"The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else."
Posted on 08/16/2012 3:53:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Shrewd move in choosing House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Now here's the next play: Invite George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, to speak this month in Tampa at the Republican National Convention.
Yes, that old lefty McGovern. You know the expression, "A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged"? Well, McGovern has been mugged.
The most left-wing Democratic presidential candidate this side of Barack Obama, former Sen. McGovern, D-S.D., proposed giving every man, woman and child an annual $1,000 "demogrant." In his nomination acceptance speech, McGovern made the same case that Obama makes today -- capitalism and free markets let us down, and social justice require universal health coverage: "A program to put America back to work demands that work be properly rewarded. That means the end of a system of economic controls in which labor is depressed, but prices and corporate profit run sky-high. It means a system of national health insurance so that a worker can afford decent health care for himself and his family."
McGovern's left-wing bona fides are beyond questioning.
Sen. Bobby Kennedy, D-N.Y., himself a presidential candidate in 1968, called McGovern the "only decent man in the Senate." A decorated World War II bomber pilot, McGovern fiercely opposed the Vietnam War and pushed for a complete and immediate withdrawal of American troops. Name a tax hike, spending bill or new regulation, and very likely McGovern supported it. But after he left the Senate in 1981, something happened that profoundly changed several of his most deeply held views.
McGovern went into business for himself -- and went bust.
Following the recommendation of a friend with "a lifetime of hotel- and restaurant-management experience," McGovern bought a small hotel and restaurant, the Stratford Inn in Connecticut. He poured his savings into the place, investing his seven year's worth of post-Senate earnings from the lecture circuit.
A contributing factor to the failure, according to McGovern, was the regulations that make it tough to make a profit. In a mea culpa that should chill every lefty on the Hill, McGovern said: "I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House. ... I learned first of all that over the past 20 years America has become the most litigious society in the world. ... The second lesson I learned by owning the Stratford Inn is that legislators and government regulators must more carefully consider the economic and management burdens we have been imposing on U.S. businesses. ... Many businesses, especially small independents such as the Stratford Inn, simply can't pass such costs on to their customers and remain competitive or profitable."
"I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople." Holy Ayn Rand! Then in the spring of 2008, McGovern wrote an article called, "Freedom Means Responsibility":
"Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states," wrote McGovern. "Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all."
This is, of course, exactly what Republicans, pre-ObamaCare, offered as one of the ways to increase the affordability of health care insurance -- without further government intrusion.
McGovern, in warning about excessive regulation, sounded almost Reaganesque: "Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. ... Since leaving office, I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.
"Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.
"The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else."
McGovern did a lot of damage while in Congress. Here's a chance for him to help undo some of it. For the sake of the country, McGovern should share his hard-earned wisdom -- at the Republican National Convention.
Invite him, Mitt. If he can't make it, then quote him.
Obama could tell us how he is 1000% behind Biden!!!
(Remember Thomas Eagleton?)
"The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else."
Thanks for reminding us of McGovern’s traitorous behavior in Vietnam. Over the years, I have shocked many liberal friends by stating unequivocally that, even if I knew then what I now know about Richard Nixon, I would readily vote again for Nixon over McGovern.
“I’m serious.”
You may be serious but you are also woefully uninformed or ignorant of the facts.
How many Freepers voted for for McGovern for president? First time I was eligible to vote, I did. By time Reagan was up for the second term, I finally got wise, and I have been a Reaganite since!
If conservatives think the Dems only recently went off the left side of the political universe, they should have seen the ‘72 Dem convention. I was a Dem at the time, but I was shocked to see a parade of leftist wackos prance up to the podium and give their deluded visions of what they were going to do to America. I couldn’t vote for McGovern, and I didn’t much like Nixon. But I sure wasn’t sorry McGovern lost. Unfortunately, we have George’s ideological successor in the White House. I doubt he’d have a Damascus-like revelation that McGovern had.
