GOVERNMENT BY WHAT PEOPLE?
Steinfels, Peter
"Once he is elected president, the president's electoral coalition has, in a sense, served its purpose . . . . What counts then is his ability to mobilize support from the leaders of the...
...Amnesty has succeeded in freeing thousands from imprisonment and torture because it focuses its efforts, eschews the abstract, and does not weary...
...That piece, and his subsequent book, Soft Energy Paths, have changed the terms of the nuclear vs...
...I'd hate to accuse Commonweal of being "kneejerk nuke...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 REVIEWERS WILLIAM B. HIXSON, JR., teaches recent American history at Michigan State University...
...Higher expectations from the business community, greater uncertainty and disappointment when the administration fails to meet them, followed by yet more administration appeasement...
...Supposedly he came into Washington with a strong hand, the "outsider" unencumbered by political I.O.U.s...
...Also must participate in regional, state and national meetings relevant to the Catholic Charities program...
...10016...
...soft technology debate...
...is overwhelmingly opposed by business leadership--and still the latter appear genuinely disturbed to find him less than a hundred percent responsive to their interests...
...and when all is said and done, the vote comes up "confidence" or "no confidence...
...There is a process of signaling and a process of follow-the-leaders...
...It has brought members of the general public, university scientists and distinguished participants in the legal profession together, for education and action...
...A year has now passed since the Carter team, newly elected, opened negotiations with the private government, and so far no agreement has been reached...
...It is not for want of trying on Carter's part...
...Your discussion of "quaint" alternatives "geared to life in another century" has no relevance to Mr...
...New branches have sprung up across the country...
...Immediately he signaled his desire for alliance by appointing Establishment figures like Vance, "ambassadors" to the business community like Blumenthal and Lance, "responsible" liberals like Charles Schultze and "responsible" conservatives like James Schlesinger...
...It says, after all, that our democratic process is rather a sham...
...The private government--in this case, its dominant business segment --has refused to strike a bargain...
...The Carter response to this situation can be expressed in a single term---appeasement...
...Truman made a point of bringing a substantial number of nonpartisan soldiers, Republican bankers, and Wall Street lawyers into his administration...
...Is it time to consider the alternative - - t h a t an uncompromisingly decent egalitarianism may be the foundation of a sound economy...
...The Clamshell Alliance, at which your editorial takes a special swipe, began with young people who were joined by hundreds of others, kids to graybeards, in an open, well announced demonstration against beginning construction of the Seabrook plant...
...Salary is negotiable...
...For box numbe, add 60c per insertion...
...I only ask that you present arguments that refute his careful, forceful logic, before you dismiss the Clamshell Alliance and other nuclear opponents as "knee-jerk...
...The most sophisticated, the New England Coalition Against Nuclear Pollution, has made large achievements in few years...
...monthly in advance for more than three times...
...3) a revived sense among dynamic business leaders that they can, and they must, assert their power over national government...
...Viewpoint Historical viewpoint worth reading, Roe vs...
...The no-confidence stories in the business sections have now blossomed into the "ineptness" stories on the front pages--"ineptness" being a relatively neutral peg on which the congressional and labor elements in the private government can hang their complaints...
...Box 121, JenHntown, Pa...
...Lovins's discussion of the "soft" technologies-"flexible, resilient, sustainable and benigu"--which match energy quality to end-use needs in a way that is impossible for the centralized, wasteful, capital intensive nuclear and other "hard" technologies...
...He begged to be freed from 'this nightmare in which we are all prisoners...
...HENRY W~'~NER nOWDEN is an associate professor of Religion at Douglass-Rutgers University in New Jersey...
...k~c, three times: 63c, six times...
...The reasons for the private government's recalcitrance are several: (1) some genuinely intractable economic problems it wants the federal government to solve, but on corporate terms, i.e., the poor, the unorganized and those who have benefited from social changes since the mid-Sixties (municipal employees, for instance) should pay the price...
...Had the administration fContinued on page 767) 25 November 1977:756 regional, some with individual focus, all concerned about nuclear dangers, all working in high degree of cooperation...
...MOLLY RUSH Director, The Thomas Merton Center 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Abigail McCarthy ( e o n ' t ) to work in well-equipped torture chambers lined with modern acoustical tiles and spattered with blood, vomit, and urine...
...Once he is elected president, the president's electoral coalition has, in a sense, served its purpose . . . . What counts then is his ability to mobilize support from the leaders of the key institutions in society and government . . . a broad governing coalition of strategically located supporters . . . key people in Congress, the executive branch, and the private establishment...
...Director of Social S e r v i c e s The Diocese of Catholic Charities of Youngstown Ohio is seeking a Director of Socla Services wlth experience in social work and admlnistration and an M.S.W, or equivalent degree Respons bi ties include supervls ng funding, monitoring, evaluating and giving technical assistance to the seven regional social service agencies within the six-county diocese...
...Johnson was acutely aware of the need to maintain effective working relations with the Eastern establishment and other key groups in the private sector . . . . " This cold-eyed description is found in the Trilateral Commission's widely discussed "Report on the Governability of Democracies...
