Capitol Ideas/British Views and Prospects
Bethell, Tom
practiced in backwater America when a local reactionary tries to ban from the school house the books of, say, Kurt Vonnegut. The Endowment had made a $50,000 grant and asked that the Freedom to...
...These are not just books chosen b\ ideologues of the left...
...Reagan instinctively defers to these people, not because he agrees with them but because they shout the loudest...
...They have every right to be furious over the Endowment's charge of ideological imbalance...
...His opponents have been endlessly frustrated by this performance...
...As for Gorbachev, and indeed the entire Politburo, they would find out what they ought to have known all along: that Reagan is a very nice guy who wouldn't hurt a fly...
...But can books like this compare with the really important books that are published in the Republic...
...This was no problem, nothing unusual for Reagan...
...Maybe President Reagan will have affixed a yellow ribbon to the American flag...
...On their behalf let me add that they are not as intolerant as their list signifies, though it contains books attacking Henry Kissinger without including any of Kissinger's quite formidable memoirs...
...CAPITOL IDEAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , ~ . . . . . . . , , , , , , , , ~ 1 7 6 1 7. .6...
...Admittedly, a few thoughtful and even a few elegant books appear on the list...
...There is even evidence that they tried to give conservatism as they understand it a fair shake...
...Hume's History of England illustrates his belief that the growth of liberty is neither inevitable nor necessary and that the preservation of liberty requires an understanding of the conditions which gave rise to it as well as the institutional arrangements which sustain it...
...And of course the Republican office-seeker types can have their jobs with their nice big offices, limousines, and hallway deference from the bureaucrats...
...Bean Guide to the Outdoors...
...I surmise that Reagan has been thinking along these lines...
...in the present day is not "competing" with the Soviet Union...
...They know that the more they rage at Reagan, the worse they will look...
...Thus they chose not one but two monographs on Rolling Stone magazine...
...All his political life Reagan has Tom Bethell is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent...
...It is in a to-the-death struggle with it...
...Recriminations of the utmost ferocity followed, replete with charges against the Endowment for "intimidation" and "censorship...
...And very effective it has been...
...Reagan trounced them all...
...Did they not include CrossCountry Skiing Right by Hall, Courtside" The Fan's Guide to Pro Basketball by Hoenig, and The L.L...
...The Washington Post makes more noise than Human Events...
...And once again, the viewers would "elect" Reagan...
...Reagan obviously believes that if you do what the liberals want, they will give you a nice writeup in the history books...
...But it is a good bet that by then the Israelis will have turned over their prisoners...
...Reagan has demonstrated the simple point that getting elected to high office in the United States can be a purely passive affair...
...Volumes I and II are already available while Volumes V and VI will be published later...
...Some are flattered to find the President at least using their arguments and (so modest are their expectations) they are satisfied with that...
...t 7 7 . -. . . . . REAGAN CAVES IN by Tom Bethell This is written on "day seven" of the latest hostage seizure, so of course I don't know how things will look by the time you read this...
...dollars...
...He should consider the case of Jimmy Carter...
...Read Mary McGrory and Robert Kaiser in the Washington Post, if you don't believe me...
...To order, or for a copy of our catalogue, write: LibertyPress/LibertyClassics 7440 North Shadeland, Dept...
...Most of the books on the list are so vulgar, infantile, and unintelligent that were conservative books added even Mikhail Gorbachev might shun the approved 313...
...They are the choice of Philistines...
...Once in office, of course, it is a different matter...
...As for the SALT II cave-in, someone should provide Reagan with the following'simple analysis of the problem (may I suggest George Will, who wrote an uncharacteristically muddled column defending Reagan following this weak decision): It doesn't matter how many nuclear weapons the Soviets have above a certain number, which they long ago exceeded...
...All orders from outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S...
...Arthur Darack's classic How to Repair and Care for Home Appliances is bound to be popular with Muscovites, as will The Home Energy Decision Book ingeniously conceived by the Sierra Club...
...The only referendum facing him is that of the "history books...
...These selectors are not total greenhorns...
...A very cunning sort of censorship might indeed have been contemplated...
...He uses conservative rhetoric--he has found that over the years this appeals to a majority of the people--and then he waits for his opponents to accuse him of ideology, right-wing extremism, neglect of the "real world" in favor of "simplistic solutions," and so on...
...As I say, those who selected these books are somewhat limited...
...Reagan and Gorbachev are not in a competition...
...Mark Green would probably nominate Reagan for the Nobel Peace Prize on the New York Times op-ed page, Nancy would clap her hands with delight (at last, she would b e . . . acc e p t e d . . . ) and then the Reagans could go back to their ranch in a golden sunset and everyone would live happily ever after...
...turn out to be the liberal left, whose positions are consciously or unconsciously congruent with international socialism as a matter of course...
...That is Reagan's pragmatic bottom line...
...A book about American freedom and prosperity could be a dangerous thing...
...This way he has won four elections, two to the presidency...
...His real modus operandi has been to cock an ear and to listen to the decibel level of those yelling at him...
...Which is ab8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1985...
...Reagan doesn't seem to realize that the American politicians he has so successfully competed with have abided by specific, artificial rules governing U.S...
...They had also been on Mondale's side, on Carter's side, on Pat LlbertyPm hbertyC/ass s The History of England From the Invasion of Julius Caesar To the Revolution in 1688 By David Hume Foreword by William B. Todd In Six Volumes-Volumes III and IV now available...
