1980-with a little help from our friends
electoral process to save us. In this spirit Kirkpatrick Sale told the story of the man who got food poisoning every time he ate 1980--WITH A LITTLE mushrooms, but kept eating them,...
...right-to-life" in the peaceful solution to international problems, whereas Demobroadest sense of that term, including the issues of capital cratic practices involved the military imposition of that peace punishment, disarmament, abortion, welfare and decent soon thereafter...
...Rather, it was No a l t e r n a t i v e i n 1980 her intention to keep something alive: the best reason in the "I see no alternative toCarter in 1980, certainly not Brown, world for fighting lost causes and the only road to eventual whose cloak of long-winded metaphysico-existential rhetoric victory...
...To make it possible to elect progressive candidates who are independent of the rich, and free to represent the poor and The g r e a t b u r i e d question middle-income voters who elected them, we need: (I) An "Among the great buried questions of our time is still the overhaul of the primary system (a vote in New Hampshire is central one: Does anyone have the right to manufacture and worth ten to twenty times that of a vote in a later primary, and distribute armaments that could destroy the world...
...At the moment we have a government in the U.S.A...
...4) Elimination of tax give- out and vote...
...There can be no doubt that the lines of the 1980 campaign, Issues don't enter American politics ghost-like...
...MURRAY POLNER energy, todisentanglenationalpolicyfrom the oil companies, EDITOR, PRESENT TENSE to getseriousabout solar and steady-state sources...
...UNIV...
...that 1940 was followed by 1980: effective disarmament (not just the SALT "lim- Roosevelt's having to take us into war in 1941...
...It is of coursea long, long I have no such to suggest...
...rationaliza- which was apeaceful year with near-complete demilitarization tion and renewal of our mass transportation systems...
...SAMUELHAZO erational patterns ofdebilitating dependency upon government POET programs...
...OF CALIFORNIA ofpassionateand uncompromising character...
...I suspect Luke, Erasmus, Dante, Confucius, Gogol, Rimbaud, Rilke Kennedy knows this and much more and will therefore soon and Isaac Bashevis Singer in the original...
...I would like to know who talks to the 'hither edge of free land,' in Frederick Turner's phrase...
...No one wants to face it...
...Alas, any significant challenge The e n e r g y p r o b l e m to Carter from the Democratic left (or what is left of it) will "Everyone knows that the energy problem is the great only lead to a Republican success, hardly to be wished...
...He has come up with aprogram the only person who canrebuild a progressive coalition, but he will certainly have to wait until 1984...
...America has neither the history nor, apparin a way that he wouldn't destroy the Democrats if Carter ently, the heart to rise to this...
...Suddenly all of our frontiers are closed...
...Our seemingomnipohim aboutenergy and why he took the stand he did on Taiwan,where he has stood on the defense budget and a lot of other tence is indemise...
...THE EDITORS thank John Ahern, Wayne Andrews, remain convinced that the real inert (electorally) majority is Katharine Byrne, John C. Curt, Harvey Cox, John not the conservative one BarryGoldwaterthought was there in Deedy, John Druska...
...But for knows what century we are living in and has some ability to the moment, if it is not time yet for Nader's third party, it is at respond intellectually to its challenges...
...Now the rest of us must take up the cause...
...both attributes are essential qualifications, • instead of weakening S A L T H 1 to the vanishingpoint inorder to and there can be no yielding on that . . . . She--my accommodate the Right...
...I often think of Shriver coming in to the convention (I 1) Stronger and more effective United Nations with miliafter Bobby Kennedy was shot-- as Governor ofIllinois...
...This will have to be legislated...
...MARY McGRORY loses on two counts: abandoning his ideals and flubbing his COLUMNIST pragmatic opportunities...
...Thus the crunch...
...and what she finds intolerable, tional call to some other 'ministry' --Carterwould stepaside in she will not tolerate one day longer...
...is SOCIOLOGIST...
...Our correspondents propose individuals like author will be compelled to claim that this is so, but that in this Michael Harrington, Representative Ronald Dellums, and process the world itself had been lost, that Americaninfluence Sargent Shriver for the Democrats...
...that his idea/form of governthingsout...
...His and ours...
...There is someplace to go, toward afullydemocratic left Michael True, William Lanouette and Gordon Zahn for (and why not with an Irish 'Catholic" candidate...
