Letter From a Whig
Slemp, C. Bascom
Another Tall Tale One of the unpleasant aspects of this world of modern mass communication is that, when nothing is going on a lot of people go hungry, so it is that the mass communications boys...
...As recent scholarship has shown, an increasing number of discriminating Americans are voting a split ticket...
...If two or more Senate seats fall to Republicans, Mr...
...Further, the great boon of redistricting that was once expected to usher in an era of matchless democratic precision has actually encouraged incumbents to protect themselves in each new round of redistricting...
...But, nevertheless, according to the pundits, Mr...
...When a party no longer embraces a set of identifiable or comprehensible principles that deeply touch the needs of men, there just is no reason for men to identify strongly with a political party...
...There is only one occurrence that might interfere with my conclusion...
...The suspense-packed issue that they have whipped up this month is called the "possibility of a coattail effect...
...I believe the make up of the next legislature will be about the same as it is at present...
...Finally, and most important of all, the philosophical substance of our parties no longer makes much impression on an individual voter...
...Nixon's lead is now so shattering that the rest of his campaign just has to be history making and that means...
...Phooey and blah...
...Byrd and one or more of his colleagues from the south might cross over to the Republican side causing Republican domination in that chamber...
...Supposedly, as this dreary campaign slumps along Americans are to sit on the edges of their chairs, wringing their hands over the perplexing question of just how many congressmen and senators of the Republican variety Mr...
...For it means no more today to be a Republican than to be a supporter of the Chicago Bears...
...Thus the big story of the month is not much of a story after all, and next year we can expect to see President Nixon struggling again with his unwieldy and un-productive alliance in a relatively unchanged legislature...
...Certainly the Republican Party no longer can be called a party of fixed principles, for what does the typical Republican promise that differs from a run of the mill Democrat...
...Nixon will bring into office with him...
...something like a complete reversal of roles in Congress...
...The numbers favor them...
...Agnew to tip the balance for the GOP...
...It keeps bread on the table and beer in the bucket...
...And so long as this is the case citizens will not identify themselves deeply with the party...
...To support the Bears is merely to carry an enthusiasm - admittedly a pretty bizarre enthusiasm - and it goes no deeper...
...Another Tall Tale One of the unpleasant aspects of this world of modern mass communication is that, when nothing is going on a lot of people go hungry, so it is that the mass communications boys have got to talk as though something is going on even when all is deadly dull...
...This is an outside chance and unlikely...
...Of course, the Democrats should not worry too much based merely on the evidence of numbers...
...So it is with Republicanism...
...Thus in this election year as the Republican candidate reposes on the front porch and the Democratic candidate makes a windy hind of himself, the media boys have had to confect a little suspense, keeping some Americans from falling asleep and others from dying of laughing fits...
...Such an accomplishment would, obviously, demand a pretty potent coattail, for only fourteen of the thirty-three Senate seats at stake now belong to Democrats...
...But younger voters will not be so easily regimented behind a party...
...Today's political parties do not address themselves to the personal and enduring needs of the citizens...
...Now, in the political era just passed people did identify strongly with the Republicans or with the Democrats, and those people who survived from that era will continue sedulously to vote for their respective party, as Everett Ladd and Charles Hadley have so convincingly agrued in The Public Interest (Spring, 1971...
...I no more expect to see a legislature filled with Republicans, next term, than a legislature filled with vegetarians...
...The Republicans need thirty-nine accretions in the House and five in the Senate (this would tie things up in the Senate, allowing Mr...
Vol. 6 • November 1972 • No. 2
