"One Bright Shining Moment"

From Wallwritings

Christmas Day comes and goes. You take a walk, or you sit in your easy chair, and think, who could I call to discuss the political miasma of the closing days of 2018?

Has it been this dark and poisonous before? Of course it has; still, the present Trumpian moment is existentially crying out for wisdom from the past.

Searching for a kindred spirit, I turned to a November 22, 2009, Wall Writings posting I wrote, Talking With McGovern in a Time of Palin and Israel's Settlements. It began:

"I was fed up with the ugliness of American political dialogue. I knew it was time to call George McGovern. I found him on St. Thomas Island, where he was attending the funeral of an old friend, Henry Kimmelman."

I played a state-level role in McGovern's 1972 campaign, my first entry into presidential politics. I came to know and admire George McGovern, a liberal U.S. Senator from South Dakota, while I served as chair of his Illinois primary campaign and was an Illinois delegate to his nomination convention.

If newspapers and, nowadays blogs, are the "first rough draft of history," I propose a revisit to my 2009 "rough draft," as a reminder that history might well consider it was McGovern's 1972 loss and Nixon's victory, that shoved this nation into our current 2018 darkness.

I would like to talk to McGovern in this time of Trumpism. I would make the call, but McGovern died, at age 90, October 21, 2012, two weeks before John McCain, and his choice for Vice President, Sarah Palin, were defeated and President Barack Obama was reelected to a second term.

George McGovern knew that the branch of the Republican party from which Sarah Palin had emerged, was still strong. What he did not know was that Donald J. Trump would one day emerge from that branch as our 45th President.

The 2019 posting below includes links to significant events in McGovern's career. Clicks on those links will offer interaction with McGovern's wisdom and depth.

Talking With McGovern in a Time of Palin and Israel's Settlements

November 22, 2009

by James M. Wall

I was fed up with the ugliness of American political dialogue. I knew it was time to call George McGovern.

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