An open letter to Republican conservatives

...Were Mr...

...Re- agan can, if he chooses, try to make you happy by patching things up with Taiwan, but this will force the Russians and Chinese into an alliance that neither wants...

...George...

...Either you believe this document oryou do not, and while I hope you do not, I suspect that you do...

...He said that Anderson serves as a independent candidacy, not as an assault on the two-party lightning rod for voter discontent...

...This is the same good faith which produced the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX, the biblical decrees at the time of St...

...I would love to see you slay the dragon of bureauc- racy, but you are trying to elect a very peculiar St...

...Your direction...

...Will you be pre- pared when Reagan follows Nixon to Peking or when the Soviet Union invades another country and America is unable to stop it...

...you will find him to be the outlaw...

...Older, and need I say wiser, we now look back on our nafvet~ and wonder how we ever expected otherwise...

...I think it can help to push Anderson...

...Antici- pate a balanced budget...

...Yet the harm done by the decisions on moral issues seems to be of a different order: the imposition of excessive moral burdens on those trying to please God...

...Supporting the morality of slavery right down to the middle of the present century were some of the greatest names in the then accepted moral theol- ogy, Lehmkuhl, Pr/immer, Merkelbach, G~nicot, and Father Zalba, the latter being one of the four theologians on the"birth control commission" who voted against change in the church's teaching on birth control and who continued to justify the morality of slavery as late as 1958...

...The Libertarian did not think there was any conspiracy to breathe new life into the two parties...

...Kissinger (we agree, at least, on that), but his spirit will dominate the Reagan administration within a year, even if his body does not...

...Since you will soon be joining me out here in the cold of political exile, let me do what I can to smooth your path...

...Reagan wins support at Exxon and Cargil, the higher will be the price of oil and bread...

...You expect him to be the sheriff in High that your president is no longer to be trusted, and you will be Noon...

...Government did not expand because of liberal good intentions, even though to believe this is a matter of faith with you...

...Committed to satisfying your urge to make America the number one military power in the world, Mr...

...In our day there is serious dissent by competent theologians from the authentic teaching of the Roman magisterium on several moral issues.Contrary to the response of the Doctrinal Congregation on the sterilization question, not only should such dissent constitute a "theological source" for confessors, it should also be a valid and available source for the faithful in the formation of their consciences...

...tempted to search for an alternative who will destroy your There is something quaint in your beliefs...

...Again, you are ~etting yourselves up for disappointment, for America is in anything but an idyllic phase...

...They cannot dissociate the pope from the whole of the church...

...you and I are not...

...In fact, you seem to have inherited the romanticism that plagued the New Left...

...y POU ALSO SEEM TO feel--it says so right in your platform-that big government causes inflation...

...The genuine anti-Communists among you, like Mr...

...To reduce its size, you will need to be somewhat more judicious in explaining its growth...

...pfUotlUtrie£aRadiaC~Silieke wYS;lofoke~;~hegkeaseths~21utbricatsseduethse supplied the energy...

...The very prosperity problem all along was that the men we elected and the policies that gave us our radicalism also created a mushy liberalism that they followed had little power to change the world...

...Far from Democratic nomination...

...Democratic party of domination of'the body politic.., has produced a central government of vastly expanded size, scope, and rigidity...

...There is much to be said for your plea to' 'de-emphasize big bureaucracies" and to "shift the focus of national politics from expanding government's power to that of restoring the strength of small communities, such as the family, the neigh- borhood, and the workplace...

...To the extent that you refuse to choose between contradictory objectives, to that degree at least half of your dreams will upset you...

...They have to study it, consider it, but not alone, not isolated...

...It wil~ have sort of safety valve for discontented voters...

...Not only would the size of government mushroom, but there is also ample evidence that the offered superiority would not be delivered...

...they remind me of values even more ruthlessly...

...Betrayal turned into anger, and some took to the streets in rage...

...Except that we see you doing the same thing...

...You are promised lower prices, which is a dangerous business these days...

...There is, let me assure you, nothing wrong with being romantic--we remember Coleridge and have forgotten his prime minister...

...We thought that we could win programs that would eliminate injustice and inequality, all the time without a fundamental restructuring of American society...

