I disagree with Kohut’s reasoning that McGovern and McCarthy’s liberalism was what drove the Nixon landslide win in 1972.
It had more to do with the Southern Strategy formulated by individuals like Pat Buchanan designed to pull the former “Dixiecrats” away from the Democratic Party in the wake of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the late 60s/early 70s.
I’m going to mince words here. The bigots who left the Democrats as a result are now the people in power in today’s Republican Party.