Letter From a Whig

...Bella, of course, is New York's femrne fatale, Congressperson Ms...

...Finally, in a country where precedent and common sense substitute for a written constitution, it is always possible for the party conferences to evolve into policy-making bodies...

...One characteristic of youth is the hope of significantly changing the world, and the condition of our fellow men in it, for the better...

...Besides lobbying Phillips intends to inform th public through a Citizen's News Service of bureaucratic misdeeds...

...The logical next step from containment is dStente...

...Public Monitor will also include a National Committee of Correspondence (through which the public at large can channel into Washington local examples of bureaucratic abuse), a Committee of Volunteer Lawyers (who will initiate taxpayer suits against improper bureaucratic activity), and a Speaker's Bureau (which will provide speakers to local groups to talk about some of the bureaucratic horror stories and explain the purpose of Public Monitor...

...There are times, of course, when the yearly seaside gatherings have significance for the party or even for the government...

...Yet in the ' end, the degree of influence of the mass party depend chiefly on the susceptibility of the one in Commons, for it alone can lay claim to a national constituency...

...CRYP For young people not yet turned off by The Alternative March 1974 15 politics, Morton Blackwell, a long-time Washington-based activist in conservative politics, has designed a way to get them involved in major political campaigns...

...If basically we are going to accept the status quo, we might as well make it as pleasant and safe as possible...

...Richard Nixon occasionally declaims about coming "generations of peace...

...her language was stricken from the Record, and she was prohibited from participating in floor debate for twenty-four hours--cruel and unusual punishment which undoubtedly deserves to be declared unconstitutional...

...Abzug called Dingell's actions.--in no uncertain terms--racist and demagogic...

...The United States has always been isolationist by geography and temperament...

...Despite crucial party support at campaign time, a successful candidate owes hi~ ultimate allegiance to his constituency as a whole...

...This implies a policy of d~tente rightly understood...

...Thirtyone people went through Blackwell's program and CRYP gave significant help to sixteen campaigns (providing beth money and youth coordinators...

...Being the party in government, the Conservatives are in a somewhat better position for these maneuvers...

...It is on the whole for the better because it promises a more sober and responsible foreign policy, one that may approach Kissinger's hopes expressed fifteen years ago for a foreign policy that was adept at "the art of weighing probabilities . . . . grasping the nuances of possibilities...

...An explanation of this omission may lie elsewhere in the reform movement...

...Such has clearly been Kissinger's conception of his efforts as national security advisor to and now as Secretary of State under Richard Nixon...

...Our new-found maturity is ambiguously for the better because maturity represents a loss of youth, and youth has certain very appealing characteristics, which can impart to it a certain nobility...

...That hope, at least within any reasonable time frame, seems under Kissinger no longer to be the central goal or promise, or even hope of American foreign policy...

...thus, John Foster Dulles...

...But the impact of this and the other e~zents was more upon a few within the hall than the many without...

...In a recent mailing M. Stanton Evans, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union, wrote that the Public Monitor will lobby in Congress against the "waste and misuse of the taxpayer's dollar...

...This is probably for the best, since daring in the real world is often indistinguishable from recklessness, and great powers should not be reckless...

...For dedicated and able young people, insists Blackwell, this can be a first step in a political career...

...They have a record in Office to expound and more than partisan import adheres to the statements of their leaders...

...To be sure, the parliamentary organizations of Labour and Conservative members must be careful to avoid a breach with their party followers and it is this necessity which adds meaning to the gatherings in Blackpool and the other party activities during the year...

...But a country's foreign policy should not be faithful or immature if that country is not going to act on its youthful ambitions...

...On the House side successful races included Dave Treen (I~uisiana), Ken Robinson (Virginia), Trent I ~ t t (Mississippi), Steve Symms (Idaho), and Ed Young (South Carolina...

...This new maturity is, I think, on the whole but not unambiguously for the better...

...The effect of these arrangements is to insulate him from the demands of both constituency and mass party...

...And CRYP shows no sign of slowing down...

...Towards the close of the conference, the long-awaited remarks by the Government's man in Belfast, rumored to be in line for promotion to deputy leader, were hailed as "Churchillian" by a favorable press...

...Yet, practical problems of the American electoral system aside, reformers interested in the first instance in democratizing the national party are likely to have little affection for changes that would increase the gap between the~elected official and the voter...