...Conservatives are frustrated by this, but for most of them it is not too" bad...
...In fact, this tawdry list of generally uninteresting and unintelligent books goes a long way toward explaining why so many foreigners can so eflbrtlesslv maintain their sense of cullural superiority over us...
...Reagan can't wait for this to happen...
...Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery...
...shown a mastery of a certain style of symbolic government...
...But even Philistines make mistakes...
...All of which brings to mind one more argument on behalf of the final decision of the Association of American Publishers...
...Believe me, they see no politics whatsoever in choosing Jane Fonda's Workout Book or in their multitudes of books about feminism, the black experience, the environment, and peace...
...There you are expected to do something from time to time, although here again Reagan's instincts have served him well in domestic policy: If government gets out of the way, and in particular gets its greedy hand out of people's pockets, then the economy will do well and everyone will love you (except for the frustrated dirigistes, but they are a minority...
...Reagan has lately signaled that he does not understand this, or perhaps he would simply prefer that it were not the case, or perhaps he believes that he can change the situation by meeting with Gorbachev, and making a few more concessions to him...
...His response is to go on TV and act the injured innocent (his favorite role...
...But if a man tries to rape a girl, and she resists, they are not at that point "competing" with each other...
...Still sometimes in foreign affairs you have to take some action, and here Reagan has brought to the job precious few convictions...
...We pay book rate postage on prepaid orders...
...elections--rules which do not apply in most parts of the world, and indeed do not apply for most people in the U.S...
...Just as movie critic Pauline Kael could in the early 1970s vow that she knew no one who voted for Richard Nixon in his 1972 landslide, those who selected this list have read nothing in years that might jar their fatuous sensibilities...
...He campaigns, one might say, outside the Beltway, but once in office tries to appease those within it...
...They had to think about those who would be at the fair...
...If they do that they will be in big trouble Ask Don Devine, James Watt, Brad Reynolds, etc., etc...
...Certainly Gorbachev will not agree to a meeting in the absence of such pre-arranged concessions...
...But against the intransigent Kremlin bosses or the determined Amal Shiites, this symbolic style does not and cannot possibly work...
...Moreover, everyone would say that Reagan was a peacemaker...
...They fret about health and opt for The New Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women's Collective-and remember the list is for a book fair in the capital of the socialist motherland...
...If our security v/s-~v/s the Soviets depends upon arms control, then it depends upon the Soviets' assenting to our security...
...The typography has been modernized for ease of reading...
...Or Sam Donaldson will be continuing his gloat about how Reagan has "grown" (i.e., adopted his view of the world...
...Two men may compete for the hand of the same girl...
...Again, they will abide by specific, artificial "rules" of courting...
...Hardcover $15.00 each volume Softcover $7.50 each volume Prepayment is required on all orders not for resale...
...These are people whose tastes have become very pedestrian...
...In Washington, of course, the loudest shouters (by far...
...This LibertyClassics edition is based on the posthumous edition of 1778, the last to contain corrections by Hume...
...And of course, as Reagan no doubt realized, the conservatives will still vote for him because they don't have anywhere else to go...
...The Soviets regularly ban American books from their fair...
...or failing that, nothing much of substance will have happened...
...The U.S...
...Nonetheless, judging by President Reagan's deplorable press conference on June 18, and his equally deplorable decision ten days earlier to abide by the unratified SALT II agreement (the one "signed" by Carter's kiss on Brezhnev's cheek), the following can be said about Reagan with little fear of contradiction: He is only the latest in a succession of weak Presidents...
...Therefore he doesn't mind looking bad, if need be...
...Shortly after Gorbachev's elevation as Kremlin pontiff, Reagan recognized (correctly) that large chunks of the U.S...
...Everyone can see at that point that his critics are lying, that they probably do not themselves believe what they are saying, and Reagan does not even have to respond to their mendacious accusations...
...Today, of course, there are no more elections for Reagan...
...The trouble with this scenario, of course, is that Gorbachev doesn't have to face the voters...
...above all read the headlines...
...They have this great strength, which Reagan's political experience has not taught him to cope with: They don't mind looking bad on television...
...In these days of international tension, is it not best that our publishers assist them...
...The key point, however, is that Reagan's passive technique of prevailing over political opponents cannot work with Moslem warlords or Kremlin capos...
...Reagan's tremendous eagerness to meet with Gorbachev shows that he has not figured this out yet...
...The Endowment had made a $50,000 grant and asked that the Freedom to Publish Committee expand its list, cutting nothing...
...Reagan and Mondale genuinely did compete with each other for the voters' affections...
...It contains books booming all the enthusiasms of the left-wing shanty intelligentsia plus attacks on Administration policy and America in general without including alternative books...
...Reagan's technique has been to ignore his opponents...
...most of the time...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1985 7 That's what the left means when it says that Reagan is a "lame duck...
...So Reagan would only have to appear on TV with this Gorbachev fellow...
...N 101 Indianapolis, IN 46250 Brown's side, whoever was his opponent...
...media were in some sense on Gorbachev's side against him...
...More bombings and hijackings may have occurred, and certainly will in the future if they haven't by the time you read this...
...They will be permitted to strut as though important on the Washington stage, provided they don't try to alter the general policy direction that was laid down in the Carter years...
...But the selectors know no better...
...His goal is to destroy the United States--or better, to subordinate it to the will of the Kremlin...
Vol. 18 • July 1985 • No. 7
