CAMPAIGN ’88 : ‘McGovern’ Defined

Former Sen. George S. McGovern of South Dakota, who suffered one of the worst U.S. political defeats in his 1972 presidential bid, says he wants posterity to know his definition of a “McGovern Democrat.”

“I know you are aware of the frequent press references these days to ‘McGovern Democrat,’ ” he wrote in a column published this week in the Washington Post, presented as a letter to his four grandsons and others of their generation.

“I’ve been told that it is a compliment I am still discussed 16 years after I was a presidential nominee. But I’ve been wondering what you think about me when you hear my name used as a kind of swearword,” McGovern wrote.

“Let me tell you first of all not to get too agitated about this. The political epithets thrown at far greater men than I--George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln--make ‘McGovern Democrat’ seem pretty polite stuff by comparison,” he said.

McGovern, who lost 49 states in the 1972 presidential race to Republican rival Richard M. Nixon, said he based his campaign on ending the Vietnam War, warning Americans of political corruption, reforming military spending and “calling America home to its constitutional principles and founding ideals.”

According to McGovern, his opponents declined to debate those issues and instead labeled him the “Triple-A candidate,” of “amnesty, acid and abortion.”

“It is my belief that nearly all of my views of 1972 are now generally accepted by the American people,” McGovern wrote.