...Asking how we could allow our children to become sacrificial lambs of scandalous demogoguery (expressed again in less than genteel language), the Abzug outburst was halted when Congressman Bauman (RMd...

...It follows that adding annual party conferences to American political institutions will not in itself move the country much nearer to "responsible party government...

...This does" not mean that we should not maintain at least military parity with the USSR, help our allies, and help citizens under tyrannical rule as much as possible...

...Thus, the disciplined and programmatic character of British parties arises not from the connection between a mass party and its elected officials, but from the relationship among the officeholders...

...But, for a simple reason, this is improbable...

...The Chair ruled against Ms...

...But Public Monitor promises to be much more...

...That is, a mature policy of d~tente which does not simply transfer our excessive hopes of the past to the new policy of d$tente...

...Letter from a Whig by C. Bascom Slemp No Excuse to Cop Out "Point of Order" (WASHINGTON) - - Before Congress could adjourn for its Christmas recess, Bellicose Bella struck again...

...Similarly, a member of Commons also owes allegiance to his Parliamentary Party's program, a conception of the national interest, not diverse local ones...

...it, not the party assembled in annual conference, is collectively, responsible to the electorate...

...For the 1974 elections CRYP has expanded its budget and scheduled nine intensive weekend schools in Florida, Indiana, California, Minnesota, Montana, Washington D.C., New York, Lousiana, and Connecticut for youth coordinators arolind the country...

...it does mean that we have come to recognize the importance of trying to build a "stable international order," one that is" relatively secure and peaceful...

...another is daring...

...day's leading issues...

...This view may not always be correct, nor even bear on a particular issue, but must always be considered...

...Early in the week, a young Secretary of State for Housing delivered a key address on the government's programs in that area, perhaps a harbinger of a new and more important portfolio...

...they were part of what was seen as a necessary policy of containment...

...The obligation to take foreign policy seriously since World War II has been seen by most Americans as a necessary evil, as was seen to be our entry into World War II...

...In 1973's off-year elections CRYP contributed $1500 and a trained youth coordinator to Don Young's successful House race in Alaska, as well as $3500 and a youth coordinator for the successful congressional election of Robert Bauman in Maryland...

...I)6tente rightly understood 16 The Alternative March 1974...

...In ways subtle and direct, they can influence the parliamentary leadership, though the reverse may be at least as likely...

...Such an intelligent policy was one that recognized whether or not it was possible to achieve a "generally accepted legitimacy," an international agreement "about the nature of workable ar= rangements and about the permissible aims and methods of foreign policy...

...A noisy row was touched off by some parenthetical remarks by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which revealed that the leadership's tolerance for right-wing critics within the party had reached an end...

...Dingell...

...Hope is one feature of youth...

...According to Blackwell, these training seminars will cover all aspects of youth campaigning, from membership tables to election-day activities...

...After World War II, Secretaries of State described our task as either the containment or "rollback" of Communism, and the promotion of freedom and democracy throughout the world...

...Yet the resounding words of President Kennedy notwithstanding, American foreign policy has never been very daring...

...Whether in power or in opp~ sition, only the Parliamentary Party can claim a national following...

...In the morning, and over the next few weeks, judgment will be passed on these initiatives...

...Just prior to the beginning of this year's conference, Prime Minister Heath unveiled Phase Three of the Government's anti-inflation program, effectively channeling economic debate for the rest of the week...

...While satisfying its supporters, it must be wary of taking stands that will be irrelevant or embarrassing at election time...

...And at some point pretesting such ambitions and failing to act can even become a bit despicable...

...The departure such a foreign policy represents may be described as a new maturity in American foreign policy...

...The great compromise with this principle of constituency representation in Britain occurs at the level of the party in Parliament...

...An Opposition party, such as Labour, has to be more circumspect...

...If such an agreement were possible, then a wise and responsible statesman would act so as to achieve a stable international order, which alone guarantees peace...

...In fact, we are almost obliged, having followed a policy of containment since World War II, to drop our unfulfillable aspirations and become mature...

...A ~'stable international order" was not the primary or public goal of earlier American statesmen...

...But the current reforms, though adopted on the recommendation of groups chaired by congressmen and senators, are notably unconcerned with doing so...