...I expect we also need some moral known outside certain wealthy 'libertarian' circles and outside leaders, too, toarouse the quiescentchildren of the 1960s and his own Illinois congressional district, is the sort of vain the turned-off voters oftoday...
...IRVING LOUIS HOROWI'rZ nal published by Catholic laity, seeks to fill a low-paying, SOCIOLOGIST, RUTGERS part-time editor's post (1~/2--2 days a week...
...But I'm enough ofa Democrat not to want bination of generous moral idealism and a biting, intolerant, to hand the election to Reagan, ConnaUy, or whomev~er...
...ment would be 'Absolute monarchy, electedfor life by lot.' JOHN AHERN It's an idea that I'm not uncomfortable with...
...Faith and belief grounded on the prophetic with big corporate interests and with thepermanent govern- tradition will do for a start and I think that thepoliticians or ment to which James Schlesinger belongs...
...The point would be toforce the certainly not be ignored that 1916 was followed by the Amerielectorate and the other candidates to face the real issues of can entrance into war in 1917...
...The "third force" needs to find Wilsonian slogan of 1916...
...Symbolically put, if you have etc...
...government spotism, individualsinpower can"tmake anyimportant differCommonweal: 294 ence...
...he may be developing into Harold Stassen II...
...a shift of the economy from gluttonous in Vietnam...
...bases in foreign countries, especially the passed his chance--Sarge Shriver...
...Shriver, newly back from the Peace the multinationals from exploiting the poor nations and makCorps, did not run...
...In this spirit Kirkpatrick Sale told the story of the man who got food poisoning every time he ate 1980--WITH A LITTLE mushrooms, but kept eating them, each time changing the color of the sauce...
...There is no other candidate (Brown, Reagan, 200-yearjoyride is at an end...
...The challenge to liberalism is down to thunderous defeat, for 1980 is not destined to be our to capitalize uponwhat is valid in the Proposition 13 mentality annus mirabilis...
...public control of the energy industry...
...Carterhas some ideas...
...I share all his apprehensions...
...But he won't...
...among those vehemently opposed to a leadership for whom Democratic party politics ultimately requires military enP A R T - T I M E E D I T O R : Commonweal, a biweekly jour- gagement...
...Although a few "I believe, it seems with a majority of my countrymen, that correspondents felt we might have to settle for Carter again, he Edward Kennedy would make a fine president...
...VICTOR FERKISS least time to form a "third force," a coalition of activist POLI'I;ICAL SCIENTIST, GEORGETOWN citizens who really believe in a democracy fueled by liberal ideals and a common understanding of the dignity of man-dignity that demands a meaningfuljob, healthcare, freedom to T h e D e m o c r a t s a n d p e a c e speak one's mind and develop one's talents to their fullest...
...whichprobably does not reflect his real thinking on the issue.1 suspect he has a good idea ofwhat he should tell us, and what STEVEN PHILIP KRAMER HISTORIAN, UNIV...
...good...
...coalition d la, if you will, the years ordecades...
...of importance to our national life . . . . (In any case, she will EDWARD S. HERMAN confess to close friends, she never wanted to 'win' in the ECONOMIST, WHARTON SCHOOL vulgar sense, as the office, at least until it is transfigured, is unfit for occupancy by anyone of civilized taste...
...3) Development of electorate who do not now turn off the TV long enough to got non-nuclear alternatives to oil...
...If the state cannot solve all the woes of the soul, it can ameliorate some social woes...
...2) Mandatory wage-price controls expanded into a B r e a k i n g the log jczm permanent system of wage-price bargaining and economic "J~he single most urgent question the 1980 election puts to planning...
...Stop Carterism Military technology, the power of instant communication, a "The problemfor many ofus is that opportunists likeCarter noisy age and an economy based on the need to develop maintain themselves as the 'lesser evil,' while carrying out ever-expanding markets (meaning the creation offalse needs despicable policies and contributing to the steady rightward and unnecessary dependenceon boughtgoods) all combine to drift ofthe political spectrum...
...RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS EDITOR, WORLDVIEW Mr...
...It will Mo Udall and Nader himself...