...As one who listened to endless references to our English friends as proof of the fallacy of good intentions, I cannot resist the temptation to use the same country to point out the limits of monetarism, as Mr...

...For that very Yet the same austerity that adds strength to your vision will reason he will disappoint you...

...Were the promises in your platform for every new weapons system on the drawing boards carried out, you would find yourself with the worst of two worlds: big govern- ment, and little to show for it...

...As he becomes out here beyond the "mainstream," there are plenty of people more dependent on the very forces responsible for America's who have already been through what you are about to experi- mess, Mr...

...Vance had with Carter...

...The nostalgia that dominates your program, like the Luddism that dominated ours, reminds me of the poetic resistance to the industrial revolution in nineteenth century England...

...Today's "pop moralist" may be a prophet...

...These were, we thought, America per- sonified, history with a little push...

...On the slavery issue there weren't even pop theologians, only Quakers and other so-called heretical sectarians...

...You have to choose between your conception of economics and your conception of national security, but heady with the dream of coming to power, you don't want to think unpleasant thoughts...

...You worked long and hard to have your man nominated...

...Reagan, you will be able to read a study by a U.C.L.A...

...Decline and austerity give you your present popular- faith and passion are charming, but your sense of reality is ity, building popular support for your program and principles...

...Protesting all the time against modernity, Reagan will speed the destruction of the traditions you claim to love...

...II I MARY M~-EI.IAN, a Washington-based writer whose work has ap- Media coverage of the Anderson campaign has been over- peared in Inquiry, The Nation, The Washington Post, and other whelming in volume and underwhelming in critical depth...

...Actually, you will be lucky to get half...

...the only controversy seemed to be over the proper speed...

...It is possible, of course, that Anderson may he will have a "national unity" administration...

...Not ham- pered by the costs of meeting the voracious appetite of one of the most unproductive and inefficient sectors of the economy, Germany and Japan have an industrial structure that is innova- tive, export-oriented, and not hyper-inflationary...

...If he does not know this already, your man will know it soon enough, especially if he is unto- ward enough to unleash Milton Friedman on the "private" sector...

...who represents all that has been going on, whom we can palm In an interview published in the May 19 issue of U.S...

...There are sections of your platform that approach the eloquent in calling for an America that no longer exists...

...Libertarian party, the Citizens party, and the socialist parties...

...In the unlikely event that John B. is elected president, two-party system...

...We never understood that the moment of our triumph was the start of our demise...

...After his late-July meeting with Senator Edward Kennedy, Anderson hinted that T HOSE STAUNCH SUPPORTERS of the two-party system he might drop out of the race if Kennedy were to win the who worry about John Anderson should relax...

...We were in a hurry...

...AMERICA HAS LOST POWER--you are right to point this out...

...These countries are aware of a little secret that has escaped America's consciousness, and also seems to have passed by you: military spending leads to decline...

...I sense a contradiction in your worldview between your traditionalism and your dynamism...

...While the first half of your platform is a plea against big government the second half calls for the single largest com- mitment to a big goverment bureaucracy ever contained in any party platform in American history...

...You want greater security against external chal- lenges...

...You will find, as did we, that a flawed economy which doubles is an economy twice as problematic...

...But yon also want neighborhoods to be stable and regions to preserve their distinctive character...

...You, as I recall, hated the media then, and I must say that I am not particularly fond of them now...

...Reagan chooses to put aside--for a time, of course--thirty percent tax cuts and balanced budgets...

...If he listens to the tax-cutter in you, he will be unable to respond to the patriot...

...You say that "nothing is more important to our nation's defense and social well-being than economic growth," but if your president expands the economy, he will also expand the problems that lie inside of it...

...It is journals, served as director of state organizations in the' 76 McCar- in striking contrast to the national media blackout of Eugene thy campaign...

...Not to worry: everything can be put right with an "breathe new life into the two parties" and to strengthen the end-run...

...the guilt of those unable to meet the rigorous demands of what are essentially doubtful laws...

...As the liberals we elected began almost immediately to wage war and to appease injustice, we felt violated, fodder for the ambitions of cynical men...

