George McGovern - Böcker

In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described a future world founded on four essential freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Sixty years later, nearly 20 percent of the earth's population are still seeking the third freedom, "which," Roosevelt said, "translated into world terms, means economic understanding which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world."In The Third Freedom, former three-term Democratic senator George McGovern describes his strategy to end world hunger in our time. When McGovern was the Democrats' nominee for president in 1972, 35 percent of the people in the world were hungry. By 1996, that figure was cut in half. Now, McGovern says, is the time to end world hunger entirely. "Ending it (hunger)," he says, "is a greater moral imperative now than ever before, because for the first time humanity has the instruments in hand to defeat this cruel enemy at a very reasonable cost."McGovern raises two central questions: first, what would it cost for the nations of the world to end hunger and second, what would be the cost if hunger is allowed to persist at its present levels? McGovern concludes, "I can think of no investment that would profit the international community more than erasing hunger from the face of the earth." We have the ability to end hunger, McGovern says, now it's just a matter of finding the leadership.

Liberalism is the oldest and most enduring American tradition, a philosophy and way of life we inherited from the Founding Fathers. This is the central idea of The Essential America by George McGovern, America's best-known (and most consistent) liberal. Referring us to our moral and spiritual foundations, McGovern not only presents a resounding defense of liberalism as "the most practical and hopeful compass to guide the American ship of state" but offers specific proposals for keeping the tradition vibrant. The Essential America proposes programs for feeding the world's malnourished children. Rather than sending our armies abroad, McGovern spells out policies that confront the causes of terrorism. He proposes cutting our military budget (echoing Dwight D. Eisenhower's powerful warning about the military-industrial complex). He condemns preemptive war, criticizes tax cuts for the rich, and warns against government for the powerful minority. Americans have traditionally stood for progress, generosity, tolerance, and protection of the needy, McGovern states -- as well as for multi- lateralism in foreign policy and "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." He reminds us that while creative tension between liberalism and conservatism is the genius of American politics, it is the liberals who have been responsible for every forward step in our national history. They built "the Essential America."