Nixon and-or Mussolini

...John R. Coyne, Jr., is an Associate of this illustrious journal and a contributor to National Review, a New York based magazine...

...WASHINGTON) - - The following is~a short course on government, liberalism and the new location of an old landmark, Credibility Gap...

...he lemm fn~t to the right md then to the l e ~ " Mussolini began his political life as a soem~t but earned his greatest renown as a vehement hetor of bolshevism and soeialbun While N'nron's ~xe4uce has p e ~ . been not qu~e so dramatic or bm'limic, the President has d e - - t e d a _~imiimr scorn for consistent faith in a set of abstract kkmls...

...and if we lose our leverage, the country, we fear, cannot remain centrist...

...But if I were pressed, I suppose I'dput it this way...

...Nixon's own "strict constructionist" Supreme Court will administer unto Phase II a similarly welldeserved death blow...

...The structm'e of the Pay Board, with its representatives from labor, management and the public, is an obvious illustration of the first tenet, and the near unanimons condemnation of George Meany when he appeared uncooperative further indicates that the present political climate places a premh~m on cooperation between eompet~ag segments of society in pursuit of an elusive national ~aterest...

...All Washingtonlans must en12 The Alternative May 1972...

...That autonomy exists to the extent that the labor and management representatives on the Pay Board are exempt from federal conflict-of-interest statutes...

...I am determined to m~rk harder ttum anyone else to get the thim~s I need, ~ s t as I have sought [ r ~ d o u l . ~ As Preside~ Wmm moves about the world, from one summit to the next, it is too bad that he does not pmme in H~g Kong, or in T ~ , there to walk amid the milmms of refugees, there to hear ~ bero~ ~ for h'berty...

...e) T~e aven, ge.eaffien ~s ~ to believe t h ~ modem so~ety is "too complex" for the old logical solutions to ret~m any relevance, and that it is th~ duty d a gifted leader to take extraord~r~ry measures...

...President Nixon has not gone so far as to create twenty-two" tripartite councils, but in addition to the Pay Board and the public Price Commission, we must also reckon with the autonomous Construction Industry Stabilization Committee, and the advisory but scarcely toothless Rent Board, as well as the Committees on the Health Services Industry, on State and Local Government cooperation, and on Interest and Dividends...

...Mussolini concluded that government by parties and majorities had become obsolete...

...certm~ the .~mmg w~e am~g the fo~.mmr tmets of Massolmi's a) While social md ecommfic class dis/inctims emtime, m emphasis is 12m~d upon ~ evope~ ~ " b) Pot~t~d powe~ ~s delegated from ~ve ~ thin elected from below...

...Now I do not mean to be provocative or insolent, for this compmson has already been suggested by Ralph . Nader among ot~rs...

...It is this super-mtimmlimn which omlemlmrary ~ refer to when they brmd regfmes such m those in and Greeee as "fascist," and at first perlm~ that was all Mussolini Imi in mind But a ~ simplistic definiUm of l~umoPni's system is oet:usm7 if one is seriemdy to ~amh~e the elmrge that Rielmrd Wmm is ml~katmg mmy a ~ ~.aturm...

...Messrs...

...Finally at the top of the heap stand Mr...

...We fight for definite causes, but don't always desire to see those causes triumph completely, And what does all this have to do with Richard Nixon...

...And, if you apply that old rule of thumb, the * ideological extremes represented by his enemies suggest that Nixon is that rarity among American politicians -- a centrist...

...Many others, although .they realize the importance of appearing to desire total victory, would happily settle for much less...

...But you won't find those of us who are ideologically committed admitting that, of course...

...But the Supreme Court, in Sehechter v. United States, 295 U.S...

...The ideologically committed believe they Cannot express gratitude for what they consider half measures...

...Another striking parallel is the fact that Mussolini took the fu'st step toward controlling the Italian economy by slapping heavy duties on imports...

...Even so, advocates of the free market are rightly alarmed by the autonomous nature of the Phase II commissions...

...Many are voor...

...e) Private owr~.rship, while permitted to exist, is separate from control over owned assets...

...They Called Him "'Tricky" Centrist Nixon, Centrist Nation John R. Coyne, Jr...

...Suddenly there are enemies on the right, most of them supporting conservative Congressman John Ashbrook in the presidential primaries...

