Come Home, America

As evidenced by the post directly below, I don't have any deep thoughts for the day. But I would direct readers who might not have seen it, to Bill Kauffman's profile of George McGovern in the latest American Conservative. McGovern was the 1972 Democratic nominee for President, got trounced by Richard Nixon, and personified "liberalism" in ways most Democrats have run away from since. Why would he get sympathetic treatment in the American Conservative? To me, it's not surprising, but instead of excerpting heavily here, I urge readers to read the whole thing. But this one paragraph I love, because I often feel the same way:

Unlike the bilious Ed Muskie, who dismissed George Wallace’s Florida primary victory as a triumph of racism, McGovern credited Wallace’s appeal to “a sense of powerlessness in the face of big government, big corporations, and big labor unions.” He asked Wallace for his endorsement, though as he recalls with a smile, “He said, ‘Sena-tah, if I endorsed you I’d lose about half of my following and you’d lose half of yours.’” Well, maybe, guv-nah—but just think of the coalescent possibilities of the remaining halves.