Letter from a Whig
Will, George F.
"Letter from a Whig" The Power of Incumbency George F. Will When the 92rid Congress re-convened on 8 September it was operating in a political atmosphere very different from...
...I salute him for the courage he has displayed" -- such is the eloquence of this presidential aspirant when he , ~ k s extemporaneously...
...Presidents make news -- and, no, infrequently, history...
...they only forced the Nation ~o face up to that weakness...
...He has pledged to cut spending by $4.7 billion...
...With fourteen months to go before the election, ~hree things seem clear...
...They did not cause f hat weakness...
...Lacking a salient issue, the Democrats may choose a "'personality" (as opposed to an "issue") candidate...
...That issue -- the economy - - was ready at hand...
...On 15 July he announced his trip to Peking...
...At long last Nixon is developing the disconcerting habit of acting like a President -- a President who enjoys the job and intends to keep-it for a while...
...Bayh concluded...
...The following day he 0erformed a variation of his earlier act, this time on the floor of the Senate before a packed session of his peers...
...Earlier in the summer the President was on the run, and the pack of Democratic Presidential aspirants was nipping at his heels...
...And, though he would be no more specific, I suspect his cryptic reference was to the United States of America...
...The show was over...
...D. from PrinCeton in 1968...
...But it is a nice symbol...
...But on 15 Augusl he did what only a President can do...
...Webster, Clay and Calhoun had been outdone...
...From Illinois: Dear Sen...
...Thousands of horses are critically ill with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis in the Home of the Brave...
...This throbbing globe of woe continues to spin dizzily through the solar system missing its sister planets by mere light years...
...The most disagreeable aspect of the economic policy shifl was the obfuscating demagoguery about "speculators...
...On 16 July conservatives were wondering whal difference il made having a Republican rather than a Democrat in the Whi~e House...
...even though I have found myself locked in near mortal combat with some of my colleagues over an issue, one thing that has impressed me about the U.S...
...If unemployment is below six percent, and the GNP is growing at five percent per year, Nixon will win...
...While the liberal press and like-minded legislators had been decrying secrecy, the President had been using secrecy as a clearly indispensible instrument for af-fecqng goals which that press and those legislators approve...
...Nixon understands the power of incumbency, and will use that power resourcefully to have the economy vigorous by October, 1972...
...Both the President and Secretary Connally voiced a lot of pious nonsense about the "internaqonal money speculators" who allegedly had done wicked things to our vir' uous dollar...
...Therefore the President has given a hostage -- not to fortune, which is capricious, but to a hostile Government, which is calculating...
...Another is Senator Mike Gravel, the freshman Senator from America's Siberian Commonwealth...
...Those who chose to look upon the President's policy package as a repudiation of Prof...
...I am reprinting several of them below that you who are not daily readers of the Record might know what manner of American fauna takes politics seriously...
...Friedman has long advocated floating the dollar...
...Birch Bayh, flushed with a sense of the historical import of this moment first attracted the attention of the good-natured President pro tempore...
...This will cause a fundamental rearrangement of the international monetary system...
...Two such buffoons are the Reverend Paul Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York and millionaire whose wit and wisdom has been preserved for future generations in our regular Brayings column...
...It seems safe to say that 'he President is gaining a lot of health from the awkard but endurable chore of eating some" stale words...
...He preempted the path, roared through in a shiny new car (minus excise t ax), and forced the Democrats into the ditch...
...Again, as in the China gambit, he caught :he givers of gratuilous advice in midsent ence...
...The events of 15 July and 15 August demonstrated a homely truth about American politics...
...In July and August their actions called attention to the weakness of the dollar...
...Senate is that there are 100 Members from all across the counlry who look upon each other's activities as the activities of one representing one-4ff the 50 states...
...Nevertheless, on balance I think the risks are an acceptable price to pay for silencing and demoralizing the President's homefront opposition...
...Will is twenty-nine and instructs physical education in Washington, D.C...
...There are those who see John Lindsay as as the natural choice...
...The President has asked Congress "to postpone the implement at ion of revenue sharing for three months and welfare reform for one year...
...The economy is the issue with which Democrats are most comfortable, and to which Republicans are most vulnerable...
...Others possessed-of less dignity and more foolishmess have sought employment in related industries like the ministry and politics...
...As de Tocqueville noted, democracies are no~ graceful in 1heir conduct of foreign affairs...
...On the assumption that the President is sound on the issues but ugly on television, they may look for someone pretty...
