The "why" of that situation is explained by the fact that, until 1971, the voting age requirement used to be 21. However, I graduated from college in 1964 when I was 20 years old, immediately joined the Peace Corps, and was sent to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in a secondary school in Morocco. Very shortly thereafter, I married a Moroccan teacher. In due course, I became mother to two sons while my physical residence was in Morocco. While I continued to live in Morocco, I was literally disenfranchised.
Even if I had been living in the US at the time, I would have missed being eligible to vote in the 1964 election by approximately a month and a half. I didn't turn 21 until mid-December of that year. I totally missed out on the infamous election of 1968. Still, even from abroad we expatriate Americans followed the news of that election closely, from the rise of Eugene McCarthy (who ultimately did immeasurable disservice to the Democratic party, IMO) as an anti-war candidate, to the heartbreaking assassination of RFK, to the sad defeat of Hubert Humphrey at the hands of the dastardly Richard Nixon, whom I never liked, champion as I was of JFK, also tragically assassinated.
When we relocated to the US in 1970, one of the first things that I did was to register to vote. In 1971, the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution, which standardized the voting age to 18, was adopted. The Amendment was adopted in response to student activism in opposition to the Vietnam War. The students believed that if they were old enough to be sent to war, they were certainly old enough to be able to vote. The majority of US citizens believed that the students and their supporters had a valid point. Thus, the implementing amendment came into being.
In spite of the anti-war activism from the late 1960s, by 1972, the anti-war movement was still not as powerful or as mainstream as it later became. The "Hawks" still had the ascendancy in 1972. Extracts from the devastating Pentagon Papers had been published in 1971. But their implications had still not been totally digested by the American public. It was at this point that George McGovern arrived on the national political scene, ultimately to win the Democratic nomination for President in 1972.
Then Senator McGovern, a native of South Dakota, was a genuine WWII war hero. Even so, he was outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War. His legislative efforts to bring it to an end were defeated each time they were proposed. His candidacy for President was disadvantaged, in part by his own decency, in part by ideological divisions in the Democratic Party, but most certainly by a variety of "dirty tricks" by Republican political operatives. As we all know, Senator McGovern was resoundingly defeated by Nixon. This defeat was somewhat eased for me when Nixon himself had to resign in ignominy two years later.
But in 1972, I was very proud to cast my first vote ever for a US President for Senator George McGovern. I am still proud of that. For me, Senator McGovern was the epitome of modern American liberalism and I will not apologize for being an admirer. Never, ever.
So, I was very sad to read that on Sunday, 21 September 2012, George McGovern passed away at the age of 90. Judging by those who have gone before from among my own family members and friends, I know that he will find many friends and admirers in the Great Beyond. And I found this cartoon to be spot on.
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