McGovern's Had Enough - Like Specter, Hits the Bricks

We learn today of the passing of the former Senator from North Dakota, George McGovern.  Last week at this same time, I was advised that my own former Senator, Arlen Specter was moving up to the Senate in the Sky where a vote based on doing right by their families and genuine friends was going on. 
When I was in high school, the war in Viet Nam was gearing up and, at the age of fifteen, I was barely able to grasp the significance of the Invasion of Cambodia.  President Johnson had been in office a year and had managed to "find the Mens' Room,"  The Beatles were riding high on the charts, "Along Comes Mari" and no body's making any fucking sense.  A history professor challenged us on the War Effort and our acceptance thereof.  Little did I suspect that my eight year old brother would, ten years later, face conscription that could take him to that God-forsaken part of the world.  Nor did I imagine that I would be viewed as a "useful idiot" to be milked by a coward for every ounce of cover he'd find in me, including my children and my trust, to escape the draft.  I never expected that my fellow students in college would choose to major in Education specifically to merit a 2-S deferment and escape the Army's voracious vacuum.  They made horrible teachers and proved to be irresponsible frat boys on so many levels that my illusion of manhood was utterly shattered.

Do you consciously recognize that the Gecko who is the Spokes-Lizard for GEICO is openly revealing in their latest commercial that he represents the Government Employees' Insurance Company?

He now wants ALL OF US to "enjoy" the same benefits FOR OUR CARS that those who have worked for Uncle Sam have for their physical beings since the Thirties.  Things I was taught in the process of obtaining a license to sell Insurance in Pennsylvania for life and healthcare make me suspect that the Gecko's turn at the microphone was timed to communicate a hidden message to his prospective buyers.  For the record, Licenses to sell Car Insurance do not qualify one to represent companies in the business of offering coverage for Life and Health, at least not in my Commonwealth.  Seeing Capitol Hill's Fedral Employees (Is that the ENTIRE set of those who would qualify as "Government Employees"?) react to an All-Reaching Voice booming at them in the Halls of Congress, their Offices, their cars, their tourist sites, in the subway and on the streets made me back up the DVR, then locate it on You Tube to view it again and again.  Each time the 30 second spot rewinds, I am struck by the gauges showing the mike at "total power" and the final scene, of men in the street flapping in the breeze of the omni-present message looking more like the scene of a nuclear blast than a loud-speaker on woofer.   

 

George McGovern was the original victim of the Watergate break-in's "plumbers."  He was defeated in a landslide to Nixon's Four More Years, that ended, instead with Nixon, himself, resigning in disgrace.  Nixon had initially been elected when LBJ recognized - despite all the "power" he wielded inside the beltway - that The People, were no longer indulgent of his conduct of the War.  His decision to neither seek nor "accept" the Democrats' Nomination led to hideous C.I.A. style actions against politically active American citizens placed on Nixon's "Enemies List."   His Texas-Sized Ego was insufficient to dispel his recoil at the disheartening discoveries of the Presidency.   He could have been in office a total of nine plus years yet he demurred.  He finished Kennedy's term, won a term of his own and was eligible to seek reelection, yet did not.  He simply withdrew to his ranch, his dogs and his friends.   As the seasoned Johnson, who had built a generation of I.O.U.'s during his 28 years on the Hill, walked away from power, men who represented the varying anti-war and party interests ran to it.

 

Much Education has visited me since the days when I voted for George McGovern and the call to come home.  I have learned how the comfort zones of the secure bring out the ruthlessness of those determined to hold onto what they have without considering how they might extend and expand that beyond themselves - ever growing the secure perimeter beyond themselves layer by layer.  One has far greater success heading off disasters when more of those who are, likewise, secure stand between themselves and those who would rob them.  As I watched the horrifying results of the election of 1972, and my brothers sneered hatefully at my obsession with the campaign, Baptism of Fire / Fear purged me of any illusion I had that the political class represents me.