...The only "knee-jerking" at the non-violent Seabrook demonstration came from the Governor of New Hampshire and the Manchester Union Leader and their followers, at enormous cost to the New Hampshire budget...
...COMMONWEAL, 232 Madison Ave, New York, N.Y...
...60c, twelve times...
...2) the higher expectations of deference to private power fostered by the Nixon and Ford administrations...
...Carter has assumed that an uncompromisingly sound economy was the foundation of a decent egalitarianism...
...Lovins's brilliant analysis of all the major points in the hard vs...
...Twelve words minimum...
...It is an instructive development when a Democratic president is elected by labor, minorities and lowerincome groups...
...Appeasement is simply not working...
...A tax rebate is withdrawn, minimal goals for reducing unemployment are set (and not met), social legislation is delayed, Blumenthal and Schultze scurry forth to assure corporate heads that tax reform will increase their profits...
...John DEEDY is Managing Editor of Commonweal...
...The hard technologies, including nuclear power, require vast expenditures of capital, enormous risks (not only environmental damage, nuclear proliferation, qentralization, etc., but they may not be economically feasible...
...Labor, too, should probably be mentioned, though the fact that it isn't only signifies what a junior partner it is in this "private government...
...The Alliance (of which I am not a member) now intends to concentrate on antipollution education...
...Classified payable with order...
...What is actually done by the president a majority elects will depend on the settlement he makes with an establishment of businessmen, ConGOVERNMENT BY mVHAT PEOPLE...
...anti-nuclear debate...
...He went to the existing sources of power in the country . . . . Eisenhower in part inherited his coalition and was in part almost its creation . . . . Kennedy attempted to recreate a somewhat similar structure of alliances...
...PETER STEINFELS g~ssional barons and military leaders...
...stuck to the Democratic platform and Carter's campaign promises, the private government would have been far more likely to come to terms...
...They are sure to produce, as Lovins predicts, "a world of subsidies, $100-billion bailouts, oligopolies, regulations, nationalization, eminent domain, corporate statism...
...When left-leaning scholars write this sort of thing, it is called "conspiratorial...
...Naturally it has not gathered in some executive suite and taken a vote on the matter, though organizations like the Business Council, the Conference Board, the Business Roundtable, and others facilitate communication among leading financiers and industrial executives, in addition to the chummier and smaller networks of influence...
...Reply to Director of Catholic Charities, 22S Elm Street, Youngsfown, Ohlo 44S03...
...This note cannot begin to do iustice to Mr...
...BARBt~A MUTICOSrO is an assistant professor of English at Bergen College in New Jersey...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Steinfeis (Cont...
...We can aid its efforts and concentrate our own...
...Wade, The Legal Principles of the Founding Fathers and and the Supreme Court by Edward J, Melvin, C.M.--$1 to Pro Life Coalition of Pennsylvania, P.O...
...On shoestring contributions it has become a consultation and educational resource for more than this locality...
...19046...
...For Carter, it has come up "no confidence," a fact blazoned through the business and financial pages and reflected in discouraging investment decisions...
...WALTEn ARNOLO, former editorial director of Liveright, is a free-lance writer and editor...
...With what result...
...The Nuclear Regulatory Agency had given permission for ocean waters to be sucked in, heated and dumped back, on behalf of cooling towers...
...Its Director, when the Report appeared in 1975, was Zbigniew Brzezinski and its members included W. Michael Blumenthal, Harold Brown, Cyrus Vance, and half a dozen other important figures in the present administration, not to forget James E. Carter, Jr., himself...
...What the Trilateral Commission has produced is taken seriously these days...
...Catholic Conference in Washington...
...MAaaOmE MUm, m, Pittsburgh, Pa...
...CI.AmE RAHN is an assistant professor of English at Fordham University...
...If torturers are dehumanized as they learn to deny any impulse to pity, sympathy, or compassion, must we not agree that we are equally dehumanized by knowing that torture exists and failing to act...
...Laber tells of an Uruguayan army officer who smuggled out photographs of victims in whose torture he had participated...
...C I a s s i f i e iI RATES: 70c a word, one time...
...Allow Four to Six Weeks for Change of Address and Enclose Label...
...Commonweal: 767...
...THOMAS E. QUIOLEY is on the staff of the Division of Latin America, U.S...
...A little while ago the financial pages explained that the economy was being hurt by business's uncertainty whether the administration was liberal or conservative...
...The governing coalition need have little relation to the electoral coalition . . . . "For twenty years after World War I1 presidents operated with the cooperation of a series of informal governing coalitions...
...The soft technologies, such as solar and organic conversion, wind-hydraulic systems, the recently developed fluidized-bed system for burning coal, as well as conservation and co-generation provide a diversified, diffused and more efficient answer to our energy future, according to Lovins...
...To the Editors: Your editorialist on "The Senate and Energy" cannot have read the Foreign Agairs article of a year ago, "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken" by Amory B. Lovins...
Vol. 104 • November 1977 • No. 24
