Capitol Ideas/Reagan Caves In
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...
...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...
...Very well, if you say so . . . . That's the way your mind starts working when leadership collapses...
...We pay book rate postage on prepaid orders...
...CAPITOL IDEAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , ~ . . . . . . . , , , , , , , , ~ 1 7 6 1 7 6 . . . . , ~ . . . . . , , 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...
...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...
...That is the symbolic meaning of yellow ribbons: the subordination of the national interest to the far more intense special interest group of victims...
...But the selectors know no better...
...Suppose the Soviets were to drop a nuclear bomb...
...And once again, the viewers would "elect" Reagan...
...or failing that, nothing much of substance will have happened...
...This is no doubt an admirable quality, and desirable in the vast majority of people...
...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...
...And of course the Republican office-seeker types can have their jobs with their nice big offices, limousines, and hallway deference from the bureaucrats...
...in the present day is not "competing" with the Soviet Union...
...Reagan has demonstrated the simple point that getting elected to high office in the United States can be a purely passive affair...
...above all read the headlines...
...A book about American freedom and prosperity could be a dangerous thing...
...They have every right to be furious over the Endowment's charge of ideological imbalance...
...Moscow you say...
...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...
...A very cunning sort of censorship might indeed have been contemplated...
...military makes anything other than a pinpoint response to assaults on American citizens...
...media were in some sense on Gorbachev's side against him...
...N 101 Indianapolis, IN 46250 Brown's side, whoever was his opponent...
...This was no problem, nothing unusual for Reagan...
...And very effective it has been...
...The Washington Post makes more noise than Human Events...
...Might he not think: Well, it's my job to be the peace-maker...
...It's not just humiliating...
...Nowhere special...
...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...
...I keep thinking this...
...He should consider the case of Jimmy Carter...
...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...
...Reagan will soon be under great pressure to cave in on Star Wars-pressure from the Soviets, the liberals, and our "allies'--and we should be prepared for him to cave in, using as he does so some misleading rhetorical cover about "never giving in to Soviet demands...
...The Soviets regularly ban American books from their fair...
...And naturally we could rely on the instant media analysis: Let us demonstrate to the world that we are not their moral equivalent...
...Some are flattered to find the President at least using their arguments and (so modest are their expectations) they are satisfied with that...
...Let us be calm...
...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...
...Therefore he doesn't mind looking bad, if need be...
...Certainly this is the case in Lebanon, which Reagan has now declared to be a jurisdiction wherein no one in an identifiable position can be held responsible lor terrorism...
...most of the time...
...OUR READERS ARE TOMORROW'S LEADERS YES, I want to start on the road to leadership right away as a C&E subscriber...
...His real modus operandi has been to cock an ear and to listen to the decibel level of those yelling at him...
...If our security v/s-~v/s the Soviets depends upon arms control, then it depends upon the Soviets' assenting to our security...
...These are people whose tastes have become very pedestrian...
...Shortly after Gorbachev's elevation as Kremlin pontiff, Reagan recognized (correctly) that large chunks of the U.S...
...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...
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...It is in a to-the-death struggle with it...
...The U.S...
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...The Soviet threat is not limited by getting them to agree not to build more than (say) 20,000 hydrogen bombs...
...Are you there...
...This LibertyClassics edition is based on the posthumous edition of 1778, the last to contain corrections by Hume...
...Reagan can't wait for this to happen...
...But it is a good bet that by then the Israelis will have turned over their prisoners...
...He campaigns, one might say, outside the Beltway, but once in office tries to appease those within it...
...Reagan obviously believes that if you do what the liberals want, they will give you a nice writeup in the history books...
...The Endowment had made a $50,000 grant and asked that the Freedom to Publish Committee expand its list, cutting nothing...
...Where do you think we should meet...
...They are the choice of Philistines...
...Reagan trounced them all...
...I don't see that we can expect much in the way of improvement for the remainder of Reagan's term...
...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...
...Reagan instinctively defers to these people, not because he agrees with them but because they shout the loudest...
...So proclaims the Washington Weekly . . . For more than five years C&E has been a guiding light to politicians as diverse as Tom Hayden and Paul Laxalt, top political pros like David Garth, Bob Squier and Richard Viguerie, and noted political scientists from Michael Barone to Theodore White...
...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...
...In Washington, of course, the loudest shouters (by far...
...Or Sam Donaldson will be continuing his gloat about how Reagan has "grown" (i.e., adopted his view of the world...
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...With such a public reassurance, I would feel home free if I subscribed to the Shiite cause...
...Gorbachev...
...dollars...
...Meanwhile, Pat Buchanan and the speechwriters will serve the useful function of making tough-sounding noises while contrary policies are pursued...
...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...
...He has now plainly opted for a policy of placating those whose sound is given greatest media amplification, and he has in place the necessary agents for such a policy--the spineless Robert McFarlane at the National Security Council, for example...
...If I were to respond in kind, innocent Russians would be killed...
...Volumes I and II are already available while Volumes V and VI will be published later...
...His goal is to destroy the United States--or better, to subordinate it to the will of the Kremlin...
...WHEN AMERICA NEEDS YOU, YOU NEED: The Only Journal in the World Devoted to Political Campaign Management lames I. Kilpatrick calls it "the wave of the political future...
...Read Mary McGrory and Robert Kaiser in the Washington Post, if you don't believe me...
