McGovern

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/21/1146068/-George-McGovern-1922-2012-R-I-P

McGovern has become a cautionary tale about being liberal in national politics.  But McGovern was also out of touch with an electorate that was turning hard right on social issues, an electorate that was sick and tired of sex, drugs and those obstreperous Negros.

I think, ironically, we live in a country that is much more socially liberal than McGovern's but much more economically conservative.  Unions turned away from McGovern and helped empower the rise of the Goldwater-Reagan GOP, which led to the steady weakening of unions and the decline of the blue collar middle class.

Romney doesn't come off well when things turn to social issues.  But he's given unearned credibility on economic issues, because... Bain?  Tax cuts?  I don't get it.

The Left is winning the argument on LGBT rights and contraception, even if it's ceded the field on guns.

If Obama wins a second term and the economy continues to recover, Democrats need to change not just the conversation about the middle class, but the outcomes.

That way lies a liberal majority that McGovern could only dream of.