...Recognition of Red China, after all, has been one of the great liberal goals for two decades, and recognition now seems inevitable...

...And Richard Nixon, with enemies left and right...

...Richard Nixon is not the first President to try to graft a form of the corporate state upon the American economic system...

...If much of what'I have said regarding the dmracteristics of fascism seems just as typical ~ dictatorship in ge~-ai that is because absolute states either of the right or cf the left are equally opposed to republican government and ~ free market economics...

...Only the student lived to tell the story...

...A steady flow of raw sewage oozes into the river from a large pipe jutting from the embankment along Washington's posh Georgetown section...

...the comervadive dictator of P o r t u p l who was himself ~ labeled ot~rved m~on-,'s shallowness...

...Both systems ~ e ~ ~m,vised, without any sul~tm~ background or ideals...

...American industry today trusts Richard Nixon not .to abandon" the good will toward business which he has maintained throughout a quarter century of public life, but perhaps they should consult with Chiang Kai-shek concerning Richard Nixon's constancy...

...If Ezra Pound still follows "politics, he is no doubt delighted to observe that the President's economic measures resemble nothing so much as they do the "corlm~te (or cm3mrative) state" d Benito M~solini's fascist Italy...

...Nixon's quasimonetarist "game plan" the President had to endure constant appeals from leading Democrats to "do something" about inflation and unemployment...

...is a marvelous opportunist whm it comes to action...

...Rumsfeld and the Cost of Living Council...

...The course concerns a river, a subsidy and this year's political catchphrase -- "reordering priorities...

...The pollution of the Potomac is caused by two things...

...as Dm~l Brod~ Ires observed of Wmm's '~ragnmUam' so the late Dr...

...And here is the paradox, for our feelings about winning are ambivalent...

...But a serious case cao b~leed be ma :le that the New Ecomsnic P o l l y and Mussolini's ~ State have enough traits in common to ~e~ed the bomMs of mere coincidem:e...

...But then comes a'related question: Do we really want to win...

...No one expects Richard Nixon to remain in office for seventeen years, and even if that were possible, it is unlikely that he has any desire to supersede the Congress with the Cost of Living Council...

...Like Mussolini who astounded his anticlerical supporters by reaching a cordial accommodation with the Catholic Church, Mr...

...So, why all the griping...

...Soon after he became Prime Minister, Mussolini put into effect a conservative regimen of reduced expenditures and a balanced budget, but like Nixon with his ill-fated game plan, the Duce got cold feet...

...Each of these, to some extent, is vis~ie in Phase 1I of the New Economic Policy...

...In that case Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes observed for a unanimous Court: "Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the President to exercise an unfettered discretion to make whatever laws he thinks may be needed or advisable for the rehabilitation and expansion of trade or industry...

...i ~ e from the very Mmsol~ md h~ Black .~irts believed that the fatherland was the higher gond and that individuals should subordln~te their semsh im~-ests to it...

...It's dangerous to relax, dangerous to content yourself with half measures...

...It would have a sobering ~ my euphoric dream d grand detentes ~ ba~tar~ ~ . [ ] The Uses of History Nixon an or Mussolini ? George Me~r I N THE 1930s Ezra Pmmd came out with a short book on the virtues of fasci.~m in Italy, and he gave it the catchy title of Jefferson and-or Mussolini, the reason being flkat he hoped the book would suggest certain parallels between the two men which Mussolini's American critics had so far not acknowledged...

...And so, among the ideologically committed, an odd ambivalence exists...

...Antonio Smlamu...

...Once the population was prepared for full-scale government intervention Mussolini began to enact the measures contained in the ad hoc "philosophy" of fascism...

...Businessmen especially should contemplate the long range ramifications of Phase II far more seriously than its ephemeral short-run advantages, and should inform the President of their concern...

...If one side lets up, the other side suddenly becomes dominant, and the result is one-sided ideological hegemony, as during, for instance, the New Deal -Fair Deal -- New Frontier Great Society years...

...N'mon, Commlly and l~,mqfeld ratimalize their support for these institminm wh/.-h they profess to mismast by invddng the "naUomd interest," thereby hapmg to stagmatize aU criticism...

...In the realm of economics, fascism is not a sophisticated doctrine, for Mussolini believed far more in personal power than in any abstraction such as the corporate state...

...And liberals should be delighted with the new China policy...

