Vice President Biden issued a warm and graceful statement on the death of Senator George McGovern today.
"I was honored to serve with him, to know him, and to call him a friend. George believed deeply in public service. It defined him as a Senator and as a man... Above all, George McGovern was a generous, kind, honorable man."
Ah, for more people like that in public service. It is they, truly, who are missed — which was the sad reality that the Vice President's remarks left unspoken. We cats don't think that anyone looking at our contemporary political landscape would call it generous, kind or honorable.
For those of us who cut our teeth on the McGovern campaign, 1972 taught us that caring about politics could be exciting — but it also could be stupid, silly and crushing. George McGovern gave one of the greatest acceptance speeches in American political history — but he gave it at 3 AM, and that's all anyone remembers. The Eagleton debacle was... well, just that. Nixon was out to destroy the Constitution, but none of us officially realized it until too late — in March of 1973. Until then, we McGovernites who stuffed envelopes, licked stamps and knocked on doors had to eventually cope with the idea that nearly all of America thought we were wrong.
But what we gained was priceless: the knowledge, wisdom and experience of the campaign veterans who mentored us that year. They were almost all women, and they had ground out the grunt work in campaigns years and years before we did. They were older, funny, wild-eyed liberals who had helped pave the way for causes like birth control, Roe v. Wade, equal pay, civil rights, voting rights and more. Anti-Vietnam, they taught us that America should never cavalierly throw its might into needless wars. And most of all, as informed, engaged, participatory citizens, they showed us the true meaning of democracy.
It's 40 years later, and they're probably all gone now. But their spirit lives on in us. It's the best thing that Senator McGovern's idealistic but (let's face it) hapless campaign left behind. In honor of his passing, we cats can only hope we can hand down those women's passion and commitment to the next generation nearly as well.
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