Sunday, October 21, 2012

Farewell to A Fighting Dem

George McGovern was no Teabagger:  
After Pearl Harbor, Mr. McGovern joined the Army Air Corps, and before going overseas, in 1943, he married Eleanor Stageberg, who had grown up with an identical twin on a South Dakota farm. They had met at Dakota Wesleyan.
Mr. McGovern was trained to fly the B-24 Liberator, a four-engine heavy bomber, and he flew dozens of missions over Germany, Austria and Italy.
On his 30th mission, his plane was struck by enemy fire and his navigator was killed. Lieutenant McGovern crash-landed the plane on an island in the Adriatic. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for the exploit.... 
Elected to the Senate in 1962, Mr. McGovern left no special mark in his three terms, but he voted consistently in favor of civil rights and antipoverty bills, was instrumental in developing and expanding food stamp and nutrition programs, and helped lead opposition to the Vietnam War in the Senate....
The Republicans portrayed Mr. McGovern as a cowardly left-winger, a threat to the military and the free-market economy and outside the mainstream of American thought. 
Thank you for your service, Senator McGovern. 

Update:  More from Charles Pierce, who had the good fortune to vote for the Senator.

3 comments:

Substance McGravitas said...

I saw him speak when I was in college, at a Mondale/Ferraro thingie in a fairly small room. He was good. Bye George.

Roger said...

I know some old commies who count their vote for Geo. McG. as their finest vote.

They weren't really commies, since they gave me the swim or sink option at age 18, but they were and are fairly radical.

Anonymous said...

George McGovern was fostering bipartenship by opposing the war in Viet Nam. Mitt Romney agreed wholeheartedly that the war was definately not something Americans should be fighting and dying in.