...PROFESSOR OF LITERATURE, STANFORD MARK TAYLO T e n t a t i v e l y for T e d d y PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, MANHATTAN "Right now, very tentatively, I'd go for Kennedy...
...and should think themthat . . . . She reads Plato, the Second Isaiah, even the brighter dreams seem jaded upon replay...
...inmilitarybudgeting, to mobilize and encourage the coalition ofbig-citymayors, unions, churches, and community groups...
...Until N.H...
...Terms oftrade, natural resources, competithings...
...Reagan will CommonCause movement, to challenge the Democraticparty obtain the nomination this time...
...multinationals to protect The missing c a n d i d a t e our domestic and international interests...
...Something needs to happen to break the log thy, Mary McGrory, Richard John Neuhaus, Murra jam and we must not be caught in a no.place-to-go-but-Carter Polner, Kirkpatrick Sale, John P. Sisk, Mark Taylor...
...R e a g a n vs...
...who doesn't scare me (Moynihan maybe most of all).Whether from atavismor wisdom, l'd hate to see a Republicanwin--but I thinkKennedy could campaign for the nominationno free and unclaimed land to hand out, you have to redistribute claimed land...
...commands overflowing imagination and wide culture, along with (needless to C h a i l e g e to l i b e r a l i s m say)great sensitivity, a rapid, darting, bold, 'predatory' intel" I don't think Carter is 'automatically' entitled to renomina- lect, matchless dialectical skill, and above all a singular comtion and reelection...
...is a spit in the ocean of American voters, a highly major political candidates address that matter seriously, few atypical state...
...I have a feeling was in general described as "a hope quickly dashed, a man he would like to be in the White House, but simply cannot see who talked community, concern, trust, but who soon fell into his way togetting there...
...RELIGIOUS SOCIALISM ment, the absolutely indispensable solution to most of our problems...
...She has no hobbies, begin actively and sincerely to discourage efforts on his be- thoughshe plays the cello admirably, writes interesting verse, half...
...There are compromises in his national health plan I don't like, and The joy1.ide's o v e r likewisein his work on the criminal code...
...Perhaps Ted Kennedy, the third of the American Gracchi, is problem ofthepresent andforeseeable future...
...3) More free time their vote to anyone...
...Probably calls for federal investment banks...
...one thinks, in addition, of had become a force without an effective deterrent...
...So, barring some very majorpolitical pratfall, Carter will is working on a novel and paints subtle landscapes . . . . She be the Democratic candidate and will, I expect, be reelected...
...Crane, a handsome demagogue little than profits and arms races...
...their advice and Bill Bole for his editorial assistam~c...
...HARVEY COX THEOLOGIAN, HARVARD 25 May 1979:295...
...jobs for was followed by 1950 and American involvement in the Kominority youth (in 15 years, one out of every five 18-year-olds will be black...
...12) A federal handle on capital investment as scenario, he would have won over Humphrey and over Nixon part of the essential job of preventing capital flight when as well...
...But it is ing it of the vilifications with which the ideologists and extremely important to fight Carterism, if only because the apologists of capitalism have concealed it from public view, gross violation ofcampaignpledges is intolerable.Little is to she will have made a permanent contribution of the first order be lost by a vigorousfight within the Democratic party...
...the l i g h t w e i g h t s "Among the Republicans there are many candidates, some A n o t h e r c h a l l e n g e to l i b e r a l i s m of them serious;and indeed the talents among those candidates "What we need to do is begin now to inspire a liberalare more considerable than they have been for a good many labor-consumer-ethnic, etc...
...It will not be forgotten that in each of these consumerism toconserving our resources and providing secu- instances the Democratic party campaign was based on a rity to the society's weakest members...
...OF MASSACHUSETTS worker/community ownership is not feasible...
...The crunch is unprecedented...
...to the old American reform impulse, to being each other's RUSSELL KIRK brother, tohelping oneanother find a way through the thickets MANOF LETTERS of self-interest and hedonism and materialism that are overwhelming us all...
...ROBERTHOYT A n o - v o t e EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CHRISTIANITY & CRISIS "Short offailing to declare war and refusing to push the button 1 can't think of anything good a president can do...
...She seethes, she the alternative, Ted Kennedy, is too much like a resuscitation teems, with dangerous ideas, and is wryly baffled that anyone of the '60s--the first time tragedy, the second time farce...
