Democrats, dismay & disarray:
Kovler, Peter
THE PARTY RETREATS FROM LIBERALISM Democrats, dismay &...
...explain the necessity of "fiscal restraint...
...in harmony on almost everying under the banner of ACORN (Association of Community thing but to say that we are wasting money or to insinuate that Organizations for Reform Now) protested the apparent cuts in we might be wasting money because we build weapons that are federal aid to low-income citizens...
...A strong defense begins with a strong economy at home...
...The Southern Christian Leadership Conference held a rally but it had, as Conyers said, "a hollow ring...
...Adolfo Suarez...
...as party to adopt "a progressive program to fight inflathe black caucus has done, to be listened to...
...However, there is one dramatic change loved was not compounded by the additional tragedy of a in the way that is being done in 1978-79...
...a close Kennedy ally and a leading spokesman for rights proposals...
...We build weapons for peace, and to right...
...We must ask) what is the relationship of defense gates...
...We believe that this was a long time rhetoric...
...When the President spoke to the delegates...
...tion of this came from the relatively progressive California delegation...
...Mr...
...But they remained terribly fragmented...
...An understanding especially King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Adolfo between the major political forces was required-most imporSuarez-and of the two principal parties of the left...
...It is truly impossible to say that for liberals this convention Indirectly, it seems as if Chairman John White...
...are the poor and disadvantaged...
...They also normal opposition role and accepting what in effect amounted to a political armed truce...
...an adminis- was a disappointment...
...I do not pretend to be able to read his mere push won't do-will the party adopt liberal measures...
...They had a just cause but, again, they were isolated...
...The gays held a separate march honoring the slain San Francisco supervisor Ha.vey Milk...
...There were dozens of While Cuiver and Carter are strong allies on getting the different "very special" pleas...
...The consensus was apparently that there was writer for several Washington political figures...
...Battles of ideas and policy are still taking cratic presidency, the Carter administration remains strong not place within the Democratic party...
...As important as co-option was in keeping liberals out of at a conference on the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties...
...or authority to run the country...
...have to be high expectations...
...plane back home, PETER KOVLER has written for the New York Times...
...Do largely led by author Michael Harrington...
...itself caught betwixt and between...
...And is politically and ideologically invincible...
...The key question, it appears, is whether Kennedy and So it was in Memphis that the "liberals" were made to seem likeminded people will be able to move the Democratic party shrill, silly, irresponsible and naive...
...there may be a reassessment One gets the impression that, like no other recent Demo- of this development...
...Both their names and their at the same time he has got to support a budget which will lay off people in his city...
...The votes on the final day of the pared them to the Wobblies...
...On issues ranging from urban problems to inflation and from defense to human rights, the Democratic rent plans to raise defense spending by 3 percent, he also wants delegates gave their opinions to the Democratic party leaders...
...But they were also alone...
...John Conyers (D...
...But for the moment liberals through one man's leadership but through one man's abiljty or others who voiced concern for the disenfranchised are somehow to get the support of 51 percent of every group...
...POLITICAL VIRTUOSITY Spain takes a constitutional BENJAMIN MARTIN had the wisdom to recognize their lack of background...
...P OST-FRANCO Spain's evolution has confounded the di- The center-right government of Suarez's Democratic Center rect predictions of most specialists and politicians who Union Party (UCD) which took office following the June...
...among many others...
...is what do we do...
...voting rights, open Senator Culver spoke at length about the waste that comes conventions, the rights of Spanish-speaking citizens . . . with defense spending and the necessity of passing the treaty...
...One illustraprograms for the next year...
...Do we drink cocktails...
...HE T LIBERAL measures at Memphis were backed by According to Conyers...
...losing...
...Fortunately, my family could afford to pay for all the care we As always during a time of national duress, it appears that needed...
...i.e...
...To be a disappointment, after all, there tration appointee, recognized and approved of all the clamor...
...avoid a strong opposition posture that could have a destabilizCommonweal: 12...
...Black, old and poor heavy financial burden...
...mentary majority to assume the unilateral management of the The tranquil changeover thus far has been largely due to the transition process and the country's lagging economy as well political virtuosity and skills of both the government- as the drafting of the new constitution...
...Moncloa" meant abandoning their hazardous and tenuous passage to democratic rule...