...d) The individual must accept discipline as a greater good than ~_rty...

...A centrist president in a country whose unique greatness depends upon a strong center may not really be a bad thing...

...Three days later, fum" more young people swam to freedom, including one whose feet were alm,~t_ entirely eaten by sharks...

...Even liberals, who have much to applaud in Nixon's policies, frequently critize the President's apparent lack of conviction or what Nicholas von Hoffman calls...

...Like Mussolini, who said "We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms of civilisation, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become," (The Road to Serldom/-too many Americans in the summer of 1971 had an almost mystical faith that the President's "bold action" in controlling wages and prices would succeed where free market f~ces had apparently failed...

...It is important that this pressure be evenly and steadily applied...

...There have been enemies on the left since the early 1950s, when Nixon helped to prove that Alger Hiss, a charter member of the liberal establishment, was moonlighting as a Russian spy...

...And so, traditional enemies on the left...

...Existing antipeUution laws are not enforced...

...Unfortmately the mr~mmmr has failed to make an ireland;m, because, to most Amoricam, me tam "fascist" no longer ms any connoCaU...

...Mussolini and Italian Fascism) To be fair to Mr...

...Nixon has committed conservative heresy with his blithe desertion of the Republic of China (which he now refers to as Taiwan...

...Most of us can live quite nicely in a centrist country...

...In Italy many members of the wealthy classes went along with Mussolini's rantings because they were convinced that fascism could be a bulwark against socialism, and even Winston Churchill applauded the Duce for that reason...

...Seventy-two per cent of all Washingtonlans are black...

...I F YOU WANT to know how a politician stands ideologically, runs one oM rule'of thumb, look at the enemies he makes...

...In other words, just because you favor seating Red China in the United Nations, you don't necessarily oppose Relmquist...

...Would I, for instance, really enjoy living in a completely conservative society...

...A tough question to a n ~ , especially if you're ideologically committed, as I am...

...A few want to win very much...

...The Potomac River, once one of our most scenic natural treasures and a splendid setting for the nation's Capitol, is polluted...

...And of course, the simnle fact that the gbvernment is playing a major role in detern~ing wages and prices indicates t h ~ "Nixonmnics" has separated ownership control of 'private property America...

...The New Eennomic Pol~y suggests its lack of a firm grmmd~g in political or economic theory by the s ~ p l e fact that all its ~ (save recently Paul MeCracken) insist that R is temwrary...

...In an advanced state, he contended, economic interests were exclusively entitled to representation in the national legislature...

...Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, particularly the National Industrial Recovery Act, had what might be considered "fascist" overtones...

...China lights a fire under conservatives already sizzling over the administration's proposed fandly assistance plan and what they regard as America's deteriorating defense posture...

...Thus, it is never surprising when the liberal left opens up, as it did for instance during the hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of William Rehnquist, a nomination seen by Birch Bayh as proof that rightist Nixon intended to pack the court with Birchers (of the Robert Welch, rather than the Bayh, variety...

...Now Nixon has enemies to the right as well as left...

...The second fascist characteristic, delegation from above, is today evidenced by the fact that of all the Pay and Price Board members, only the Chairmen need he confirmed by the Senate, and President Nixon allowed that concession only to guarantee that Congress would extend his extraordnmry powers for another year...

...Unlike II Duce, he has not attempted to declare strikes and lockouts categorically illegal, and one cannot imagine him boasting, as did Mussolini, that his Administration has "curtailed useless or harmful Liberties...

...Mysteriously Pound's thesis never really caught on in America, but if he were now reclined to make a second effort he could assemble a convincing case that the menmbent Pr~,sidmt has, albeit unwittingly, demonstrated more similarities to the Itnlinn dictator than ever was the case with the Sage of Monticello...

...Both conservatives and liberals believe their constant ideological opposition puts pressure on ~ovemunent from both ends of t h e ideological spectrum...

...Likewise conservative commentators, Kevin Phillips in particular, have~ noted President Nixon's inability to project his dedication to any ideal more lofty than political success...

...We would be less confident of any degree of restraint if George Wallace or another man of his "populist" pretensions were to become Chief Executive...

...Mussolini's declaration that Laissez laive is out of date compares ominously with President Nixon's admission a year ago that he is now a Keynesian (Italy, A Modern History...

...As a result, Washingtonians are deprived of a desperately needed recreational resource...