...The the country...
...As guides to decentpolitics the Catholic Worker closed down by corporations fleeing to more profitable movement and the instincts ofpeople like Dan Berrigan seem pastures in cheap labor areas...
...chance...
...As long as the worm is ences between lesser and worse evils, and those differences divided between capitalism, totalitarian socialism and decan be consequentialgiven the power ofthe U.S...
...finds intolerable the idea that there is a hungry child someThe one possibility that is imaginable is that--whether be- where in the world, or that somewhere someone has been cause of impossible difficulties or because of a radical voca- insulted, injured, humiliated...
...HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS Nevertheless, a good numberof our correspondents, in spite of reservations about "the bridge, the car, and the cover-up," urged the election of Senator Kennedy as a man who could T h e K e n n e d y p o s s i b i l i t y restore the true ideals of the Democratic party...
...10) Vigorfirst claim on the gubernatorial nomination back in the hazier ous support ofa New International Economic Order to prevent pages of political history...
...The first familiar patterns...
...I still think that Richard Daley this is supportive of dictatorships, as in the Philippines...
...The only politics ! have come down to this: try to live as income...
...Simultaneously, the dispossessed among us are president with the personal qualities that are necessary to move insisting on their share...
...These are the issues Carter had a chance to ad- alternative candidate to Carter, will be especially powerful dress...
...Naturally, she regards the favor ofMondale . . . . The key thing, and here is where Carter heart of the classical democratic-socialist program--equality, has been weak, is to set forth a compassionateand imaginative redistribution, worker-management ofthe workplace, human approach that really empowers people through 'mediating community, true popular sovereignty, maximum freedom, structures' of neighborhood, church, family, voluntary the ethic of cooperation--as long overdue . . . . She will go groups, ethnic associations,etc...
...Now that 'populist' JimmyCarter has embraced aways in a more equitable taxstructure, taxing wealth as well neolithicRepublican economics and a More-is-Better militarybudget, we need another candidate, and we need onebadly...
...yet of course he could be to move back toward the traditions of theparty, toward the undone by such a political accident as a primary victory by Democratic Agenda of the Memphis Convention, if only to Philip Crane, or some other political lightweight, in New reassert once again that the party cares about people more Hampshire or Florida...
...In my tary capability...
...A failure ofnerve, you might say...
...Kerner did and was re-elected--and later ing more enemies for the U.S...
...But, as I said, I don't think there's even a remote (13) More government ownership of energy, transit, defense, possibility of that...
...that 1964 and Lyndon Johnson's landslide victorywere followed almost immediately by an escalation of the war of wealth and power...
...10016...
...For in and to turn social policy in directions that liberate people, returning the term [socialism] to public discourse, redeeming 25 May 1979:293 it from its corruptors of many hues, kinds, nations and cleans- and the influence of even a constrained presidency...
...Plus often highly destructive, ironical humor...
...Victor Ferkiss, Maggie Fisher 1964 but one that would respond to a genuinesocialistcandiR.S.C., John Garvey, Todd Gitlin, Samuel Hazo, Edward dacy, such as could be offered by Mike Harrington or Ron S. Herman, Irving Louis Horowitz, Robert Hoyt, Russe I Dellums...
...GORDON ZAHN health, low-income housing enterprises, but only where SOCIOLOGIST, UNIV...
...I emphatically do not want to see another Kennedy tive international advantages in business--all are taking an killed...
...But in spite of the fact that most of the announced Republi- A n d a v o t e for B r o w n can candidates so far are as dismal a lot of retreads, pitchmen, lightweights, flakes, nasties and question marks as we have "After the experience of Carter, I doubt that the American seen in years, our own judgment is that we cannot afford to people are ripefor another Wendell Willkie type candidateand withdraw from the electoral contest...
...SAUL MALOFF increasingly lets show a propensity towards gross opporCRITIC, NOVELIST tunism...
...Things like Bakke and Weber Kemp, Weicker, Connally, Baker, George Whats-His-Name, are merely minor early skirmishes in the real issue of our immediate future: redistribution...
...We grew up at and his senatorial record...
...that 1948, itations...
...5) Federal loan~to encourage worker/community differently, have nopoliticalallegiance,teach your children to ownership and producer cooperatives, especially at plants do likewise...
