Having Sarge instead of Kissinger at the helm of US foreign policy must be such a breath of fresh air. It won't be an unblemished tenure by any means, but we've got a dynamic, idealistic institution-builder instead of an academic whose passion for realpolitik sometimes veers into baying for blood. Speaking of that, has Zbig showed up yet? It isn't 70s Democratic foreign policy without him.
Emphasis mine, for the lulz.
More of this guy:
is near-universally a Good Thing. You're right that he's only human, that even the best people make poor decisions sometimes through confirmation bias or poor information or vanity, and that there will be some measure of
realpolitik even in an administration that believes, to paraphrase McGovern's valedictory address when he graduated Dakota Wesleyan, that a practical idealism is necessary in public affairs for the very survival of humanity. But having someone who is such a
dogged optimist and, as you pointed out - this is not sexy at all but it is
bloody important to any kind of stabilization of both the Cold War and post-colonial paths to development and (crummy word, correct concept) self-actualization in the Global South - an institution-builder makes an enormous difference.
So much political-insider banter, and much of what little AH there is about ol' George, either plays with or vigorously affirms the opposed tropes of GEORGE MCGOVERN
IS THE AGE OF AQUARIUS LET MACRAME BE UNCONFINED AND TRIUMPHAL DOOBIES BE LIT or MCGOVERN IS A LIMP-WRISTED COMMIE ENABLER WHO WILL DESTROY WEALTH AND JOY AND PLUNGE AMERICA INTO CANNIBALISM. Or, the much duller but
brutally effective "McGovern's a naive, stumblebum loser" promulgated by the Democratic Leadership Council. What gets skipped in all of that is the people
around McGovern. A presidential administration is the
farthest thing from an island. McGovern and his campaign became in the early Seventies the last best refuge of American left-liberalism. And, once he actually
won the damn election and confounded expectations ITTL, while the Democratic right (hi, Neocons! hi, unrepentant segregationists!) would range themselves in opposition to much of his program, a number of permagov Democratic careerists are gonna try to get on board too because McGovern's is the only Democratic administration currently in town. (It's why a number of idealistic liberals went to work for Carter, at least at first.) This brings to bear a range of policy initiatives and a really quite talented group of people across a broad range but with
particular emphasis on policy in (1) macroeconomics and (2) foreign affairs. Did they have blind spots? Lord yes. Also shortcomings. We'll get to some of those and their consequences as we go. But what gets unleashed in this period is the potential of those talents and their ideas.
Also, some folks will find out that it's dangerous to think that "idealistic" and "naive" or "impractical" are the same things. In particular the New Right will be in the blood-red rush of urgent fury because the McGoverners are bold enough to try things that would (1) genuinely shake up the system and (2) sometimes could actually work, with disastrous effect on the New Right's ability to sway low-information middle-grounders by force of argument. For example it's why many New Right elders counseled (counseled? ordered...)
ni shagu nazad on the public-health-care model. They figured if the public actually
got that there'd be no talking the proles, er,
citizenry out of it. This is a time when the ink's barely dry on the Powell Memo; let battle be joined.
As for Zbiggy Stardust, oh yes, he will wind his serpentine way into the narrative. Zbig certainly prefers power - the real thing - to principle so he's not going to just go die in the last Team B ditch with Scoop Jackson. Probably he'll start with something friendly-like, such as agreeing with the McGoverners that several East European satellites (especially Zbig's beloved Poland) chafe actively against Soviet authority and need a de-escalation of European tensions and more commerce across the Iron Curtain to find their own way. Give 'em something familiar to their confirmation bias, then see where it takes you. He will have his little ways I'm sure.
Yeah Roberto (by intangibles as much as his stats) helps boost up Pittsburgh in that chaotic NL East of '73 and, likewise, adds to complacency the season thereafter because why fix what almost worked last year? And, not to sound too much like a bad color commentator, but in '74 the Cards are hungrier.
