MAJORITY RULES - MINORITY RIGHTS

MAJORITY RULES: COLLECTIVE WISDOM or COLLECTIVE DELUSION? 

I am saddened to learn that George McGovern is close to death: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/17-10

After I turned 18 years old (shortly after 18 year old people got the right to vote) I had the honor of casting my first vote for George McGovern. I was in the college in Ohio at the time. With all the anti-war activity on campus I felt sure that McGovern was a shoo in. I couldn't have been more wrong. When I found out Nixon had won, I felt betrayed and like I had physically been punched in the gut and kicked in the nuts. 

We had the right to vote and the right to die in Vietnam but no right to have a say in ending the Vietnam war. 

 I heard George McGovern interviewed and he said that the American Electorate had made a mistake; that we had not elected the better of the two candidates . History proved him to be right on the money.  

Nixon resigned in disgrace. 

IT ALL ABOUT WINNING AND LOSING:  Gary Hart writes today about McGovern as a humanitarian winner: 

it is all about winning and losing. From this perspective, George McGovern goes down as an epic loser: 49 States went against him and for Richard Nixon in 1972.

But what if we judged political figures and candidates by more intelligent standards? The "winner" Richard Nixon, abdicated the presidency in disgrace. And the "loser" George McGovern continued on to become one of his generation's greatest humanitarians.

Throughout his public and private life, Senator McGovern was at the forefront of the struggle against hunger both in the United States and throughout the world. Though a decorated military hero, he led the opposition to the war in Vietnam. He has still to be recognized for his leadership in democratizing the Democratic Party and opening up its doors to women, minorities, and young people, thus avoiding a repeat of the chaos at the Chicago Democratic convention in 1968 and bringing his party into the cultural mainstream emerging from the social revolutions of the 1960s and 70s.

It was then that I learned a valuable lesson: Majority doesn't necessarily mean collective wisdom. It can also mean collective delusion.