...A speculator is someone whose expec~ ations are embarrassing...
...But f~,r the record, the "speculators" are being libeled and mislabeled...
...Some of the 15 August announcements were political froth...
...And if things are going reasonably well in 1972, the voters will not rock the boat...
...George F. Will graduated from Trinity College in 1962, received a degree from Oxford University, Magdalen College in 1964 and earned his Ph...
...Sure as God made little green apples, if any of the Democratic contenders were in qle White House they would be opting for different stimulants...
...And it forced the Democrats to seize upon another issue...
...Senator Gravel performed for the Washing:on press corps by sitting alone and reading classified documents into the wee hours of the morn...
...10 The Alternative October, 1971 The Power of Incumbency George F. Will When the 92rid Congress re-convened on 8 September it was operating in a political atmosphere very different from that which prevailed two months eariler...
...The President drove the Democrats onto a promising political path...
...It is not recorded if there was musical accompaniment, but my imagination instructs me that somewhere behind the sobbing Senator there must have been a solitary yodeller...
...While 1he Senate doves had been striking Their poses, and rallying around feckless resolufions and amendments, the President had been revamping world diplomacy...
...All eyes were cast down...
...They would favor using the Federal Government as "the employer of last resort" -- and we would be in for another avalanche of public works projects, maybe even including more murals and leaf-raking...
...American elections are almost never de~ermined by foreign policy questions...
...Think of it, the whole Nation gasping over the revelations suggested by the Pentagon Papers...
...Not only did it make me aware of a new star on the political horizon, but it also informed me as to the kind of American who takes his politics seriously...
...On 16 August they got a kind of answer...
...In imposing a wage-price freeze, cutting spending, cutting taxes, floating the dollar, and altering his legisldtive priorivies the President was acting like a President...
...But in terms of lasting impact, the most significant item was the floating of the dr,liar...
...The economy is where Nixon is vulnerable...
...Ironically, the President's China ~hunderbolt did the Democrats a great favor -- and forced the President to do what he did on 15 August...
...Hunger stalks the' Land of the Free...
...Thank you...
...Thus ii was neither surprising nor a!arming when our Governmen* waffled on aboul "speculators...
...Mike Gravel's Hour of Glory Bascom C. Slemp as told to R. Emmett T y r r e l l , J r . Now if one is to grasp an authentic hold on the essence of America circa 1971 it will help to bear in mind that circuses are not so popular as they were thirty years ago...
...He asserted that his act had been performed "in the best interest of this Nation we all love...
...pull-out...
...While his rivals spoke, he acted...
...HOO Hah, a good time was had by all, and the Junior Senator did not even slur his words or spill the suspicious looking glass of water that always remained close to his shaking paw - - so thorough had been his apprenticeship under Mr...
...Sincerely, Dear Senator Gravel: I have just returned from hearing you tonight, and I apologize for everything that i have thought of you these past few days...
...But given the exigencies of democratic politics, the President has made the most of a graceless situation...
...Nixon) that he had brought discredit to the Senate he asserted "What I did, I felt and continue to feel, will bring credit to the United States Senate, not embarrassment...
...After his peroration the distinguished Senator Gravel asked that letters from various well-wishers be included in the Congressional Record...
...These two actions, planned with commendable secrecy and executed with unusual elan, cut the opposition off at the knees...
...You are the greatest senator, and we all love you...
...Americans vote on pocketbook issues...
...And on the home front there was vast dismay at the condition of the economy and the President's stated determination to stand pat with an unconvincing "game plan...
...In facl, revenue sharing is going nowhere in Congress...
...Congressman McCloskey will have time to ponder that ~ru*h when, as he trudges through the fabled "snows of New Hampshire," the President lands in Peking...
...These executives were doing what they are paid to do - - and what we should thank them for doing: they were getting their respective companies' assets out of weak currencies and into s tong currencies...
...For more on that subject, dear reader, return next month...
...Naturally the distinguished Junior Senator from Indiana, Mr...
...In t his case, "specular or s" were persons who expected (correctly) that the obvious weakness of the dollar would lead to a decrease in it s value relative to the other major currencies...
...On the evening of 5 July the Rt...
...So the most ,he Democrats have left by way of an issue is the economy...
...What superb cool...
...That is not enough, given the swollen state of the budget (and the deficits), but it shows that his heart is in the right place...
...And in Washington, D.C...
...On 15 August he announced sweeping and generally sensible modifications of his economic policy...
