My earliest political memory: 35 years ago today

Recently, I was conversing with some fellow Atriots in our "chat room," and we began discussing our earliest political memories. At first, I said it was Watergate for me, which of course dominated the headlines and the TV news reports through much of 1973 and 1974, around when I was in third grade. But then I recalled the 1972 presidential election, of which I have vague memories ... and then I remembered the assassination attempt on Democratic presidential contender and former Alabama governor George Wallace.

Man, I'm getting old.

Wallace was shot 35 years ago today, in a shopping center parking lot in Laurel, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C. I was six years old at the time, and it remains today my earliest specific political memory.

Because I was not even three when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were killed, and of course I wasn't yet born when JFK was assassinated, the Wallace shooting became a sort of marker for me, my earliest awareness of an intersection between politics and violence.

I don't want to place greater emphasis on this event than it deserves, although in historical terms it was significant because it derailed what was a strengthening presidential campaign for the former segregationist known best for barring black students from the University of Alabama. Needless to say, we'll never know if Wallace could have won the Democratic nomination (the eventual nominee was, of course, George McGovern), let alone thwart Richard Nixon's re-election bid. The shooting left Wallace paralyzed and wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life; he died in 1998.

It was, however, precisely the sort of occurrence that stuck in the mind of a certain impressionable six-year-old in suburban Detroit, and that remains to this day an important, albeit ever fading, snapshot in the album of my mind.

McGovern over Cheney, TKO, 2nd round

George McGovern, the venerable South Dakota Democrat who ran for president in 1972, has delivered a knockout blow to Dick "Dick" Cheney via the Los Angeles Times.

I really hope the article doesn't require registration, because everyone needs to see this in its entirety. It's a thing of beauty.

Here are some choice excerpts:

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential platform and contended that today's Democratic Party has reverted to the views I advocated in 1972. In a sense, this is a compliment, both to me and the Democratic Party. Cheney intended no such compliment. Instead, he twisted my views and those of my party beyond recognition. The city where the vice president spoke, Chicago, is sometimes dubbed "the Windy City." Cheney converted the chilly wind of Chicago into hot air.

Cheney said that today's Democrats have adopted my platform from the 1972 presidential race and that, in doing so, they will raise taxes. But my platform offered a balanced budget. I proposed nothing new without a carefully defined way of paying for it. By contrast, Cheney and his team have run the national debt to an all-time high.

Oh, wait. It gets better:

In the war of my youth, World War II, I volunteered for military service at the age of 19 and flew 35 combat missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross as the pilot of a B-24 bomber. By contrast, in the war of his youth, the Vietnam War, Cheney got five deferments and has never seen a day of combat — a record matched by President Bush.

And Senator McGovern reminds us that it didn't work out so well for the winner of that 1972 election:

There is one more point about 1972 for Cheney's consideration. After winning 11 state primaries in a field of 16 contenders, I won the Democratic presidential nomination. I then lost the general election to President Nixon. Indeed, the entrenched incumbent president, with a campaign budget 10 times the size of mine, the power of the White House behind him and a highly negative and unethical campaign, defeated me overwhelmingly. But lest Cheney has forgotten, a few months after the election, investigations by the Senate and an impeachment proceeding in the House forced Nixon to become the only president in American history to resign the presidency in disgrace.

Who was the real loser of '72?

THE VICE PRESIDENT spoke with contempt of my '72 campaign, but he might do well to recall that I began that effort with these words: "I make one pledge above all others — to seek and speak the truth." We made some costly tactical errors after winning the nomination, but I never broke my pledge to speak the truth. That is why I have never felt like a loser since 1972. In contrast, Cheney and Bush have repeatedly lied to the American people.

It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.

Hang on, though, for the big finish:

Aside from a growing list of impeachable offenses, the vice president has demonstrated his ignorance of foreign policy by attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria. Apparently he thinks it is wrong to visit important Middle East states that sometimes disagree with us. Isn't it generally agreed that Nixon's greatest achievement was talking to the Chinese Communist leaders, which opened the door to that nation? And wasn't President Reagan's greatest achievement talking with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev until the two men worked out an end to the Cold War? Does Cheney believe that it's better to go to war rather than talk with countries with which we have differences?

We, of course, already know that when Cheney endorses a war, he exempts himself from participation. On second thought, maybe it's wise to keep Cheney off the battlefield — he might end up shooting his comrades rather than the enemy.

Game. Set. Match. Smackdown.

Hey, "Dick" ... Let me sum up the whole article for you, using short words that Senator McGovern is far too classy ever to utter, so it's easier for your dessicated, inhuman mind to comprehend:

Go fuck yourself.

(h/t to Eschaton commenter Dave J.)