...From this, one may infer that the President believes economic interests rather than popularly elected (and therefore accountable) legislators should have broad policy making powers in this country...

...In fact, public health officials here warn everyone to wash ins if any river water so much as touches the skin...

...This pessimistic view of society necessarily leads to the fourth fascist tenet listed above...

...If we do, we may lose our leverage...

...And the federal government says it cannot find the money to build sewage treatment plants for the District of Columbia...

...But wait...

...495, invalidated the National Recovery Administration and its numerous codes outlining labor conditions and d~fining the nature of unfair The Space Program: Unfinished Monument of the 1960s The Alternative May 1972 11 competRion within particol~r industries...

...Typical of many is the story of ane refugee, a twenty-two year old student, who started out from the Ommmnist coast with two companions...

...In spite of all the hazards, they continue to come, estimated at 6~00 in the first half of I~/I, ~m at ~ 6 , ~ in the three mooths ~ . Ammg six girls who swam to Ikeg Kong in July wm a fornm~ mmnber of the Red Guard, wbo voiced what snrely must be fl~e e ~ I o of so many Freedom S ~ . "Freedom means ~,"Mmsmd...

...Once the corporations had begun determining economic policy for the nation...

...Conservatives, after all, should be ecstatic about the Supreme Court appointments, such appointments being among the most s~gnificant a president can wake...

...Since the game plan more closely resembled libertarian economics than it did the more chic activism, its lack of instant success persuaded many that the old varieties had lost their relevance in today's complex society...

...By 1939 he had liquidated the Chamber and replaced it with a Chamber of Fasces and Corporations...

...But the President should consider the precedent he is establishing...

...lie's had practice...

...Mussolini decided that the Italian Chamber of Deputies had become something of an anachronsim...

...11~e " ~ ' of both leaders was a eommm d m ' - acterisUc...

...Massolmi, he wrote...

...Particularly in the area of prices, discipline has been sb'essed to the extent that labor officials, not to mention the general public, have been encouraged by the President to turn in their fellow citizens for violations of the price guidelines...

...In Italy business interests stopped cheeringwhen they found that the government's curbs on union power were trivial compared with the high taxes and compulsory loans appropriated from industry to prop up Mussolini's shaky regime...

...These corporations consisted of members from labor, management and "the public," the latter a euphemism for toadies from the Duce's own administration...

...So, you always fight to win...

...The enemies he makes tend to be committed to some strong ideological viewpoint, both left and right...

...But why, asks a nonideological observer, can't everyone be friends...

...llae dromaed bodim oi young men and womm, floating adm~ on the ~ Kong coa~ give mute, but e~luent, testmmny, to the .risks people will take to ae~t~e f r t a l m . In the one month ~ Novmnhe~, 1~0, no fewer than fifty~ight such bodies were found...

...America is neither a rightist, nor a leftist nation, and most Americans are ideologically eclectic ,picking and choosing among liberal and conservative positions...

...Throughout the two and one half years of Mr...

...Today American businessmen are apparently accepting Phase H also out of a fear of something worse...

...One was shot as he entered the water, and one was captured...

...He can live with them...

...He is presently teaching mass communications at Arizona State University and his most recent book is The Impudent Snobs: Agnew vs...

...It may be too much to hope that Mr...

...For the truth is that very few nonfascist, nonMarxist Americans want a true believer in the White House...

...the Intellectual Establishment (Arlington House, 1972...

...major disthlctkm between fascism and commm~m is that the former is in part a reaction by the governing I0 The Alternative May 1972 class while the latter is conceived as a revolution from below although both may end up with strikingly similar results...

...the dispassionate, mechanistic way he's joined our side...

...It took MusSolini seventeen years in office to abolish the Chamber of Deputies, but its powers had been thoroughly eroded long before its formal demise...

...Nixon's sympathies, then, lie to the right...

...Whild Honeyfoggling Edology...

...And Richard Nixon has made plenty...

...Nixon, one must grant that even if he firmly believes in very little, he is nonetheless a decent man and hardly the reckless and ruthless egomaniac that Mussolini was...

...The Corporate State was several years in gestation, but it finally emerged in 1934 as a system dividing economic life into twenty-two major groups known as corporations...

...indeed they profess ahiamamce for any society in whleh Pay Boards and Price CommL~'~ms would be ~ t F, ffilares...