Still making my way through Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear And Loathing: On The Campaign Trail ’72. It’s a wild—and wildly uneven—ride, but it gives one a great feel for the anger, violence and craziness of American politics and culture in the early 1970s. It also reveals some of the lasting features of the American political landscape. Here’s Thompson writing after the California primary when it’s finally become clear that George McGovern (George McGovern!) will be the Democratic nominee:
…it is also worth noting that the only Democrat to survive this hellish six-month gauntlet of presidential primaries is the only one of the lot who began as a genuine anti-war candidate.
Six months ago George McGovern was dismissed by the press and the pols as a “one-issue candidate.” And to a certain extent they were right….[But] for a “one-issue candidate,” McGovern has done pretty well. Four years ago Gene McCarthy was another “one-issue candidate”—the same issue poor McGovern is stuck with today—and if McCarthy had somehow managed to put together the kind of political organization that McGovern is riding now, he would be the incumbent President and the ’72 campaign would be a very different scene.
Gene Pokorny, one of McGovern’s key managers, who also worked for McCarthy in ’68, describes the difference betwee the two campaigns as “the difference between an organization and a happening”….
All of which brings to mind the Democratic primary campaigns of 2004 and 2008. At least since the mid-1960s there has been a significant faction of the Democratic Party that will vote for an “anti-war/anti-imperialist” candidate. It’s not a controlling faction, but it’s large enough to sustain a candidate—particularly during wartime.
Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign was “a happening”. Poorly organized and ultimately crushed (like McCarthy’s in ’68), Dean’s full-throated opposition to the Iraq War resonated with a key segment of Democratic primary voters—enough to propel him (temporarily) to the lead in public opinion surveys and to shift the ground on which the party debated the issue of the war.
Barack Obama had the good fortune in 2008 to be the only major Democratic candidate who could (and most vigorously did) lay claim to the “anti-war candidate” title. Like McGovern in ’72, Obama used that claim to gain a foothold among caucus and primary voters, and built an organization that eventually overwhelmed more experienced and (supposedly) more savvy campaigns.
It’s true, even though Mark Twain probably didn’t actually say it (too bad, because it sounds like Twain), that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes”.
Bonus excerpt: Here’s Thompson’s description of McGovern campaign director (and sometimes Friend-Of-Hunter) Frank Mankiewicz. Just savor the writing.
Some people are easier to deal with at a distance, and Frank is one of them. His whole manner changes when you confront him in person. It is very much like dealing with a gila monster who was only pretending to be asleep when you approached him—but the instant you enter his psychic territory, a radius of about six feet, he will dart off in some unexpected direction and take up a new stance, fixing you with a lazy unblinking stare and apparently trying to make up his mind whether to dart back and sink a fang in your flesh or just sit there and wait till you move on.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/