverage mcgovern, our 13th contender in our 14week series. Back in mitchell, south dakota at the mcgovern museum is scott faris, president ial author who wrote about mcgoverns campaign in 1972. They are going to be taking your questions and your comments as well tonight. So we will get to your phone calls here in a little bit. Eastern central time, if you live in that area,. Mountain pacific time, two zero two, seven three seven, triple zero two. Scott fairness, let me go through the reforms that were headed up by George Mcgovern. How did he get involved in the Mcgovern Frazier commission . As mr. Witcover mentioned, it was chaos after 1968. Despite all that chaos, humphrey closed the gap very quickly towards the end of 1968. It was a very close campaign. You had the regulars thinking we can break closer 1968. If we had not had all of this agitation, we would have been fine. All the insurgent saying this was the last gasp of a dying political machine. So humphrey was anxious to try and unite the party. So he decided to throw a bone to the insurgents by reporting this commission on delegate selection reform. As they look to figure out who is the right guy for the chair, they needed to look for several qualifications. They have credibility with insurgents . If they picked a regular it would have been viewed as a sham. They also wanted someone who is loyal to the party and who show they could work with the regulars. Mcgovern, unlike mccarthy and some other folks like harold hughes, who would also have been considered for this position, mcgovern had actively campaigned for humphrey. He was always a loyal democrat and never brooklyn the party. And the third thing they were looking for was they were worried that people would view this as a way for people to manipulate the process to ensure the nomination. Everyone was sure sure that mcgovern would not be a viable president ial candidate in 1972, he seem like the obvious choice because he could not manipulate the system for his candidacy because it was such a long shot that it was not even worth discussing. So he was appointed to the commission to be the chair. There were about two dozen members. People say how are they able to push these reforms through . The way they were able to do that is the people who are most likely to be opposed to the reform, particularly organized labor, it boycotted the entire process. So the Reform Commission was really dominated by those who were intent on opening up the process while the old regulars, particularly organized labor, it did not think it was worth bothering with because they did not think anything would come of it. So what were the actual reforms . What did they say . You will significant thing was well, several things. First of all, they began the process of first of all encouraging most states to use primaries as opposed to caucuses and conventions to choose their convention delegates. Then, if you did have a caucus, you were required to make an opening well publicized and publicly available. Mr. Witcover mentioned a lot of times previously, that if you were a party official, you automatically got a chance to be a delegate and sometimes this Party Officials could also name others and there were all sorts of practices where they would get proxy votes and pick up whoever they wanted to take. Sometimes, the decision was made the year before the convention. So they tried opening up the process is generally. They wanted to make it more responsive and more voter responsive. They also tried to do away with a winner take all for the primaries, sort of make a proportional, again to give minority candidates and insurgent candidates a better chance to build steam and maybe overtake an establishment candidate in the long run. Then most controversial, i suppose, is that they decided instead of a passive approach of no discrimination against anyone who would like to be a delegate, they adopted a very proactive that the delegations had to reflect the makeup of eight states partly by gender and ethnicity and race. By age. They were trying to get more women, more minorities, and more youth into the process. When mcgovern left the commission, what they had said was that the party should simply strife a reasonable proportion. Reasonable representation of those groups. After he left at a different shirt took over, the commission actually adopted specific quota that each delegation should be roughly 50 female and should have representation of minority groups equal to whatever that percentage would be in the states population. So those were sort of the basic just of the reforms by the party, by the commissio