More than 40 years later, it still makes me kind of sick to think about it.
I didn’t know that much about Marvin Mandel when I campaigned for him in 1970. I just knew enough. His kind of political figure was the answer to the Nixons and Agnews and Mahoneys dominating the political landscape in those days.
George Mahoney was the last rancid blast from Strom Thurmond days. He was a Dixiecrat who made it possible for Spiro Agnew to get into office. He ran for Governor of Maryland in 1970 and got the Democratic nomination by running against Fair Housing laws. His slogan was simple.
Your home is your castle – Protect it.
It wasn’t hard to hear from what menace white folks needed protect their homes. It was black people who might want to buy a house.
In 1966, Mahoney became the Democratic nominee with 30 percent of the vote. Seventy percent voted against him in the Democratic primary, but that vote was divided, broken up among other candidates. He won the primary by one third of one percent. Non-bigots in Maryland voted Republican that year and Spiro Agnew became governor.
Yeah, Spiro Agnew was Maryland’s anti-bigot in 1966.
A year and a half later, when Martin Luther King was killed, Governor Agnew was furious about the riots that tore through Baltimore. Black leaders had walked through the streets all night long, confronting angry teenagers, trying to calm things down. When Governor Agnew called them to a meeting, many were still wearing clothes stained by soot and sweat from their all night efforts. Governor Agnew called them cowards.
And you ran.
He told them that they themselves were the cause of rioting, that they had cowered in fear.
You were beguiled by the rationalizations of unity; you were intimidated by veiled threats; you were stung by insinuations that you were Mr.- Charlie’s boy, by epithets like “Uncle Tom.”
Richard Nixon read about the tough talk and was impressed. Agnew had really told off those black leaders. So Governor Agnew became Vice President Agnew. Later on, convicted criminal Agnew.
Maryland had no Lieutenant Governor to take the place of ex-Governor Agnew. The legislature selected Democratic leader Marvin Mandel to be a sort of caretaker until a real Governor could be chosen in the next election.
But Mandel was no caretaker. He got into the nuts and bolts of government. He streamlined the way departments were organized. Efficiency was the word of the day. He got Maryland’s first Metro-rail system going. Pollution went down as commuters could leave their cars at home. Employment went up as hard working city residents found it practical to get to jobs outside their limited areas.
But most interesting to me, he stood up to all kinds of pressure for the sake of a medical theory. A close friend had almost died in an automobile accident. He should have died, but he didn’t. Mandel wondered if the fortunate fact that the accident had occurred very close to a hospital had something to do with his friend’s good luck. And that’s how Mandel came into contact with an American medical officer who had served in France just after World War II.
Continue reading “My Hero the Thief, and the Role Model for My President”