That would be an incorrect assumption. When I saw the people i.e. leftist kooks McGovern had surrounded himself with in '72, I got the feeling I might be leaving the Dem Party at a future date.
I went to a McGovern rally while in college. Air-heads. Hair-heads. Pot-heads. Professorial pinheads. Commies-The ones that wore that beanie cap with a Red Star on it. Reminded me of the KFC special they were running...”All left wings and assholes!”
Ha,ha, that sounds like a description of the kind of people Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wanted for his gang of cutthroats in Blazing Saddles. Thanks for the laugh.
That is suicide.
He was a traitorous POS socialist way back then...
Odds are he’s still a traitorous POS socialist now.
Old commies never die; they just get old and think “the right people STILL aren’t in charge”.
Even if McGovern had a friendly regulatory environment for his bed and breakfast, he would have failed. Like most liberals he lacks any sense of good judgement The man is a loser and I would not want him running any business of mine regardless of the regulatory environment.The only lectern this clown should be behind is the one provided for calling the numbers at the bingo game in his retirement community.
Even the old McGovern would have been more conservative than the likely 2012 Republican nominee.
I’m serious.
I’m also serious. You’re wrong.
” He was a traitorous POS socialist way back then...
Odds are he’s still a traitorous POS socialist now.
Old commies never die; they just get old and think “the right people STILL aren’t in charge”.
Inviting McGovern is an idea of the terminally STUPID.
” He was a traitorous POS socialist way back then...
Odds are he’s still a traitorous POS socialist now.
Old commies never die; they just get old and think “the right people STILL aren’t in charge”.
Inviting McGovern is an idea of the terminally STUPID.
Same guy who passionately pleaded that ‘”the greatest gift we could give VIet Nam was peace” and then two years later took to the Senate floor to call for the bombing of Cambodia after the destabilization accelerated by our withdrawl from the region. He’s just older and in worse health now with a grandson trying to adopt his surname for his own launch into politics...
Same guy who passionately pleaded that ‘”the greatest gift we could give VIet Nam was peace” and then two years later took to the Senate floor to call for the bombing of Cambodia after the destabilization accelerated by our withdrawl from the region. He’s just older and in worse health now with a grandson trying to adopt his surname for his own launch into politics...
Only a guy who either wasn't old enough to remember or wasn't mentally engaged enough at the time to remember would say such a thing ...
Oh but wait, aren't you the presidential "nominee" of the same third party that did so much to unseat Nixon in 1972?
Tom Hoefling for President 2012, July 27, 2012, For Immediate Release,Contact: tomhoefling@gmail.com Sacramento, CA - America's Party presidential nominee Tom Hoefling has accepted the invitation of the American Independent Party of California to participate in three debates with candidates vying for their 2012 presidential nomination.
Schmitz-Anderson 1972:
Seems that, much like like you, about the only claim to fame that Schmitz had (apart from the fact that he'd actually made it to Congressional elective office - unlike you) was that he spawned a few offspring (including his daughter, the famed convicted and jailed pedophile-ette, Mary Kay LaTourneau).
Schmitz ended his political career after 1972, and to the end of his life was reduced to a post-Congressional wilderness career as a kiosk operator in Union Station in DC.
The American Independent Party evidently didn't have much of a retirement plan for washed up nominees back then.
Maybe they'll take better care of washed up nominees this election cycle.
If you’re going to bash people, Aggie, get your facts straight. Schmitz was considered such a thorn from the right that Nixon (whose O.C. district he resided in) personally involved himself in aggressively getting behind a primary challenger to narrowly beat Schmitz (that party establishment challenger, btw, Andrew Hinshaw, turned out to be a crook). Schmitz only ran for President because of Nixon’s actions, otherwise he’d have been cruising to another term in Congress.
His career did not end in 1972. He returned to the California State Senate in 1979 (after having previously served almost 6 years there before his election to Congress) and served a 4-year term. Despite his unfortunate actions in his personal life, he was still buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Linky?
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