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Tuesday, October 23. 2012

George McGovern: Bomber pilot, War Hero, Preacher, Politician...Inn Owner?

George McGovern was hard not to like, but his politics were naive in the extreme. Late in life, he decided to go into business, and wrote about it: George McGovern in the Journal  - A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare: A 1992 column on the realities of running a business.


I think it must have been painful for him to accept that many of the Liberal policies he had stood for during his career were plain destructive and exasperating to the ordinary citizen who just wanted to make an honest living.

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays at 17:39 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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It is always difficult for anyone to accept that they have erred on a matter that is important to them.

The chief defense people erect against this is the notion that they cannot be wrong unless they are 100% wrong. Then it takes them only a moment to check that they are not 100% wrong, and therefore not wrong at all.

I am sure that many of the notions in McGovern's head were good ideas. The problem is that some of the other ideas were manifestly bonkers.
#1 John on 2012-10-23 18:19 (Reply)
Reading his military history, this was a real American Hero - one of many of his generation. Plain spoken men who performed incredible feats of bravery and skill.

I can understand how he came to his opinions reading his bio.

He may have been a liberal Democrat, but he was still an American Hero. Our civil history has seen many of these folks, men and women - ordinary in one way, extraordinary in others.

We are an amazing country.
#2 Tom Francis on 2012-10-23 18:27 (Reply)
"I think it must have been painful for him to accept that many of the Liberal policies he had stood for during his career were plain destructive and exasperating to the ordinary citizen who just wanted to make an honest living."

No doubt. However, the fact that he was able to say so, in a venue as public as the Wall Street Journal, speaks volumes about the strength of his character.
#3 wolfwalker on 2012-10-23 18:59 (Reply)
McGovern co-authored The Great Coalfield War, about the largest civil uprising in US history. The coalminers in southern Colorado went on strike in 1913, and the National Guard was called in. Things became violent and there were a number of brutal deaths.

My Grandmother was a teenager on a farm a few miles away at that time, and helped her parents sell produce in the mine camps. She and people she knew had first hand knowledge of those events. My family were not fans of McGovern's politics, but all agreed that his book was the most complete and even handed account ever published.
#4 Jose on 2012-10-23 19:57 (Reply)

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