It’s been a while since we played the 1966 Game.
So let’s review the rules.
The idea is that you look for modern analogs to the important players who made 1968 so memorable. But remember that this is something of a Bizarro World exercise. Now it’s the Republicans who are the insiders, the dominant Thesis being that of Richard Nixon. And it’s the Democrats who are on the outs, their Netroots the equivalent of the Goldwater movement.
So who plays Eugene McCarthy?
Let’s review. McCarthy in 1966 was a back-bencher who looked set to stay that way. He had a fairly safe seat, was conventional in his outlook, albeit a bit quirky. (He liked poetry.)
McCarthy grabbed history by the throat by challenging his own party, running against LBJ early on an anti-war platform. After nearly beating President Johnson in New Hampshire, Johnson quit the race, and McCarthy was then challenged on the left by Bobby Kennedy and on the right by Hubert Humphrey.
So who’s McCarthy now?
I hope you’re saying who’s that, because this is precisely what you would have said upon seeing a picture of McCarthy back in 1966.
Meet Tom Tancredo. He’s a Congressman from Colorado. He is best-known (if at all) for being the first to propose a giant fence to keep out the Messikins. He is, in fact, already considering a run for the White House, considering the Bush Administration insufficiently conservative.
To his contemporaries, McCarthy seemed a little strange, a little off-kilter. (Poetry?) Tancredo is batshit crazy.
First, there’s his political organization. TeamAmerica PAC? Sounds like something the guys from South Park would dream up. He has also suggested "going nuclear" in the Middle East and thinks that it’s not he who is out of touch with the mainstream, but Bush.
Given the explosion we can expect of the Republican majority, and the lunacy seen on popular right wing blogs, however, Tancredo fits right in. He’s the GOP netroots hope for 2008.
Toned for Tom?
So we’ve done Humphrey, Nixon, Reagan, Rockefeller,Bobby Kennedy and now McCarthy. We know who Bush is (Johnson). Who might be left?
How about Wallace? Next time on The 1966 Game!