...The sixties were proclaimed to be my time, just as the eighties are said to be yours, and by the same media...

...Friedman...

...distorted...

...Reagan shares your romanticism, and when he speaks to you, I hear the strains of Methodist re- vivalism in modern form...

...Thatcher wants to be liked by men of wealth and standing, and it remains the case, whether the money supply be high or low, that corporations protected from the market can raise prices at will...

...He thinks that the system has gone astray but because I am attacking the nominating process...

...The more Mr...

...the estrangement of many from the church...

...Will Ronald Reagan, a man so cozy in the board rooms of General Electric, be willing to take on his former employer in a bitter struggle for power, as he would have to do to satisfy your dream of getting govern- ment out of the economy...

...economist who will convincingly show that conservative inflation is less harmful than liberal inflation...

...Ronald Reagan will be as much a letdown to you as John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were to me...

...I saw that look of anticipation in your faces...

...Let Mr...

...So frustrated and angry will you become that you will conclude them even more...

...but the general murky ideology distracting them from more radical alternatives, such as the will not change very much...

...The faithful have a right to that "other information" for the formation of their consciences...

...Confidence in government, expecially big gov- ernment, has been the chief casualty of too many promises made and broken, too many commitments unkept...

...He is already more Republicans, perhaps...

...Speaking at Holy Cross Abbey of those who had difficulty with the teaching of Humanae Vitae Father H/iring said: "Those who are doubtful whether they can accept it have to study it thoroughly, have to read it with good will, but they also have to accept other information in the church...

...Fighting a strategic battle with Russia, America will lose the economic war with its allies...

...Let us suppose that both you and your president are more patriotic than penny- wise...

...At that time, Anderson remarked: "I being a major threat to the system, Anderson is another am running not because I am attacking the two-party system staunch supporter...

...Van Cleave, will end up having the same influence in a Reagan administration as Mr...

...he thought that it Was simply a natural expression of subconscious, status-quo thinking...

...Unfortunately for her, inflation has gone haywire since she became prime minister and productivity is not doing any better...

...The world looks different from Wall Street and Washington than from Phoenix and San Diego...

...Reagan unleash the energy companies and watch what happens to your beloved West...

...this once, by neglecting to choose him as the Republican So there it is: a one-time venture which is supposed to nominee...

...However meaningful the platform may have been in expressing your anger, it bears as much relationship to the economic realities of the 1980s as the Port Huron Statement bore to the political realities of the 1960s, You want to take government out of the economy, meanwhile lowering taxes and prices...

...but no one should count looks closely at the people around Andersen may suspect that on this...

...I know that you think these problems are not as severe as I make them out to be...

...You will be victimized by America lies, not in the accountable institutions the voters can economic circumstances as well, but this time in the opposite reach, but in the unaccountable ones which they cannot...

...I I II ,, JOHN ANDERSON IS THE NEW YANKEE CANDIDATE The establishment alternative I MARYMEEHAN strengthen that system --not destroy it...

...Give agri- business a free hand, and find yourselves without water to drink...

...You want developers to develop, auto-makers to make autos, and pollut- ers to be free to pollute...

...I watched you as you gathered in Detroit...

...He agreed, saying that the estab- member of the Republican party for thirty years" and "I will lishment "is playing Anderson up precisely because he is no continue my membership in that party.'" He presented his threat to the establishment...

...Spending more on defense will result in a decline of exports and a further weakening of the dollar, encouraging France and Germany, not only to solidify their monetary union, but to seek their own detente with the Soviet Union...

...If this is meant to be an economic prediction, and not just a bit of demagogic mumbo-jumbo, then you will be in serious trouble...

...Anderson went out of his way to stress "I have been a establishment candidate...

...When he does, remember that produge a mushy conservatism that will sap it...

...The ditions that brought it into existence...

...But please don't do all of them...

...Reagan to carry out your program for national defense, he would destroy single-handedly your program for inflation and low taxes...

...And yet for disbelievers in government, you display a puzzling faith that the election of a new president can stop the world from changing...

...Brzezinski and Kissinger are...

...Pius X, the silencing of scholars like Teilhard de Chardin, John Courtney Murray, Yves Congar, to mention a few recent examples...

