University of Virginia Library

Colloquium

McGovern: Honesty And Return To Virtue

By KEVIN MANNIX

(The following was
submitted in response to this
newspaper's quasi-endorsement
of Richard Nixon. Mr. Mannix
is the Seventh District
Coordinator for the
McGovern-Shriver
campaign.–Ed.)

Your editorial of November
3 ("An Agonizing Choice")
reflects too much agonizing
and too little choosing.

In the first place, you
misrepresent the facts. I am
tired of hearing people say
McGovern changes his mind
too much. When challenged, all
they can point to with
specificity is McGovern's
decision to change his welfare
reform proposal and his
decision to ask Eagleton to
withdraw from the ticket.

The former was the result of
an open and honest man's
willingness to admit he was
wrong; the latter was the
result of the need to discuss
the issues in this campaign.
Certainly you must recall the
fact that the only campaign
stories appearing during that
week of crisis related to
Eagleton's health. We still
would be discussing it today
were Eagleton still on the
ticket.

As to other changes of
mind you attribute to
McGovern–on amnesty,
abortion, and marijuana: your
statement, sirs, is a complete
fabrication. I stood next to
Sen. McGovern in the lobby of
the Law School last spring
while he said then exactly what
he says now about these issues.
That was before the primaries.
I would expect more fact than
fancy from you regarding such
issues.

Next we must return to Mr.
Nixon. I refuse to vote for a
man who watched a football
game while 500,000 citizens
demonstrated against the war. I
refuse to vote for a man whose
administration illegally arrested
(as determined by the courts)
13,000 American citizens
during the May Day
demonstrations. I refuse to
vote for a man who invaded
Cambodia without
Congressional authorization. I
refuse to vote for a man who
drops two tons of bombs a
minute over Indochina in
seeking "peace."

I refuse to vote for a man
who has increased the
unemployment rolls–from
3.5% to 5.6%–and then has the
gall to criticize those on
welfare and preach the "work
ethic" to them. Need I go on?
Need I cite the vetoes of
education bills and pollution
control bills? Need I cite the
dreary appointments to the
Supreme Court? Need I remind
your readers of Mr. Nixon's
divisive rhetoric as President,
and of his administration's
attempts to suppress a free
press and the public's right to
know via the Pentagon Papers
case?

More significantly, need I
remind my fellow citizens of
the callous disregard of Mr.
Nixon's administration towards
our minorities, particularly our
black citizens? Mr. Nixon
points with pride towards his
token appointments of blacks
while the poor get poorer and
the rich get richer. Yes, we
have hungry and sick people in
America, and Mr. Nixon's
administration has tried to cut
back on school lunch programs
and refuses to expand job
programs. Mr. Nixon's
administration considers "tax
reform" to mean tax
reductions for corporations.

This is what the election is
all about. While the editors
prattle on about changes of
mind on one candidate's side,
the other candidate continues
to refuse to recognize the need
to change our national
priorities. Yes, we need an
adequate national defense. But
we also need a just society at
home–a society with a
government dedicated to
improving the lot of the many,
not just the few.

McGovern does represent
change–real change. He
doesn't pretend to have all the
answers. He does have specific
proposals–including over 90
position papers. He has been
willing to be wrong on
occasion in order to find what
is right. He has an innate
decency and honesty which we
need in a President. More
importantly, he is a humble
man, open to all of us. That is
why he is willing to admit
mistakes. We aren't used to a
politician who is open, who
doesn't bullshit around. Now
with McGovern we have such a
man running for President. Yet
The Cavalier Daily editorial
board seems to think that four
more years of Richard Nixon's
approach to the problems of
America will be bearable.

I submit that we have a true
choice: the choice between an
open and honest man who
seeks to return America to her
true virtues, and a man who is
willing to exploit America's
weaknesses and hatreds.

I shudder when I think of
the scandals and corruption in
Mr. Nixon's administration.
That alone is evidence enough,
for me, of moral turpitude
and/or an incapacity to
understand what decency is all
about. If Mr. Nixon's
henchmen will wiretap and
sabotage the Democrats in
order to assure re-election,
what will keep them from
carrying on such activities
against others during "four
more years," for other political
purposes? Yet The Cavalier
Daily shunts such
considerations aside.

I see the possibilities of
America, and I see McGovern
as the leader to help us achieve
greatness.