Presswatch/Mental Realignments

...We took him to antinuclear demonstrations...

...It sounds like this has not been one of your better weeks," I said...

...But a sudden jump to the GOP, no matter how shallow the commitment to the party is, means something...

...But in Britain there are special media...

...The Sun, for instance, did one piece at the University of Maryland and another at Lehigh University...

...During the past two years roughly two views of American politics and and the Sunday Times which, under Rupert Murdoch's ownership, are not exactly left-wing...

...Where is Tommy now...

...Bill Peterson of the Washington Post went to Ohio State University and uncovered the same...

...This shows like the BBC's weekly view is particularly favored by car- "Panorama," and of much featuretoonists even in papers like the Times documentary work on ITV (commerby Herb Greer cial television) by reporters like Jonathan Dimbleby, the furiously antiAmerican John Pilger, and in current affairs magazine-shows like the leftwing "World in Action...

...Mira found this under his pillow this morning...

...What is it...

...During the Reagan-Carter election plenty of the reportage in Britain carried an undertone of baffled amazement: Journalists and commentators saw what to them were two incredible candidates for the highest office of the world's most powerful nation--one a sincerely Christian oaf, an ex-peanutfarmer whose handling of the presidency had been, to say the least, provincial...

...He's upstairs watching Louis Rukeyser's 'Wall Street Week.'" Almost as unanticipated as the conservatism of young voters was the dramatic increase in the percentage of voters who were willing to identify themselves with the Republicans, the party of Watergate...

...Even those who approve of the recovery of American morale after Reagan's policies patronize him as an the downcast years under Carter, and ex-actor and worry, for instance, that approves Reagan's fh'mness, his lack of he does not see the USSR as a nation anxiety to please the West's enemies...

...The most cogent case for a nonendorsement of conservatism rested on the shm progress made by Republicans in the House of Representatives Here the problem was that GOP conservatwes such as Congressman Newt Gmgnch, who had predicted a gain of "well over twenty" House seats, were caught with their exaggerated expectations showing The press judged the exact pickup of fourteen seats m hght of these expectations, not against the backdrop of the persistent clmms of Democratic strategists that the Repubhcans would net fewer than ten seats Thus, the gains loomed small in truth, the re-election of a President rarely produces major gains for h~s party, when Frankhn D Roosevelt won a second term m 1936, his landslide generated only fourteen new House seats But that didn't stop the New Repubhc from concluding that "the long-awaited reahgnment of American poht]cs again seems not to have taken place" Actually, ~t has to some extent Or more precisely, a kind of realignment is still taking place, the various parts of which have been widely reported on But the press has dechned to compute THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1985 26 the sum of these parts...

...Our dream was someday he would be arrested for protesting a toxic waste dump...

...In the exit poll of ABC News, the voters broke roughly policies have dominated the British ment...

...munism as a serious threat to the values This assumption is sustained by an igand integrity of the Western world...

...He told us there would always be poor people, and there were a lot worse things than a nuclear arms rac~ As far as the environment was concerned, he would have nothing to do with a movement that was impeding the economic growth of the United States...

...One reason for th~s failure is that poht~cal correspondents are stdl looking for a reahgnment along the lines of earher models---Andrew Jackson's (1828) or Wflham McKinley's (1896) or FDR's (1932) In other words, reporters are wmtmg for a sweeping transfer of power from Democrats to Repubhcans that reaches from the White House to Capitol Hdl to the statehouse to the county courthouse Obwously, we are not experiencing that sort of reahgnment Th~s one is d~fferent It ~s occurring at some political levels but not at others And unhke the h~stoncal models, this Ume the crumbhng of one party--m th~s case, the Democrats-~sn't automatically touchmg off an equivalent resurgence of the other, the Republicans The most Important part of the new reahgnment revolves ideas The voters have s~mply become more conservatwe over the last two decades, though the medm are often wdllng to concede this only by revoking pejoratwe code words The reigning code word m the 1984 campmgn was "self-interest," which ~s what voters were said to be pursuing in their enthusmsm for Reagan Columrest Joseph Kraft was even harsher, proclaiming that "greed s~ts m the American saddle" Th~s slur was too much for Hugh S~dey of Ttme, whose conservaUsm has become more eloquent, popuhst~c, and pointed m recent years Colummsts hke Kraft, he noted, "are more accustomed to being the P~ed lhpers of M~ddle America, marchmg jauntily out front wRh majormes forming obediently behind Being deserted is a frustrating experience" On one Idea in particular, the Krafts have been abandoned--all-purpose government True, pracucally no one Is for ptllagmg the Envtronmental ProtecUon Agency or pnvatlzmg the Socml Security system or tossing every last U S Food Stamp into a bonfire But twenty years ago, government was widely viewed as the chief agent of progress m this country, and now ~t's not, business has swiped that role...

