Unconditional Surrender Truman
Harry S Truman
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« on: July 31, 2015, 01:55:17 PM » |
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Four years after his landslide victory in the Election of 1968, President George McGovern remains highly popular with progressives and the nation's youths, though the American Party and some conservative Populists continue to view him with suspicion. True to his word, McGovern's first act as president was to order a halt to all offensive military operations in Vietnam; a three-man peace commission, consisting of Secretary of State Vance Hartke, former Governor George Romney, and Vice President Terry Sanford succeeded in negotiating the Cuban Peace Accords the following Spring, which were overwhelmingly ratified by the large anti-war coalition in Congress. On the domestic front, McGovern has pushed for a massive expansion of the welfare state, including increased funding for the National Health Service and urban housing projects, though Populist losses in the 1970 Midterms have hindered his ability to achieve these measures. Likewise, McGovern partnered with liberal American Party Congressmen to establish the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971 over the objections of Populist leaders who fear that this will hurt their party amongst rural voters.
Having declared his candidacy for a second term in January 1972, McGovern faces only former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox in the Populist Primary. Maddox, who opposes the creation of the EPA and attacked the Cuban Peace Accord as "appeasement", is supported by the small but vocal conservative wing of the Populist Party that supported George Wallace in 1964 and 1968. Far more interesting is the contest for the American Party nomination, which in the absence of a clear front runner has drawn no less than six major candidates. These include Governor Ronald Reagan of California, an advocate for labor unions and strong environmental regulations who is popular with the party's liberal wing; Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio, heir to Goldwater's old base of support; Congressman Pete McCloskey, a veteran of the Korean War who worked alongside President McGovern to establish the EPA; former Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, widely perceived as the most hawkish candidate in the field; former Governor George Romney, hero of the moderate center and the acknowledged front-runner for the nomination; and former Mayor Spiro Agnew, who is competing with Ashbrook for the support of the "militant conservatives".
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