Over the weekend there were several requests for a thread about Sen. McGovern who died yesterday at the age of 90, shortly after entering hospice care in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This post can serve as one.Wikipedia has what seems to be a decent overview of Sen. McGovern's life and career for those looking for an introduction. The Sioux Falls Argus-Leader has collected its coverage here. Eileen McNamara, who cast her first presidential vote for McGovern in 1972, has a lovely and fiery reminiscence by an unrepentant liberal:"He was right about Vietnam, right about the disastrous consequences of income inequality and right about the man whose unprecedented resignation from the presidency in 1974 looms larger than his landslide victory over McGovern two years earlier. McGovern was the last presidential candidate unafraid to prescribe bold action in the face of seemingly overwhelming social problems....During my years in Congress and for the four decades since, Ive been labeled a bleeding-heart liberal. It was not meant as a compliment, but I gladly accept it, McGovern wrote last year. My heart does sometimes bleed for those who are hurting in my own country and abroad. A bleeding-heart liberal, by definition, is someone who shows enormous sympathy towards others, especially the least fortunate. Well, we ought to be stirred, even to tears, by societys ills. And sympathy is the first step toward action. Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction Love the neighbor as thyself.Theres a hopelessly far left lost liberal cause for you."Please add your own thoughts, reminiscences, observations and prayers below.

Luke Hill is a writer and community organizer in Boston. He blogs at dotCommonweal and MassCommons. 

Also by this author
© 2024 Commonweal Magazine. All rights reserved. Design by Point Five. Site by Deck Fifty.