...Then he gave us 10 minutes on having a Supreme Court that would not always come down on the side of the criminal...

...Anyway, the media jumped on the young-folks-for-Reagan story...

...It means that, regardless of what you read or saw on TV, the voters endorsed more than just Reagan...

...and he was a gossip columnist, Nigel Dempster of the Daily Mail...

...Reagan, if one believed some British reports, was quite ready to blow up the world at worst, bring back the Cold War at best, and revive a Manichean approach to international politics that made Europeans shudder...

...One--the minority--applauds glosses...

...Not even the crazy Americans would do such a thing...

...The result of this assumption was that one, and only one, prominent British journalist predicted the 1980 landslide...

...This symmetry is especially swallow aggressive policies and popular on British television...

...opposing him with no real chance of winning was a former actor, a creature apparently of cardboard whose main qualifications as a candidate seemed to be a pleasant manner on television combined with fierce ,right-wing rhetoric...

...We taught him to have concern for the poor and the disenfranchised...

...It among others, but as a devil to be generally endorses his sense of Com- destroyed as God cast down Lucifer...

...I don't know what we did wrong," Mira said...

...How could an advanced country with a population in the hundreds Herb Greer is an American writer and playwright riving in England...

...This divide matches closely enough the Republican and Democratic dichotomy in America's national arguwhat's happening to them...

...They registered their approval--temporary approval, you could argue--of a political philosophy, [] too...

...He said we were a nation under God and there was nothing wrong with children praying before they started their classes...

...Carter at the very least had decent aims: He wanted peace and worked for human rights...

...So does the appearance of all those college kids with Reagan buttons and so does the growing national disdain for liberalism...

...As befits semi-savages, we are often seen on this side of the pond as gullible and maybe a little bit crazy...

...in Pennsylvania, finding Reaganites in abundance at both places...

...Did he say where he stood on school prayer...

...It accounts for his 9 moderate journalists there was and is popularity by reference to "com- a persistent attempt to portray Reagan munication" (read: 9 and his electorate as a danger to skill on television, backed by a sinister clique "peace" fully equivalent to any threat of experts in media manipulation...

...It has economic Darwinism, much to the been the leading theme of reports on danger of world peace and the detri- nuclear weapons by current affairs ment of European economies...

...Not only that...

...Journalists of right and left almost 27 even in their party identification, which amounted to a 30 percent jump for the Republicans since 1980...

...It was tacitly assumed that no mature nation in its right mind could elect such a man, and certainly not decisively...

...And he turned his back on everything you people believe in...

...Events are moving too fast, and they don't know E U R O P E A N " D O C U M E N T FLEET STREET FOOLISHNESS The British like to think that Americans are stiff untamed...

...Buchwald said he suggested to Fred and Mira Staunchley--this is a humor column, remember--that their son Tommy was putting on a conservative act to shock them: "It's no act," Fred said...

...This quaint prejudice has been implicit in much British coverage of our general elections, notably the one in 1980 and this year's contest...

...norance o f the conventions o f Majority opinion in the British media American political rhetoric, ~ leading to clings to the 1980 caricature of Reagan a willingness here to take that rhetoric as a missile-monger and simpleminded literally...

