What if Democrats got McGovern? (non-center-right Democratic Party)

The New Republic article "What Democrats Still Don't Get About George McGovern" crafts a nifty narrative about how the Democratic party essentially shifted towards the center after McGovern's defeat, while the Republicans shifted towards the further right after Goldwater's. Hence, different archconservative groups and figures consolidated power and mindshare within the GOP, and reaped in the success of the Reagan Revolution, while the New Democrats, the neoliberals, and the DLC were able to get the Clintons. It also argues that Nixon's victory in 1972 was inevitable,

Any Democratic nominee was doomed in 1972. Modern election forecasting models based on variables like the state of the economy and the incumbent’s approval ratings make clear, in retrospect, that Nixon was destined to win in a landslide. Taking any guesswork out of the result, Nixon stoked the economy with expansive fiscal and monetary policy, and when polls showed that the public preferred McGovern on issues like inflation and taxes, Nixon shifted to the left. He took the unprecedented step of instituting wage-price controls to clamp down on inflation and promised to sock it to the rich and slash tax rates on the working class if reelected. “The essence of this is redistribution,” Nixon’s top domestic adviser, John Ehrlichman, told an astonished press. On foreign affairs, Nixon could justifiably claim that he was not only winding down the war in Vietnam, but also cooling off the Cold War, thanks to his famous trip to China. The Democrats could have resurrected FDR and Nixon would have trounced him in 1972.

McGovern promised to close tax loopholes for the rich and use federal revenue to provide low- and middle-income Americans with relief from rapidly rising property taxes. Most radically, McGovern united welfare reform and tax reform by proposing a “Demogrant” of $1,000 per year for every adult, regardless of income, as an alternative to Nixon’s complicated means-tested welfare overhaul plan.

So suppose McGovern's economic leftism continued to be upheld. Maybe Jimmy Carter still runs in 1976, albeit with both more populism and also attempts to implement some populist measure during his presidency. How does that go? Who do the Democrats nominate after Carter still gets beaten in 1980?
 
Democrats following McGovernism would pretty much require no Carter Presidency as a prerequisite. In fact, the '76 primary would probably be the main PoD.

Really interesting scenario, though..I'll comment more later.
 
You need at the very least a classic New Dealer to win the Presidency in 1976 and be more successful than Carter was, or Ford needs to win in 1976 and preside over the same mess that Carter did OTL, and have a New Dealer (Mondale??) win in 1980. Those are the only ways the Democratic Party stays economically left.
 
In the contemporary era, if Trump does go on to win the GOP nomination, it might be overall beneficial to the Party, as he will lose the election by a landslide and thus invalidate the far-right which has been gradually been taking over the party.

The Centrists will probably pull the GOP closer towards moderatism, and thus strengthen the party long-term. Forrest fires are bad short-term but good long term for the health of the forrest. So it is with politics.
 
The Democrats nominated another very liberal candidate in Mondale. Mondale was to McGovern's right, but still to the left of anyone the Dems have run since. Reagan clobbered him.
 
If Carter had lost in 1976 the Democratic Party would have been unofficially led by Senator Kennedy who was of course much more liberal than Carter. Carter was fairly conservative on fiscal matters in the context of the party. He emphasized inflation over employment-was skeptical at best of the kind of healthcare program Kennedy supported and his administration supported the trend towards deregulation.

Remove Carter from the Presidency and the axis of the Democratic Party revolves around Ted Kennedy. He's the one person in the party who is beloved by all of the competing factions within the party at the time. He's admired both by the sort of people who voted for McGovern and those who despised McGovern. Without a Democratic President to compete with-in the late 1970's he's the driving force in the Democratic Party.

He may not run in 1980-but the nominee is probably going to be someone who shares much of Kennedy's ideology. That is if Kennedy himself isn't elected-the Democratic nominee is more probably going to be someone who agrees with Kennedy than someone more conservative.

Said nominee would probably win if the Ford administration suffers the same fate.
 
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