A MATTER OF DEFINITIONS
Steinfels, Peter
MATTER OF DEFINITIONS PETER STEMFELS A few definitions: Failure of nerve. A degenerative condition reported to afflict American foreign-policy-m a k i n g. Manifests itself in the suspicion,...
...b) to undermine democracy overseas when it conflicts with American interests...
...Persistent delusion that the FBI and CIA are violating U.S...
...A federal regulatory commission in charge of the political opinions of American citizens...
...A continent recently discovered by the State Department to be inhabited overwhelmingly by blacks...
...Momentum...
...In Europe, a mysterious process coinciding with the collapse of U.S.-supported dictatorships in Portugal and Greece and the restoration of constitutional regimes, the weakening of a U.S.-supported dictatorship in Spain, and the possibility that opposition parties including the Communists might be freely elected to office in Italy and France...
...A Caribbean nation recently discovered by liberals to be in Africa...
...Mental disturbance characteristic of some liberals and radicals...
...The Vatican says this is wrong...
...This information had previously been reported by liberals, who suggested it might have consequences for American foreign policy in those regions...
...FBI...
...In the Third World, there is widespread abandonment of free institutions and guaranteed liberties, much to the disappointment of American officials who have done so much to encourage constitutional and democratic regimes in these countries...
...Excess of democracy...
...The state of the American economy, except in election years...
...law to undermine and destroy legitimate political movements here and overseas...
...Ordinarily such unfortunate events would trigger extensive use of the CIA (see below) to firm up liberal democracy by intervening in European affairs...
...While other candidates have been stuck on secondary issues, Carter always goes to the media with the central question: is he "picking up momentum...
...They obstinately insist on full information before making judgments, and occasionally even say no...
...It is like the "mandate of heaven" or "centering...
...Left-wing paranoia...
...See Africa, below...
...but this is now more difficult, owing to failure of nerve (see above) and left-wing paranoia (see below...
...From the Greek for "pair of annoyances...
...Eugene McCarthy will not...
...What is the sound of one hand clapping...
...A degenerative condition reported to afflict American foreign-policy-m a k i n g. Manifests itself in the suspicion, obviously unwarranted, that the personnel and premises responsible for Vietnam, Chile, attempted assassinations of foreign leaders, and various military actions engaged in without congressional consent deserve careful scrutiny...
...Africa...
...A liberal academic whose students were rude in the '60s...
...It is doubtful whether constitutional government can long survive such a malady Decline of liberal democracy...
...military commitments...
...Jimmy Carter knows this...
...The theory, put forth by some neoconserva-tives (see below), that a nation in which two-thirds of the adults believe that their opinion "doesn't count much anymore," in which small percentages of party members choose two candidates so that one President can be elected by a minority of eligible voters, is a nation in the grip of a "democratic surge...
...Recession...
...A part of the White House staff, with tens of thousands of employees and a $10 billion budget...
...The media know this...
...Or is he the Eugene McCarthy of the past injected into the future...
...Bicentennial...
...The Supreme Court says it is up to the local community...
...Due to their source, however, such suggestions had to be discounted...
...Democracy cannot be too hot or too cold but just right, following Aristotle and Goldilocks...
...Is Jerry Brown the Eugene McCarthy of the future injected into the present...
...momentum is vaguely mystical, like most elements of American presidential campaigns...
...The "democratic surge" leads to the decline of democracy (see above), following Hegel...
...Or at least, in distinction to regular conservatives, thinks it does no great harm...
...c) to define American interests...
...Cuba...
...is he "losing momentum...
...Religious issue...
...The candidate who "gets momentum" is most qualified to become President of the United States...
...It has three tasks: (a) to foster democracy overseas when it conforms to American interests...
...now a conservative who still believes in the progressive income tax...
...Those suffering from this condition display inordinate tendencies to think twice about endorsing U.S...
...See failure of nerve and left-wing paranoia, above...
...CIA...
...Maybe Jerry Brown will get "momentum" next...
...Sometimes rumored to be Moscow's Howard Hughes...
...Controversy stirred by the danger that a presidential candidate may believe in something...
...Attempts to relieve this condition by agency apologies and presidential reassurances have proved curiously unavailing...
...Those afflicted should probably be quarantined from normal political life...
...Neoconservative...
...In severe cases, those in this state of mind may suspect wholesale use of informers, agents provocateurs, legal frame-ups, forgeries, violence, and other preposterous devices-even against respected American leaders and democratically elected governments...
...Capable of performing centennial acts with either men or women...
...The objective of primary elections...
Vol. 103 • June 1976 • No. 12