...Only eight years ago, a President was elected on a pledge to cut defense spending m real terms, th~s year, the argument was over how much md~tary expenditures should be increased Not surprisingly, this ideological upheaval has moved the center of gravity in Amertcan pohtlcs, with Reagan leading the way A few journahsts recognized the sh~ft "Whether or not a partisan realignment is taking place, a philosophical realignment ~s--m fact, has," wrote Theo L~ppman, Jr m the Balttmore Sun "In my view, in the election of 1980 Ronald Reagan redefined the center of the Repubhcan Party well to the right of the old center and formed a majority constituency around that point, and m the election of 1984 he redefined the center rightward for the Democratic Party as well " Horace Busby, the one-time aide to Presldent Lyndon B Johnson who now puts out a trenchant pohtlcal newsletter m Washington, describes the ideological transformaUon as a "mental realignment " It, m turn, has led to a reahgnment in presidential poht~cs that gwes Repubhcan candidates, assuming they are not hberals, a bmltm advantage Repubhcans are more hkely to carry the Sun Belt and Western states, and m the wake of the 1980 census these states now have a majority of the electoral votes So, Busby has concluded, there ~s a "Repubhcan electoral lock "The lone Democrat to break the lock since 1964 was Jimmy Carter, a Southerner running m 1976 as a moderate and sharp crmc of government He, of course, couldn't reproduce th~s feat m 1980 Contrary to the noUon of most pohUcal writers, reahgnment has reached the Senate as well, which ~s why ~t has stayed under Repubhcan control since 1980 It wasn't either a fluke or Reagan's coattatls that brought folks hke John East of North Carohna or Steve Symms of Idaho to the Senate m 1980 They had to be right on the two mega-~ssues that dominate pres~dentml and Senate races who can handle the economy best, and who can provide an assertwe foreign pohcy and md~tanly secure nauon Hard as some recumbent Democrats reed, these issues just couldn't be averted And personal popularity often wasn't enough e~ther, because Senate elect~ons are not personality contests House races frequently are, though, and that ~s one reason why reahgnment hasn't reached below the Senate It is difficult to "nat~onahze" a House race--Reagan tried this unsuccessfully in a few districts m the last two weeks of the campmgn--especlally when the incumbent stresses constituency service and local issues The press wrote extensively about two other parts of the realignment, lamenting one and puzzling over the other The drift of white voters to the Repubhcans drew walhng and gnashing of teeth, even from me On a trip to Mississippi last October, I had a hard tlme finding any white voters for Mondale At a Democratic rally ~n Clarksdale, there was scarcely a white face m the crowd The Mondale campaign simply didn't exist outslde the black commumty in Mississippi, and the Reagan campmgn was virtually an all-white operation That kind of polanzauon may have aided Mr Reagan's re-elect~on, but it's not a healthy sign for the country "This is an era of dechnlng white gmlt," moaned Robert Kaiser m the Washington Post But that does not explain the lnabdlty of Democratic presidential candidates to attract white voters, particularly white males Only one Democrat since World War II, Lyndon Johnson, has attracted more than 50 percent of the white vote Since 1964 Carter is the only Democrat to have received more than 40 percent, and he achieved that only once Mondale managed but 34 percent of the white vote--and 31 percent among white males "In parts of the Deep South, less than 10 percent of whites went for the Democrat," wrote Samuel Popkm, a professor of polmcal science at the Umverslty of Cahforma, San D~ego, m the Washmgton Post "But this IS not just a Southern problem All across the country the new compeutwe spirit and the renewed sense of patriotism present stumbling blocks for Democrats A party that can cheer a nominee who implies that 'decency' and 'self-interest' are incompatible ('I'd rather lose a campmgn on decency than wm a campmgn on self-mterest')--a party that is ambivalent about international assertweness and competmon--~s in a poor position to capture the White House" As for the surge of young voters to Reagan and the Repubhcan party, the press wasn't alone m its bemusement None of the Reagan strategists had antlc~pated it Stuart Spencer, the shrewdest of Reagan's pohtlcal advisers, said he would stand on the fringe of youth-fiRed rallies last fall and wonder, "Where am 19...

