RIP George McGovern

[Michchamp]

link.

you know how when a politician dies everyone says nice things about him? McGovern might be the only one in recent memory who actually deserves it.

George Stanley McGovern was born on July 19, 1922, in the small farm town of Avon, S.D, the son of a Methodist pastor. He was raised in Mitchell, shy and quiet until he was recruited for the high school debate team and found his niche. He enrolled at Dakota Wesleyan University in his hometown and, already a private pilot, volunteered for the Army Air Force soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Army didn't have enough airfields or training planes to take him until 1943. He married his wife, Eleanor Stegeberg, and arrived in Italy the next year. That would be his base for the 35 missions he flew in the B-24 Liberator christened the "Dakota Queen" after his new bride.

In a December 1944 bombing raid on the Czech city of Pilsen, McGovern's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire that disabled one engine and set fire to another. He nursed the B-24 back to a British airfield on an island in the Adriatic Sea, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. On his final mission, his plane was hit several times, but he managed to get it back safety — one of the actions for which he received the Air Medal.
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While McGovern said little about his decorated service in World War II, Republicans depicted him as a weak peace activist. At one point, McGovern was forced to defend himself against assertions he had shirked combat.
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championed food subsidies for the poor, both in the US and around the world, despite the fact that he had little to gain from it politically, and much to lose. lead principled opposition to the mess in Vietnam, also despite the fact that he had little to gain from it politically. the entire establishment united against him in '72, and his own party stabbed him in the back.

I liked his quote about opening the doors of the democratic party to the people, but instead watching everyone walk out.

"'I opened the doors of the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out," McGovern later joked of his reform commission, which had broadened the nominating process, driven out the old party bosses and ultimately made the presidential primaries the arenas for choosing nominees of both parties."
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[tinselwolverine]

I am very confident that McGovern has gone to Heaven.