...The Conservative Party conference typically provides for much of this sort of communication...

...Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind A MERICAN FOREIGN policy under Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger seems above all to have been concerned with the search for a stable international order...

...Bella Abzug...

...Each trainee will go through a total of twenty-three hours of intensive instruction...

...President Kennedy's inaugural address was a striking expression of that commitment...

...Rarely is his career so promising afterwards...

...11450 (the Energy Emergency A c t - s t i l l tied up in Congress) Congressman John Dingell (D-Mich...

...The program needs money and volunteers and there is, the possibility of a summer intern program beginning in 1974...

...America's interventions from noble motives--in Korea and Vietnam were reluctant...

...In the middle of a lengthy reSponse to debate may come official hint of a new party policy, or electoral strategy, or perhaps even a change in the composition of the hierarchy...

...Rising in all her Elysian splendor, Ms...

...Bauman thought the remarks of the "g/mtlewoman in the well" (one wonders whether that was to be taken beth literally and figuratively in this public parliamentary interplay) violated the "rules of the House and impugned the motives of the gentleman from Michigan, (Mr...

...Instead it reflects the need for greater interest and greater participation on the part of the American public...

...Moreover, other portions of the party apparatus--the national executive committees, the permanent party ofrices, and so on--are active between conferences...

...In his Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind, Stephen Graubard paraphrases Kissinger's assertion of twenty years ago tha~ '~eace could not be made the objective of foreign policy _9 . . it was the bonus that followed from a properly conceived and intelligently executed policy...

...More enlightened discussions of policy options by the Democratic Party may be desirable for a variety of reasons, but they will not have much impact on the actions of nationally elected officials...

...requested a point of order...

...For people like Blackwell, Evans, and Phillips it is quite clear that Watergate has provided no "excuse to "cop out...

...Secretaries of State before World War II on the whole saw their task as the avoidance of too great an American entanglement in world affairs...

...Even Labour members of Parliament officially sponsored by trade unions, though sensitive to the interests of their patrons, retain their prerogative to act in accordance with their own conception of constituency interests...

...CRYP did not get under way until late in 1972, but it was furiously active by election time...

...offered a floor amendment which would have prohibited fuel allocation for busing beyond neighborhood schools...

...Even in Britain where formal party membership is much more extensive than in the United States, the delegates to the annual conferences come from a public considerably smaller than the potential electorate...

...But, as a result, perhaps the most perilous act a British politician can perform is to stand apart from his colleagues in Parliament...

...A "stable international order" is now the main goal of American foreign policy, and this is a significant departure from the goals of the previous twenty-five years...

...Abzug...

...A division within the leadership may be brought to a boil, or a debate on an issue of principle forced, producing pledges too firm to avoid...

...Public Monitor" Another program which is just getting off the _gTound is Public Monitor_9 OEO's former Acting Director, Howard Phillips, will head this new American Conservative Union program...

...Evans and Phillips see Public Monitor as only the beginning of what they call the "long-range battle to restore our free institutions to the control of the American people...

...The acronym for his creation is CRYP, the Committee for Responsible Youth Politics, a training program for youth coordinators in congressional campaigns...

...Norton $7.95 movement from one to the other tells a good deal about the changes in our view of our international role...

...During recent House debate on H.R...

...but '~eace" is far less inspiring than freedom, and the by Stephen H. Graubard W.W...

...Successful CRYP Senate campaigns included Dewey Bartlett (Oklahoma), Carl Curtis (Nebraska), Jesse Helms (North Carolina), Jim McLure (Idaho), and William Scott (Virginia...

...Though the party of the British working class usually seems unwilling to let this risk constrain its proceedings, nonetheless, annual policy conferences may, curiously, offer more advantages for the ins than the outs...

...House Speaker Carl Albert was then reportedly carried onto the floor of the House to rule whether 6r not the gentlewoman from New York was, in fact, out of order...

...Perhaps this is the key obstacle to a more responsible system: a traditionally ambivalent attitude which would have parties become more effective instruments of governing while behaving less like parties...

...Making representatives and senators subject to a congressional caucus would necessarily weaken their relationship to their own constituencies...

...Only if efforts were also directed at organizing these officeholders would the conditions for party government along British lines be created...