...A mere 14 percent of the voters nationally conf'uted to ABC that the party affiliation of a candidate made a hoot of difference to them...

...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1985 of millions throw up such a pair of alternativesg, On balance most British commentators preferred the oaf, since Reagan was clearly not a person or a politician they could take seriously...

...We had such high hopes for him...

...In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies.' When she confronted him with it he just shrugged his shoulders anti said i f he was going to scratch and claw his way up the ladder he had to know what big business was doing...

...And in ABC's poll in Texas, voters actually showed a slight preference for the GOP, which is astonishing in such an overwhelmingly Democratic state...

...Humorist Art Buchwald wrote about the agony of liberal parents confronted with a conservative coRege kid...

...Spencer remembered the old days when Reagan used to get booed off campuses...

...He said we were bleeding hearts and didn't understand the real world...

...presented by the Soviet Union and its Thus gullible Americans are induced to allies...

...This is n o t an easy time for many of my friends raised in the good old liberal tradition," he confessed...

...included m the program packet One of the members of the "Legal Secretariat," according to the program, had just returned from the Brussels tribunal Another individual openly hnked to both is Ramsey Clark, the former U S attorney general, who has developed Into something of a war crimes trial maven Clark headed the US delegatmn to the Iranmn show trial, was a featured speaker at the Brussels tribunal, and was listed as legal adviser to the New York tribunal Equally suggestive was the Center for Constitutional Rights' indictment, ostensibly brought on behalf of "the people of the United States" against the President and h~s administration Although the proceedings were confined to U S "war crimes" in Central America, the In&ctment had a "second count" It charged the U S was engaged in a "conspiracy" to unleash nuclear war "against the peoples of the world" by deploying the cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe The attempt to roll back the US nussfle deployment in Europe, emphasized m the Brussels tribunal, was thus not neglected m New York And, finally, both the Brussels and New York tribunals directed their "findings" to the U N It goes without saying that ff the New York tribunal as well as the ten others around the country were indeed part of an IADL campaign, those who participated would wittingly or MENTAL REALIGNMENTS Given that the closest thing to a conservatlve ldeologue ever to sit in the White House was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term, you might have thought that conservatism had won a full-throated endorsement from the voters last November No way The way the press told It, both Walter F Mondale and liberalism lost and Ronald Reagan won But conservatism didn't wm or lose, it wasn't up for judgment Somehow the 89 3 million Americans who went to the polls managed to render a favorable verdict on Mr Reagan without taking a stand, Fred Barnes is Nattonal Pohncal Reporter for the Baltimore Sun THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1985 even a hesitant one, on the ideology that is the source of Reagan's pohtical motivation and the touchstone of many of his policies as President All in all, a nifty trick Some of the explanations of how this happened were extraordinarily lngemous One was simply to assume that Reagan is a middle-of-the-roader, or at least that he's taken the country on a middling course Haynes Johnson of the Washmgton Post quoted the voters as sending this message "We like you personally, Mr President, and we like the way things are now going In America But we don't want much of a change, and we'd like to keep the country moving straight down the unwittingly have been implementing one of the Soviet Union's "active measures" in the United States While war crimes tribunals abroad serve as theatrical devices to whip up anti-U S sentiment, here I think they must be seen as part of the Left's effort to "mstltUtlonahze" its attack on "the system " In this case the pretext is that the courts have fmled to act and so the alternatwe "tribunal" must be established to rule justly, even if, at this time, it cannot implement its findings Another such device is the "alternative budget" pmneered by the Institute for Policy Studies a decade ago, the most recent budget of th~s sort having been prepared during the Reagan Administration at the request of fifty-five members of Congress These budgets provide a "just" allocation of national resources, meeting "human needs" and sharply curtadmg mlhtary expenditures The "Peace Academy"--which Congress may well w~tlessly vote into existence--is another such project of the radical Left All these offer mechamsms to claim moral authority Imphclt is a powerplay If the