After the tumultuous Democratic convention of 1968, and Hubert Humphrey's decisive electoral loss to Richard Nixon the following November, Party leaders convened in order to try to pick up the pieces. George McGovern is remembered to have remarked, "When parties have been given the choice of reform or death in the past, they have always chosen death. We are going to be the first to live."
I assume that he was suggesting that the Party would choose to reform. The fact that his own Presidential bid in 1972 was undermined by establishment figures such as Hubert Humphrey, Richard Daley, and George Meany, however, suggests that his words might, in retrospect, be interpreted differently.
The Democratic Party chose to live alright, but only by reinventing itself in the early 1990's under Bill Clinton as Republican-Lite. One could call that "reform," but I would call it "living death."
The choice to reform or die has been presented to the Democratic Party establishment once again in 2012 and, once again, the Party has chosen to live while resisting meaningful reform--even nominating Hillary Clinton (a co-architect with her husband Bill of the "living death" Party) for President.
The Democratic Party is proof that the Zombie Apocalypse is real.
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