VERSE:

...An era of nerve and moral verve that created a leadership vacuum turmoil may give birth to new beginnings, but it may in which disenfranchised groups were compelled to seize also stir up ancient evils...

...The present circumstances seem ever, Watergate also makes plain that the velocity of attuned to the English and French revolutions, in which social change and political corruption may lead to somearistocratic elites displayed precisely a collapse of class thing worse no less than something better...

...all your severed roots The choice becomes a conservative one: to "brazen it out" with Nixon, or "ride the new wave" with Ford...

...Thus, on neatly raked gravel however important Watergate may be in relation to the you brush crumpled structure of power in America, the absence of an or- dry yellow leaves ganized Left with an historic vision and mission to of ancient plane-trees 5 April 1974: 106...

...Rather, Left to capitalize on Watergate means that at best, the we witness a bizarre spectacle of Hobbesian propor- reform wing of the Democratic party will emerge with tions in which the ruling elite and state authority as such a newly born strength...

...less dangerous or virulent, since fascism also has been Watergate has not elevated the Democratic party to known to come in populist packages, wrapped in slogans virtue, nor relegated the Republican Party to vice...

...In this sense, Watergate is not a revo- in its origins and evolution should have held out the lutionary spectacle of Marxian proportions, in which an promise of a democratic response to terror...

...The Watergate hearings and their revelations on mat- capitalize on such an event, means that this event beters ranging from a rage against isolated anti-war pro- comes part of a deepening cycle of cynicism and antitestors to extremely shady and sharp tax practices, have politics in America...

...It leads to a Hobbesian rather than venality that can no longer be dismissed as the ravings a Marxian series of responses to the political turmoil...

...exploiting economic class and its state machinery give Events, even important ones, are not self-evident in way to mass uprisings and a new radical leadership as their political consequences...

...Howfor nearly 200 years...

...resolved in the long pull of time, and what social forces will be unleashed capable of moving us beyond this malaise...

...whisper deep green As a result of this desultory performance on the part pleas before dying of the ideological Left, the Watergate affair threatens to be reduced to simply a matter of Republican party stra- Shouting tegy, that is, conservative decision-making concerning rich cranberry-bog scarlets the advisability or inadvisability of going with the Presi- sumac and red maples dent for the Congressional and state elections of 1974, color your blood and the Presidential elections of 1976...

...The tragic inability of the they did in the Bolshevik and Maoist revolutions...

...or moving toward feed painfully a solid front behind Gerald Ford, the new Vice President...

...The present intranquillity derives not so much searching rather than careless celebrating, itself not a from any doubt as to the authenticity of a crisis in the small lesson that Americans are finally beginning to American Leviathan, but rather how this crisis will be understand...

...Only one fact is certain: the present politics rustle through your old dream of centrism cannot be sustained amidst a climate of cor- move still closer ruption and crisis...

...of the radical fringe...

...Watergate of state power are unwilling to abide by the premises proves that, even in America, politics does not stand still and principles which have governed the United States and that constitutions are not made for all eternity...

...It feeds, rather than destroys the compelled Americans to confront a condition of political revolutionary myths...

...Pacing But either determination leaves the Left at the starting the piazza in Florence gate, without a program and without a vision...

...But in the near-total silence of the This means that those who praise order when they really Left, the impulse to reform gives way to the instinct of worship terror have the most to gain by a scandal which self-preservation...

...In short, Watergate there is a dangerous precedent set in which the holders does not alleviate the fear and trembling...

...This is a time for careful power...

...at worst, Watergate will lead to are rendered helpless by inner-party strife and intra- a new style of fascism-less Platonic, less elitist but no party rivalry...

...Yet, celebrating integrity and integration...

...The practical issue becomes: will the United States talk Left and move Right, and thus create a cli- MATT FIELD mate for a flourishing fascism, or will it be capable of restoring national confidence based upon an international AUTUMN OF A POLITICAL EXILE cleansing or purge (there are no pleasant palliatives to describe the question of impeachment or removal of a Burning President from high office) of the present holders of exotic trees in Vietnam authority...