estabhshment's restitutions have failed, those who serve as custodmns of the society's true values deserve to govern Whatever the purpose of these tribunals, the obvious question is do they matter Even in the afternoon, PRESSWATCH when attendance ~mproved, no more than a hundred people were present and it is unhkely that the tribunals In other cities did much better Press coverage was minimal (In the U S, that is Three top-flight Soviet journahsts covered the New York tribunal, their articles appearing in Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda ) Yet one reason these tribunals have significance is that they point up the increasing misuse of the law by a segment of the radical bar, a phenomenon associated with the rise of the "Movement" of the 1960s that has gone all but unremarked And of course these tribunals, modeled explicitly on the Nuremberg trials, make their own contribution to the corruption of language and to emptying of meaning one of the twentieth century's most terrible events But perhaps the most significant aspect of the tribunals is that they serve to remind us of the National Lawyers Guild's success (and that of the host of radical institutes and activist orgamzations with which the guild interlocks) in shaping pubhc perception of U S actions In Central America While the guild is unfashmnable, its Ideas have become the epitome of radical chic In October, while the guild's "witnesses" were declaiming to a scrubby handful, a party was being given at the New York AthleUc Club for the beautiful people to meet Nora Astorga, the Sancenter of the road for the next four years we're giving you " Hedrick Smith of the New York Times suggested that the President won in spite of his conservative views and did so by leaving the grubby world of politicians and entering the firmament of superheroes "For more than a year, as opinion polls showed Mr Reagan holding strong against sharp criticism from the group of Democratic candidates running for President, political experts began reahzing that he had become more than a politician," Smith wrote "He had become, in their view, a phenomenon existing outside his policies, many of which were not being embraced nearly as warmly by Americans " dlnlsta temptress who lured one of Somoza's generals to her bedroom to be mutilated and murdered In the meantime Commandante Ortega, the Sandinlsta choice for president, was beIng feted at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club and by Hollywood's Committee of Concern for Central America, which on October 12 held a "Town Meeting on Central America," scheduled to perform in five major cities When all is saad, it just might be that the proper way to see these war crimes tribunals is in the context of the current crop of cults We marvel at the appeal of such sects as the RajneeshIs, the Sebaba, Hare Krlshna, Sclentology, and a host of others None of these has a belief system remotely as implausible as that shared by the guild's activists and their followers These people do not experience the United States as most of us do, they inhabit a Kafkaesque Amenka, a diabolical and cruel society, oppressive at home, malevolent abroad They see this country as fascist, or at the edge of fascism, its storm troopers poised at any moment to carry them away in the middle of the night And so they huddle together in their terror, lashing out at the great Behemoth And where do they turn for succor, comfort, and support9 Why, precisely to those totalitarian governments that do carry [] people away into the night) by F r e d Barnes Another tack was to posit that the electorate was ratifying a successful presidency and a national mood, irrespective of the fact that it took a dramatic policy shift in Washington to bring both of them about Voters, said Ttme, "were not necessarily approving Reagan's conservative ideology, though that Ideology holds more sway than anyone could have guessed even in 1980, or rewarding his engaging personahty, attractive though it obviously IS Above all they were expressing satisfaction with what has become a rarity in American pohtlcs what seems to be a successful presidency, in terms of economic growth and national strength and pride, especially in con25 trast to the turbulent terms that preceded it " Then Ttme went further m its twlhght zone reasomng, guessing that voters were spurred by a cw~cs book abstracuon "The very notion of hawng a President serve two terms might have proved s~gmficant to many voters," the magazine declared, w~thout providing a crumb of evidence to substantmte this...

...On the Left and among some international thug...

...He led a boycott of California lettuce when he was in high school...

...Exit polls fleshed out the phenomenon: voters 18 to 21 favored Carter by 47-41 percent in 1980, but they preferred Reagan in 1984 by 60-39 percent...

...For sure, party preference doesn't mean what it used to...

...He was a "Hollywood Cowboy" shooting from the lip and ready if he got in to shoot from the hip, too...