George McGovern

Tonight I heard former Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern speak at Lake Harriet United Methodist Church. He spoke about his work fighting hunger around the world, as well as today's political climate. He gave an interesting talk, speaking about some of the same things that many Democrats have been talking about lately: shifting the discussion over morals, trying to end this religious schism that we have in this country today.

In a roundabout way, if it weren't for George McGovern, I may never have become interested in politics. It was only after I read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, about the race for president in 1972, that I really became interested in the sport of politics. Of course, McGovern was the unlucky recipient of the electoral thrashing handed out by Nixon that year. After hearing him speak tonight, I still don't know why. Eminently reasonable and rational, he doesn't sound like the kind of person so radical as to lose 49 states. Republicans demonizing Democrats, though, is nothing new.