As an anticommunist who identified with the working class , Meany expressed contempt for the New Left . That movement had often criticized the labor movement for conservatism , racism , and anticommunism , and in the late 1960s and early 1970s , it included many supporters of Communist movements , such as the Viet Cong . In the aftermath of the violence by antiwar demonstrators and police at the 1968 Democratic National Convention , Meany sided with the police by calling the protesters a " dirtynecked and dirty-mouthed group of kooks . " Meany opposed the antiwar candidacy of U. S. Senator George McGovern for the presidency against incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972 despite McGovern 's generally pro-labor voting record in Congress . However he declined to endorse Nixon . On '' Face the Nation '' in September 1972 , Meany criticized McGovern 's statements that the US should respect other peoples ' rights to choose communism by pointing out that there had never been a country that had freely voted for communism . Meaney accused McGovern of being " an apologist for the Communist world . " Following Nixon 's landslide defeat of McGovern , Meany said that the American people had " overwhelmingly repudiated neo-isolationism " in foreign policy . Meany pointed out that the American voters had split their votes by supporting the Democrats in Congress
1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
George Meany