With Friends Like This, Who Needs The Weekly Standard?

According to the editor of The New Republic, George McGovern -- of all people! -- is

an old Stalinoid and still one, so far as I can tell[.]

Pretty repulsive, obviously. But what I want to know is, why did Peretz give money to said Stalinoid? In a 1997 column, he recalled that he'd given "relatively large contributions to George McGovern's [1972] campaign."