George McGovern’s race for president in 1972 has made a lasting impact on the modern Democratic Party. In 1972, McGovern badly lost the presidency to Richard Nixon. Since then, the Democratic Party has moved more and more to the center of politics and away from the left that McGovern represented.

It’s interesting to think of this now, as more and more of our politics gets polarized and the Democratic Party is at war with itself to determine if the party stays moderate or moves further to the left.