...He is planning a five percent reduction in the Federal work force...
...The Rt...
...and it will cause a substantial shift in trade advantages...
...Hence a lot of second- and third-rate clowns have had to seek gainful employment outside of the big top...
...I have no more tears left...
...I would never be party to any act that would bring discredit to this august body...
...According to a spell-bound reporter from the Associated Press, his act included reading those classified papers lifted by the celebrated second-story man, Dr...
...There has been almost no effort in the Senate to impugn the motives of any other Senator...
...Denunciations of the "gnomes of Zurich" are to be expected from nations whose economic ~chickens are coming home to roost...
...Barnum...
...Johnson and now controls Mr...
...The Alternative October, 1971 11 In fact, the lesson of this whole episode is, "Thank God for the speculators !" Their sensible pursuit of profit depends on an objective -- as opposed to nationalistic -assessment of our currency...
...Candidates make speeches...
...I, for one, think that the Senator from Alaska has got through a very difficult time...
...These speculators -- these sensible persons -- included a large number of executives of American-based in, ernat tonal corporalions...
...Incidentally, as if his solitary performance were not amusing enough, he actually held it in -- you will never believe me - - the hearing room of the Public Work's Committee's Building and Grounds Subcommittee...
...War sears the great civilizations of Indochina...
...In comparison, his rivals h~)ked irrelevant...
...Furthermore, if any welfare ref~Jrm does pass, it may not look much like FAP, and the President will not get the credit...
...In an eloquent statement, which illicited guffaws and horselaughs from every intelligent spectator in the gallery, Mr...
...Then in the course of one month, the President gave the Nation a dose of Presidential leadership - - and he gave the Democratic pretenders a dramatic lesson in the powers of incumbency...
...For a new state Alaska is doing pretty well...
...But I shall remember it always...
...The President wants to stimulate the economy by stimulating private spending ra~her than by increasing spending in the public sector...
...Respectfully...
...this great man continues to read and to bawl...
...The President's C~ina announcement cut the ground from under the antiwar agitation...
...The President's economic plan should give pause to those conservatives who were in a slough of despond following the President's announcement about China...
...He left critics looking futile, and more than a little bit feckless...
...I believe the ~rip is policaUy useful to the President -and that Chou En-lai is smart enough to understand that...
...Should il pass in the form the President wants, he will get the blame...
...Those are not electrifying arguments, and it is hard to be heard -- never mind persuasive -against a determined incumbent unless one has something electrifying to say...
...But all these complaints like the complaints about the China initiative, must be weighed against the political gains made by the President...
...Many have simply gone on relief and been done with it...
...Every ham in the house got up on his hind legs and begged the floor...
...The announcement of the China trip eclipsed the Communists' seven-point proposal which threatened to be the ins~ rument by which American opinion was finally s~ampeded into demanding a "date cer, ain" for the U.S...
...Now they have been reduced to arguing that they were virtuous first, or that, given the chance, they would be fiVeen percent more virtuous...
...In foreign policy, the Communists' seven-point peace proposal had breathed fresh life into the Senate's peace agitators...
...Milton Friedman should note that Prof...
...Even at its peak --in 1968-- the Vietnam war was not a "voting issue": i: did nt, t decide eleclions...
...It is now clear ,hat our longest war will end without ever having been a "voting issue...
...Daniel Ellsberg and "frequently sobbing as he did so...
...While ~hey proposed, he disposed...
...Whatever one thinks of the China trip, it is impossible to deny that it has served a splendid domesqc purpose: it has made the peace movement seem and feel irrelevant...
...And indeed he would not...
...Until 15 August the Democrats were campaigning on the proposition that they were virtuous and the President was slothful...
...That is not enough, considering the relentless expansion of ,hat force in recent years...
...Sincerely, From a doctor in New York State: Dear Senator Gravel: God bless you...
...thank God there are men in this country who still do...
...Gravel: I would like to thank you for not keeping any secrets from the American people...
...Pooh poohing the allegation made by one of the Senate's old guard (the Coolidge wing which controlled Mr...
...That is showmanship of the top chop...
...This opposition had coalesced around the war issue and at long las, had found a dangerous weapon in the Communists' seven-point proposal...
...A husn befell the Senate floor...
...Honorable men of good will can and do disagre about the wisdom of the President's new China policy...
...The wage and price freezing is the most speclacular part of the new policy...
Vol. 5 • October 1971 • No. 1
