The “acid, amnesty and abortion” agenda sank the presidential candidacy of George McGovern in 1972. Acid stood for tolerance of drugs; the amnesty for Vietnam war dodgers; abortion for women’s reproductive rights.
Fast forward to today and the campaigns have changed but the basic themes haven’t: freedom to use recreational drugs; opposition to war; and equality for minorities — whether women, homosexuals or “people of colour”. The left’s great hope for four decades has been that the McGovern coalition that couldn’t win then would be victorious by now, when so many more voters are immigrants, single mums, university educated and environmentally aware.
The left just needed one big thing to happen. The more traditional and poorer members of its coalition had to be willing to