From the "Eagleton Affair" to the "Vance Affair," 2024 is the new 1972.
Happy Hour: How DJT & His Campaign Manager Castrated Ron DeSantis and Freed Me
Welcome back to Uncontemplated.
In 1941, Dakota Wesleyan University college Freshman, George S. McGovern, first walked the campus grounds. Seventy-one years later, Senator George McGovern, slipped while entering the library named in his honor. He was there to do his favorite thing; open hearts and minds.
George, then eighty-nine (89) years old, hit his head on the pavement below. After a short hospitalization, the McGovern family moved George to hospice. He died on my birthday, October 21, 2012, at the age of ninety (90).
George McGovern was my best friend and I failed him.
I spoke to him once during his hospitalization. I didn’t make time to visit or even to write a note. The handwritten kind. The kind he would have enjoyed. I was busy. Busy trying to distance myself from his progressiveness for a handful of moderate votes. Busy begging donors to hand over a few votes so I can have a few yard signs scattered around town. Busy trying to figure out how the hell we let the “Silent Majority” of 1972 morph into the Tea Party of 2012.
I was busy running against Ron DeSantis.
I am not insinuating that every political candidate turns their back on the people, places and things that were once important to them, but I am telling you that running for office does exact a price. What each person is willing to pay runs the gambit from missed minutes with a cherished friend to inciting an insurrection and everything that is imaginable and unimaginable laying somewhere in between.
After the post-campaign mourning period subsided, I felt the yearning to document my memories of George. It took a very long time to conquer my own self-doubts and, of course, there was an even bigger problem; I knew nothing about the publishing business. Predictably, I did what comes easily to Libra’s. I procrastinated. I dabbled. I mulled. Until finally, the years had passed but unrealized dream remained.
On January 4, 2022, I reached out to Open Boat Editing. I suppose, I was hoping that, if I gave words to my dream, I’d have to make it so. In that same vein of hope, I confided in a few people. It worked! I began writing my memories and set about figuring out the whole publishing thing. Thanks for the assist MasterClass.
Universally, friends, experts, and political types advised “DESANTIS IS YOUR HOOK.” It isn’t that I disagreed, but the idea brought a sense of dread. I didn’t want to interweave my life with Ron’s again. I didn’t want to spend my time listening to him. Reading about him. Reliving him. Moreover, I just couldn’t see how a book meant to pay tribute to McGovern could even include DeSantis. It felt disrespectful to McGovern somehow.
McGovern, whose best buddy in the Senator was Kansas Republican Bob Dole, would have not found it disrespectful. Of that, I was sure. Over time, I convinced myself that there was a way to bring my vision into alignment with “market demands” and that McGovern would appreciate the pragmatism and even the bi-partisanship.
Whatever Gave You The Courage?
On October 21, 2012, I celebrated my 44th birthday. It was a Sunday. That day came just three days after the Beaven v. DeSantis debate and sixteen days before Election Day. It was also the day George McGovern died.
Throughout 2022, there were hours upon hours of research stacked upon weeks of writing. Sleepless nights. Developmental meetings. Edit after edit. Recommendations, suggestions, and debates. Oh, and the fact-checking. Three fact-checks, in fact.
I was thick into writing just as DeSantis was ramping up his culture wars. The new narrative morphed into a historical comparison that rested on how our Constitutional views inform our view of Civil Rights. Specifically, I focused on equity and equality in six areas: disabilities, education, immigration, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women. By the time my first Substack was published, the book’s working title was Uncontemplated.
Finally, I had a 99,000-word manuscript in its fifth edit.
In the end, I figured out a formula that seemed to work. However, the inclusion of DeSantis and Nixon, the expanded narrative moved the book from “memoir” to “political nonfiction.” Which bit me in the ass. Apparently, only a tiny slice of the American people spend money on the latter and publishers aren’t interested in tiny slices of the market.
I grew impatient. Maybe DeSantis wasn’t “the hook” or maybe I am a shitty writer. The only way to find out was to consider “nontraditional” publishing but both self and hybrid publishing come with their own set of drawbacks. I felt stuck. When I feel blocked like that my nature wants to ramrod things through, but a lifetime of experience has taught me (try) to allow things to unfold organically. So, wait, I did.
Welcome to the final Uncontemplated
No, I am not giving up on my dream. I am unblocking it.
In the weeks leading up to Iowa, my instinct told me that Ron DeSantis wasn’t going to make it to the big show. I started to think; if Ron DeSantis ain’t relevant to the nation, he certainly isn’t relevant to me. A nagging came over me. Did I just write a book about a “nobody” and three men who were once “somebody” before fading into history?
Shit.
But then, on July 16, 2024, Team Trump gave us J.D. Vance.
RawSTORY
VP Pick Doesn’t Matter, Until It Does
Donald Trump - well, to be fair, Susie Wiles - ended Ron DeSantis’ lifelong dream of ascending to the Oval Office when they named Ron’s doppelgänger as Veep. I don’t mean she snatched 2024 from Ron. Ron did that himself. I mean she neutered Ron until at least 2032. Hear me out.
Floridian Susie Wiles is a sixty-seven-year-old grandmother. She is also a Kingmaker. She was part of the inner circle that made Donald Trump 2016 possible, and she remains his campaign manager for the 2024 cycle. Off cycle, in 2018, when DeSantis and Trump were A-Okay, Wiles offered to use her powers to help Ron DeSantis for Governor bid.
As the DeSanti’ often do, Ron and Casey grew suspicious and paranoid. Susie was their scapegoat. To be clear, making Susie Wiles your scapegoat is a very bad idea. Ron and Casey - as humans - are bullies. In Florida politics, intimidation will get you four years down the road. Susie, however, is feared and fear is the Goose that Keeps Laying the Golden Egg.
First, Susie made sure Ron crashed and burned early in the primary. She wanted him humiliated and his weird personality handed her the keys to that castle.
2024 is the new 1972: Voting
The 1972 Presidential Election was a pivotal moment in American political history. Today, the Nixon v. McGovern race is used as an example of resounding defeat for Democrats. But it was so much more than that and, by the time it was all said and done, only one man had to resign his office.
The final cut in castrating Ron DeSantis was J.D. Vance.
But, how do we know it was Susie? Because she left breadcrumbs. We know it was Susie because Susie wanted Ron to know it was her.
Similar Age? Check.
Family Roots in the Rust Belt? Check.
Working Class? Check.
Served in the Military? Check.
Ivy League Law School? Check.
Wrote a Book? Check.
Partnered in an Alt-Right Social Media Platform? Check.
Parenting Little Kids? Check.
Won a Statewide Campaign? Check.
An Uncontrollable Urge to Belittle People? Check.
Heritage Foundation Golden Boy? Check.
A Propensity for Weird Photo Ops Destined to Fail? Check.
An Unquenchable Thirst to be Seen as the Smartest Kid in the Class? Check.
I am probably missing other similarities between the two, but, Susie hasn’t missed a thing including the brown-eyed wife with the blue-eyed boy.
Okay, so, what does any of that fun trivia have to do with Uncontemplated?
Welcome to Martinis with McGovern
I am getting unstuck by returning to my original vision of what is likely to be one of the last, first-hand accounts of the liberal icon. The man that Bobby Kennedy called “the most decent man in the Senate.”
Because we need more McGovern’s and fewer Nixon’s right now.
Sneak Peek at Uncontemplated
George McGovern was drunk – very drunk – when he decided to run for the 1972 presidential nomination.
The Rewrite
I am looking forward to pulling Uncontemplated apart and rebuilding it into a story of decency, curiosity, and the man who lost an election but not his soul.
