Oct 23, 2012 3 min read

Presidential politics over the last century or so has seen its share of candidates buried under electoral landslides who, after humiliation at the ballot box, skulked out of the public arena and left virtually no imprint on the parties that nominated them.Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis offered little inspiration on their way to big defeats. Robert Dole retired to erectile dysfunction ads and humor books. Alton B. Parker and Alf Landon are now “Alton who?” and “Alf who?”, known mostly to history junkies and “Jeopardy” contestants.That was not the case, though, with Barry Goldwater and George McGovern, the latter of whom died Sunday at age 90. In 1964, the Republican Goldwater was flayed by Lyndon Johnson in a 44-state romp that saw the incumbent rack up the most commanding popular-vote total to that point. Then, just eight years later, it was the Democrats’ turn to be pulverized. In the 1972 presidential election, Richard Nixon came within a smidgen of Johnson’s popular-vote margin and won 49 states. McGovern managed to eke out victories in only true-blue Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The U.S. senator from South Dakota didn’t even carry his home state. There were some states where McGovern didn’t even win a single county.In their time, both candidates were judged to be too extreme: Goldwater was seen as being at the vanguard of reaction, hostile to civil rights and the social safety net, and possessed of a too-itchy nuclear trigger finger; McGovern, on the other hand, was seen as being too much the pacifist, too beholden to the counterculture and identity politics and too dedicated to do-gooder, “giveaway” programs.Both the Goldwater and McGovern defeats bookended the turbulent politics of the 1960s, but brought new generations of true-believers into both the major political parties and helped shape their directions in the decades that followed. The GOP’s rightward drift started under Goldwater, and it ushered Ronald Reagan onto the political stage thanks to a commercial he cut for the Goldwater effort. McGovern’s campaign enlisted an Arkansas Rhodes scholar named Bill Clinton, who tested his political acumen as a coordinator for McGovern’s drive in Texas.Given the prominence of baby boomers in our political life, it can be argued that the fights between the Goldwater and McGovern forces are still being enacted today.Years after the 1972 drubbing, McGovern often said he believed he was unfairly characterized as being a left-wing tilter at windmills. And some of the positions that McGovern and his supporters took in 1972, such as encouraging environmental protection, expanding the availability of health care and celebrating ethnic diversity are now entrenched in the mainstream.Despite the level of opposition McGovern faced in his political career, few disputed his fundamental decency and honesty. Writing in The Washington Post earlier this week, Dole characterized McGovern as “a true gentleman who was one of the finest public servants I had the privilege to know,” despite the disagreements they had in public life.”We…knew that what we had in common was far more important than our different philosophies,” Dole continued. “America and the world are for the better because of him.”