Volume 19, Number 7 · November 2, 1972
The Election II
By Christopher Lasch
Questions that have more to do with American culture than with American politics keep intruding themselves into the campaign, to McGovern's embarrassment. McGovern prefers to discuss the 'real,' political issues. Thus Eagleton was dropped lest his medical career distract the public from the 'real' issues—Nixon's record, the war, the economy. Eagleton's ingenious but rather belated suggestion that his candidacy might serve to educate the public about 'mental illness' was greeted without enthusiasm by McGovern and his advisers. (This issue, incidentally, illustrates the depth of the cultural divisions among us. Many Americans still resist the progressive view that neurosis should be regarded as a disease and not as a defect of character. Yet this 'advanced' position has itself been under attack for years, and many intellectuals now regard the medical model of neurosis as naïve and outmoded.)
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