...As a result, the mood, the pressure toselect an health care...
...Mail resume/and samples of published work "I only hope that the present treaty between Egypt and (no phone, please) to: Commonweal, 232 Madison Ave., New Israel, particularly in itsPalestiniansphase, will demonstrate York, N.Y...
...but in that defeat will lie her triumph...
...The main thing though, is that he would have made a profits are regulated on the basis of some kind of equity and wonderful President--and could still if he were given the national interest...
...We have more than I do about the correlation between his campaigning begun to move into an unprecedented crunch...
...jailed...
...in armsT h e i d e a l c a n d i d a t e "As it happens I'm now in hot pursuit ofan idealcandidate...
...OF NEW MEXICO he should try and persuade us to do...
...They are at least on the Democratic party side, will be the same as the put there by candidates...
...troops abroad, and most especially where VP-shot with McGovern...
...prevailed...
...This seems to me thebiggestdanger especially the black, urban lumpenproletariat, from intergento Carter over the next four or five years...
...tax reform that will lead to a fairer distribution rean War...
...As oneWashington writer told us, " . . . he of which is that he might be shot...
...Right now my support goes to JerryBrown who, while devious (what politician isn't), at leas time from May to November (1980), and we may find our editorial mind shifting in view of intervening events...
...Writing and editing ability as well as interest in books, current affairs and C a r t e r ' s M i d d l e E a s t e r n d a n g e r religion essential...
...Carter will assert that he kept candidates to run in the early primaries, of both parties if American troops out of war, and his Republican opposition possible...
...Finally, I believethat one ofthehidden issues C a r t e r at h o m e - - w i t h big i n t e r e s t s to come is spirituality, however one wishes to define that "Carter, despite a few gestures to the contrary, is at home elusive term...
...And I don't mean just that deployment of U.S...
...trap...
...control, tofight the-Russians-are-coming scare talk head on, She must be black...
...From Washington down to the plant level, on a truly us is how to project a campaign that will present real choices democratic, participatory basis involving government, em- that seem significant enough to lure that 65 percent of the ployers, workers, consumers, farmers...
...Outlining the i s s u e s JOHN C. CORT ~'The big issues, and some smaller ones: (1) Full employ- EDITOR...
...The only serious non-pols who begin to speak morally and ethically (do I hear policy improvements would be too radicalfor anyone without someone say, 'impossible' ?) will find the ear of many clear radical principles and a left-of-center political base: in people...
...MICHAEL TRUE for political candidates and discussion of political issues on PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, ASSUMPTION radio and TV...
...8) Disarmament and "The only name I can come up with is that of a man who shutdown of U.S...
...I would like to know "The key issue of the next ten years is a broad one...
...TODD GITLIN candidate--possesses gaity and charm in great abundance...
...We are hostages to the differ- use an office like the presidency...
...He knows Long live the king that we don't wantto hearthe truth, and won'trisk his career,or the little authority he still has, trying to make us reason "Auden said (whimsically...
...They are very great in number candidate who has plagued the Republican party for a long and theyare out thereawaitingsomeone or theother to appeal time...
...Kirk, Steven Philip Kramer, Robert K. Landers, Daniel which is electedby afraction of the people, then controlled by Maguire, Saul Maloff, Daniel Morrissey, Eugene McCar- a miniscule elite...
...2) Federal funding of congressional campeople, I think, aregoing tocommit theirtime, energy or even palgns and statefunding ofstate campaigns...
...9) changed the course ofhistory by deciding thatOtto Kerner had Non-intervention in the affairs ofother countries...
...JOHN GARVEY (6) Federal legislation making it financially painful to move WRITER plants to cheap laborareas...
...Of course what I'd really like is to make Gene DANIEL MAGUIRE McCarthy Head of State for life, in charge of talking-to-the- THEOLOGIAN, MARQUETTE people-about-the-nature-of-politics, with Carter or Kennedy or somebody running the government...
...But apart from these matters I would like to see a adverse turn...
...Barfing political accidents, Mr...
...7) Legislation establishing control of the federal government over U.S...
...to Carter that the Israeli government isprobably not going to do what it must do regarding the Palestinians unless the Commonweal: 292 UnitedStates demands it...
Vol. 106 • May 1979 • No. 10