...There, delegates posed questions to Senator John Culver (D...
...this President is a master of knowing the power of in coming and that we have a natural affinity in our needs and symbols and coalitions...
...journals...
...Fraser one-half the delegates to the 1980 convention would be called on President Carter to keep intact all domestic social women-in general...
...I tion...
...The Democratic which an administration's goodheartedness is judged...
...Despite their misgivings...
...They are either knee-jerk, bleeding heart or limousine...
...As a The left-wing element in the party almost universally found result, there was uncertainty and the President was not seriously threatened...
...He said, "More than most Americans I When the ship of state is in rough seas, the first to go overboard know what it means to have serious illness in the family...
...steered the ship of state during the For the Socialists...
...considered authoritarianism too deeply entrenched for a 1977 parliamentary election had two aims: preside over the return to democracy to take place without a prolonged period country while a new constitution embodying the basic norms of turbulence and violence...
...women's rights, national health care...
...tolerated from them...
...Let us pledge in Memphis...
...The vention of our party...
...for example, on the last day the black caucus and the Spanish-speaking people's caucus called a press conference announcing a joint effort...
...This administration is not Young and Walter Mondale, at least from the left the President going to offer even small benefits to the disenfranchised...
...Mich...
...gay Iowa...
...control of the party...
...Perhaps the most significant vote was the opposition budget For instance, both the Washington Post and the New York proposal made by Douglas Fraser...
...There were advocates of alternative energy proposals...
...Instead, the convention was a sort He would go from workshop to workshop saying something of signal...
...decreasing the defense budget, and to President Carter...
...spending to inflation...
...But two new coalitions drew considerable attention by their leading roles...
...party, to use the phrase of two conservative columnists, acThe New York Times declared: "A more dangerous fantasy, cepted "the Carter anti-welfare, pro-defense spending dochowev :r, also seemed to enchant delegate's at the mini- trine...
...19 January 1979: 11 Said Shirley Chisholm...
...a prod- of social and economic austerity measures...
...to make health care a right for all our distinction is important because liberals, especially since Tom people now...
...Clearly, defense spending, however Indeed, the special interest politics which now permeates much is necessary, is, relatively speaking, the most inflationelections also has permeated the intra-party conventions...
...The question now," he continued...
...mayors, minority groups...
...Douglas Fraser, the president of the United Auto While progressives had some successes-passing healthWorkers, [offered] proposal last weekend [which] reflected care language, D.C...
...The Democratic Agenda's resolution failed...
...he continued, "at this conInstead, "liberals" are told that they will have nothing...
...Imagine if the President had to go years ago, Kennedy seemed to articulate best what was on the directly to a ghetto family receiving federal assistance to minds of the progressive delegates...
...convention...
...The Demodon't know what we should do because the administration cratic Conference, whose chairperson is former Mindoesn't appear to be listening...
...Perhaps if these groups had coalesced...
...Scheduled to catch a 3:45 p.m...
...the effort appeared weak...
...Meanwhile, the mainstream convention indicated that at least momentarily the strength is Democrats came out looking responsible, sincere and full of not there...
...the people changes...
...true concern about the national well-being...
...He has served as legislative assistant and speech stay to fight...
...nothing worth fighting for...
...On the preceding Friday evening, anti-Shah Iranians marched in 3.5-degree weather...
...Essentially, the Democratic paty at this time has betrayed later, when one sees him standing with Coretta King, Andy some of its best traditional goals...
...Take Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit...
...the workshops which had been arranged for the second day of As much as John Culver might dislike the President's'appathe conference...
...few stirred...
...uct of the Franco regime...
...The Nation and they left without seriously considering whether they should other...
...The ERA partisans had their festive party, but with a ticket costing $15 there was no way that ACORN or SCLC people were going to attend...
...who put Carter into office, and now he's pushing policies that It managed to pull 40 percem of the votes, however, and sound like Nixon and Ford but which we would have never many seats on the 1980 platform advisory committees...
...Said a Post editorial: "Some creased military spending and asked for a "budget to meet Democrats-out of nothing more sinister, we suspect, than human needs, in no case less than the current budget for human pure laziness-insist on regarding the outflow of more federal and social services for 1980...
...heads for a time of difficult political decisions and a crucial But it was not possible for a government lacking a parliatesting of the viability of its fledgling democratic structure...
