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'Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts'
By adamg on Sun, 10/21/2012 - 9:09am
George McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972, has died, age 90. Of course, he had a unique tie to Massachusetts - we're the only state that voted for him then (as did the District of Columbia).
George McGovern in Post Office Square, for a rally on Oct. 3, 1972.
McGovern wins the Massachusetts primary in April, 1972.
McGovern with a Bud Light at the 2006 Mass. state convention.
Globe: George McGovern’s indelible mark on Massachusetts politics.
Charles Pierce: The Forgotten Legacy of George McGovern.
How he almost picked Kevin White to run for VP - until Ted Kennedy stepped in.
When McGovern ran for president again in 1984, his Massachusetts campaign manager was Jim McGovern, now a Congressman from Worcester.
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Comments
Fools
Wasn't it because of all the fools in Massachusetts who voted for him, that Nixon closed down the Boston Navy Yards?
The navy yard and naval
The navy yard and naval hospital in Chelsea were outdated facilities which had remained open out of patronage more than capabilities. If the navy yard had a larger drydock and deeper channel to it, it would have remained open until at least until the end of the Cold War. Similarly if the naval hospital in Chelsea had been properly maintained and updated after WWII, it likely would have also survived until at least the end of the Cold War.
I blame local politicians for not keeping both facilities up to date in the postwar period and sufficiently vital to avoid a petty defunding by a spited executive office.
Really too bad in both cases as the medical and tech companies in the area, booming since the 1980s, could have been real assets to both facilities if they had remained open.
Even the Quincy shipyard is a wasted facility. Would still be building ships if an auto-distributor hadn't outbid a lease on it for unloading/storage of cars.
Massachusetts maritime heritage down the drain and people out of work thanks to some severe shortsighted decisions over the years.
Nice try, but...
The Quincy shipyard was dead long before it became a parking lot.
A ship building company bid
A ship building company bid on the shipyard a few years ago and lost to the current parking lot. The state should have realized a few dollars more on a lease wasn't worth as much as actually employing skilled tradespeople making stuff in the commonwealth.
The yard was shut down for 18
The yard was shut down for 18 years before Quirk bought land there. There were multiple attempts to bring back shipbuilding before land was sold to Quirk. There are also other businesses operating there now - Quirk didn't buy the whole shipyard. Shipbuilding was never going to come back to anything like it once was at Fore River. The Navy isn't buying ships like it used to, and LNG tankers aren't built here any more. They did the right thing getting as much money as they could from Quirk.
Strange View
Gee, if you didn't stand up to that bully, you wouldn't be getting beaten up.
If you just voted for a crook or paid your protection money, you wouldn't have gotten punished.
Etc. Yes, blame the people who "didn't do as everyone else did" in a democracy? Study civics much?
George McGovern and humorous sticker
Just spoke with my brother. He remembers voting for McGovern in his first presidential voting in Massachusetts. I being an ole fa** had voted earlier in 1968. Yes, I voted for George. Really what were the choices. I initially worked for the Fred Harris campaign --- then sat back and watched the campaign unfold over the summer/fall of 1972.
My very first automobile a Rambler American had the infamous bumper sticker, "Don't Blame Me, ------ Mass". I wrecked the vehicle in September 1974.
Remember well how folks would laugh about the sticker and Massachusetts being the only state to vote for 'ole George. I don't believe the sticker came-out immediately after the election in 1972, but sometime in 1973. Maybe an ageing boomer as myself has more details.
My brother, today, told me that his ex-brother-in-law kept the "Don't Blame Me, ---" sticker on his Honda way into the 1980s.
Elsewhere in the country ...
People like my mom wore "Don't Blame Me - I voted for McGovern" buttons throughout the Watergate era.
Brave guy
He piloted 35 combat missions in a B-24. Pretty stark contrast with the current bunch of GOP chickenhawks, most of whom had other things to do when other guys were getting shot at.
..with the current bunch of
or the Chickenhawks of his era. McGovern's anti-Vietnam war stance was based directly from his World War II experience. As a young attorney, Richard Nixon served in the Navy as a contract administrator. Ronald Reagan at the time was acting and narrating army training films, going home for weekends during his time in the army. Americna
McGovern's B-24, WWII 4-engine bombers carried 10-12 men, who were protected from heavy machine gun, cannon and anti-aircraft artillery by little more than aluminum aircraft skin that was thinner than the metal on your car. During those 35 missions it was very common for the bomber sqaudrons to loose 10% of their aircraft, so on a 100 plane mission, approximately 100-120 air crews had their planes so shot up that they were unable to stay in the sky. Often the planes simply exploded, or violently caught fire. The likely hood of being able to safely parachute out, was purely a matter of luck.
Yet the modern conservative movement had no problem painting McGovern as a coward. They are shameless!
Watergate
I believe thos "Don't Blame Me..." stickers came out after the Watergate/Nixon scandal came about.
Another post-1972 Mass. bumper sticker
was just an outline of the state boundary, with the words 'We Told You So' inside. Still saw some of these on cars around here in the late 1970s.
I'd love to link to a photo of this, but I can't find one.