...These are not just books chosen b\ ideologues of the left...
...In his recent press conference, Reagan showed inexcusable weakness by defining as "terrorism" any retaliatory act that does not strike specifically at hostage-takers...
...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...
...Let us not overreact...
...As I say, those who selected these books are somewhat limited...
...shown a mastery of a certain style of symbolic government...
...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...
...More bombings and hijackings may have occurred, and certainly will in the future if they haven't by the time you read this...
...And of course, as Reagan no doubt realized, the conservatives will still vote for him because they don't have anywhere else to go...
...Oh, for the days of Brzezinski...
...1 would be the terrorist, in the eyes of the world . . . . This just shows that we need arms control talks more than ever...
...But it is dangerous in a President because it precludes leadership...
...turn out to be the liberal left, whose positions are consciously or unconsciously congruent with international socialism as a matter of course...
...Conservatives are frustrated by this, but for most of them it is not too" bad...
...They know that the more they rage at Reagan, the worse they will look...
...In these days of international tension, is it not best that our publishers assist them...
...Which is ab8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1985 surd...
...But against the intransigent Kremlin bosses or the determined Amal Shiites, this symbolic style does not and cannot possibly work...
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...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...
...The trouble with this scenario, of course, is that Gorbachev doesn't have to face the voters...
...Reagan is weak because he wants to be loved by everyone...
...Admittedly, a few thoughtful and even a few elegant books appear on the list...
...Still sometimes in foreign affairs you have to take some action, and here Reagan has brought to the job precious few convictions...
...It is the gangster ideology of Communism that threatens the world, not marginal increments to their arsenal...
...But can books like this compare with the really important books that are published in the Republic...
...The typography has been modernized for ease of reading...
...Date Card No...
...His opponents have been endlessly frustrated by this performance...
...Certainly it is to be expected in an actor...
...Certainly Gorbachev will not agree to a meeting in the absence of such pre-arranged concessions...
...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...
...This way he has won four elections, two to the presidency...
...But even Philistines make mistakes...
...Again, they will abide by specific, artificial "rules" of courting...
...Moreover, everyone would say that Reagan was a peacemaker...
...His response is to go on TV and act the injured innocent (his favorite role...
...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...
...That way Reagan buys himself short-term peace and the rest of us medium-term and long-term insecurity...
...The only referendum facing him is that of the "history books...
...Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery...
...It can only be limited by building defensive weapons with the capacity to destroy Soviet missiles in midair...
...If they do that they will be in big trouble Ask Don Devine, James Watt, Brad Reynolds, etc., etc...
...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...
...I surmise that Reagan has been thinking along these lines...
...It's demoralizing...
...That is Reagan's pragmatic bottom line...
...Recriminations of the utmost ferocity followed, replete with charges against the Endowment for "intimidation" and "censorship...
...I, No...
...The Soviets are of course using arms control talks to get our agreement not to build such weapons...
...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...
...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...
...The New York Times says it promises to "break the grip of the elaborate organizational and technical process involved in getting elected, a process heavily dependent on money and professional expertise" . . . "It's called CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS: The Journal of Political Action, and a quick read could make you a shoo-in...
...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 even promised to pin the label of "terrorist" upon himself in the event that the U.S...
...These selectors are not total greenhorns...
...There is even evidence that they tried to give conservatism as they understand it a fair shake...
...Thus they chose not one but two monographs on Rolling Stone magazine...
...In the Great Plains, say...
...Maybe President Reagan will have affixed a yellow ribbon to the American flag...
...How would Reagan respond...
...Did they not include CrossCountry Skiing Right by Hall, Courtside" The Fan's Guide to Pro Basketball by Hoenig, and The L.L...
...Once in office, of course, it is a different matter...
...As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, this amounted to sending out "engraved invitations to terrorists throughout the world...
...All orders from outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S...
...So Reagan would only have to appear on TV with this Gorbachev fellow...
...And follow it up with the usual hectoring and denials and contradictory accusations of American responsibility and so on...
...Reagan's technique has been to ignore his opponents...
...Two men may compete for the hand of the same girl...
...Reagan and Gorbachev are not in a competition...
...Hello, Mr...
...Just one...
...Mail to: CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS, 1621 Brookside Road, McLean, VA 22101 CALL (703) 534-7774 for Free Brochure THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1985 9...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1985 7 That's what the left means when it says that Reagan is a "lame duck...
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...This comment by Reagan was the low point of his presidency...
...They had to think about those who would be at the fair...
...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's tremendous eagerness to meet with Gorbachev shows that he has not figured this out yet...
...True to form, Reagan has once again assumed that it is his job to respond to the most vocal pressure group within earshot--in this instance, the forty-odd hostages and their families...
...Bean Guide to the Outdoors...
...Reagan and Mondale genuinely did compete with each other for the voters' affections...
...All of which brings to mind one more argument on behalf of the final decision of the Association of American Publishers...
...elections--rules which do not apply in most parts of the world, and indeed do not apply for most people in the U.S...
...The key point, however, is that Reagan's passive technique of prevailing over political opponents cannot work with Moslem warlords or Kremlin capos...
...But if a man tries to rape a girl, and she resists, they are not at that point "competing" with each other...
...All his political life Reagan has Tom Bethell is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent...
...Today, of course, there are no more elections for Reagan...
Vol. 18 • August 1985 • No. 8