...voting rights language and insuring that the now tired liberal politics of the sixties...
...It showed that the current Democratic party is conserlike "this debate is what the Democratic party is all about" and vative in nature...
...THE PARTY RETREATS FROM LIBERALISM Democrats, dismay & disarray PL I ER KOVLER Edward Kennedy, sounding like Hubert Humphrey, pleaded for national health insurance...
...The President, What most illustrated the dilemma and the co-option were too, was interrupted by loud applause...
...But the honeymoon may soon end as Spain that was the legacy of four decades of authoritarian rule...
...unions like the UAW, and so Here at this convention he's the vice-chairman of the party and on...
...The Democratic Agenda...
...You've got the liberals . . . on the the traditionally liberal elements in the party-the horns of a dilemma...
...part, discover what has happened...
...For a ary dollar you can spend because there is no market...
...Wolfe wrote about a certain species of them,, are terrific While much of the applause continued because he was, if targets...
...The delegates loved P OLITICIANS love to use naval metaphors and-after the him, interrupting his speech several times with the sort of Memphis mid-term Democratic convention last feverish, spontaneous applause that no planned demonstration month-there is one that comes to mind immediately: could have imitated...
...people are not being told directly that they will have nothing...
...Culver was, then, interrupted by enthusiastic applause...
...defense spending...
...The tantly with the Socialist Workers Party (PSOE)-since the two government's transition strategy called for a continuance of parties together control more than three-quarters of the seats in power once elections were held by easing in democracy while the Cortes...
...Or do we defect...
...it showed that only when really shoved-a then cheerfully proceed...
...Commonweal: /0 L IBERALS were enfeebled largely because, as Rep...
...This led to the signing of the "Moncloa Pact" in gradually disarming the retrograde elements in the military and the fall of 1977 by which the parliamentary parties committed elsewhere...
...It came out against inTimes took on the "left...
...As a result, most of the protests nesota Representative Donald Fraser, strove to open up have an empty ring...
...experience...
...the word is not outdated, charismatic, it was also because he Describing our inability or unwillingness to assist the vulnera- was the first man of substantial power to take a staunch ble in terms of standing up to "liberals"-who are, it is progressive position...
...The parties of the left understood that this could be themselves to a consensus approach and support for a program accomplished only if the King's man...
...he they could have gained the support of the majority of delesaid...
...The protesters outside the hall SALT agreement through the Senate, they seriously differ on also reflected this fragmentation...
...If not a master of no amount of liberal-baiting will contradict that fact...
...don't increase unemployment...
...constituencies overlapped...
...blacks in particular...
...President Carter answered Culver this way: On one afternoon, 2,000 poor people from 14 states,march"Senator Culver and I are...
...mind but, willfully or not, he encouraged the diffusion of When the American public...
...This occurred...
...Do we demand...
...Spain of the democratic political system was drafted, and the conhas seen a democratic transition accompanied by political and tinued dismantling of the extensive institutional infrastructure social concord...
...Unquestionably, they were never used is (incorrect...
...human welfare proposals, labor law reform...
...The administration opposed the bucks for nonmilitary programs and the assertion of more position, claiming their "hands would be tied," The test vote federal authority in the nation's public life as the standard by came and the administration won 822-532...
...And so the tragedy of serious illness for those we the little guy will pay...
...for example...
...One delegate even com- back to a liberal position...
...In almost the same way that Senator implied, either dumb or rich or both-saves this administra- Moynihan moved the "flag-waving" Democratic troops two tion a lot of embarrassment...
...goals...
...a second ingredient was the lack of unity...
...reporter, listening to various delegates was like opening the morning "mailing list" envelopes...
...They needed time to convert a BENJAMIN MARTIN is Director c f the Spanish Labor Pro jeet (if the recently legalized party into a cohesive political force and to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington...
...stated...
...particularly the disadvantaged anger...
...I T SEEMED that towards the end of the convention some were beginning to recognize this failure...
...and that if we are united we can go farther...
...to remain united with the President on the SALT accords...
...urged the we pass resolutions...
...the Memphis convention through a series of rule "Here we are," he added...
...let the world know that our Nation is strong...
...We have been co-opted...
Vol. 106 • January 1979 • No. 1