...Every president in this century has learned that the easiest way to govern America is to let the big corporations do what they want, and what they want is to have the state loosen up the market and limit the market to whatever degree Suits their purpose...

...Mrs...

...See Ray Kroc become Secretary of Agriculture, and recall longingly the days when Americans ate at the dinner table...

...It grew because our economy is dominated by powerful economic constellations that wanted protection against the market, and now that the economy is in decline, they will demand even more...

...The problem is that the president you elect will not even make an attempt to achieve them, leaving you with a few symbols and even fewer crumbs, hoping to appease you the way our presidents tried to "cool out" the radical left...

...I remember going South in the early 1960s, before civil rights was a popular cause, to do what I thought was right, and it still amazes me to recall the rush when an American president, and his brother, the attorney general, seemed to take our cause as their own...

...Until we learned better, we put our faith in economic growth as the magic cure-all that would enable us to avoid the inconsistencies in our vision...

...Foreign policy is for the cynical...

...Your program in 1980 is the most pro-growth document in American politics since the Democratic party platform of 1960...

...Anyo~e who damage that system in spite of himself...

...Von Hayek recently did in a scathing criticism of Mr...

...In our day of massive communica- tions and a well-educated laity, only a voice which is recog- nized as completely open and honest will be trusted...

...I read the platform you adopted in Detroit, and I wonder who is kidding whom...

...Western Europe and Japan combined now constitute the largest capitalist power in the world...

...My guess is that, above all else, Reagan wants a little peace and quiet, and in America, we have perfected a mechanism that provides this sort of thing, It is called big government...

...Let us remember how uncomforta- ble the folks at G.E...

...Power in took the bite out of our critique...

...For us, the goals were clear: greater equality, social justice, and world peace...

...We also had contradictory goals back in the sixties...

...We felt that we were defining the terms of the political discourse in those days, and in a sense, we were...

...To deny that right is objec- tively immoral...

...Your economists tell you that a major tax cut will actually stimulate government revenue, for it will encourage business to invest and thereby raise the general level of prosperity...

...Hope for far higher spending on defense...

...The only problem is that men like Cobbett and Wordsworth did not expect to elect one of their own to be chief of state, whereas you do...

...It is curious that Anderson's late-April announcement of his In talking last spring with a founder and leading activist of switch to an independent candidacy has received so little the Libertarian party, I referred to Anderson as "a profoundly analysis...

...Reagan, in the guise of cleaning things up, will dirty ence...

...And you crave to return to a past when the "simple verities" were actually believed...

...It is time for a change...

...Twenty years ago, the left was the cutting edge--I think that is what they called it--of the ALAN WOLFE teaches sociology at Queens College, New York, and is the author of The Rise and Fall of the 'Soviet Threat' (Institute for Policy Studies...

...You can do any of these things...

...I know you think that Russia has expanded into the world's power vacuum, but the real winners have been Germany and Japan...

...You will be able to drive there at any speed you want, but you may not care to...

...were when, to their amazement, they discovered that Reagan actually believed the speeches he was delivering for the company...

...Those are all goals that I can understand, even if I disagree with them...

...Thatcher, made such a promise, and she even imported some of your very own economists to help her carry it out...

...Should Mr...

...News off" to dissatisfied voters as a solution to what has been going & World Report, Anderson suggested that "my candidacy can on...

...Anti-Communism is a passion with you, but the world or- ganizes itself through power blocs, not ideologies...

...It will be said that this attempt to close the ranks by imposing doubtful teaching is done in good faith for the honor of God and the preservation of holy church...

...There was no question that our objectives would be reached...

...These words, in fact, sound as ff they are copied from the New Left's vision of participatory democracy...

...Expect lower taxes, if you wish...

...What makes you so sure that a government which you gleefully describe as incapable of delivering the mail will not have trouble invading other countries...

...For we established the ideals that a generation of politicians would set out to betray, just as you are currently setting the standards which the political system will never reach...

...Having learned that an attempt to expand the pie in no way avoids decisions about how it should be cut, it is disturbing to see you engaged in the same mistake...

...But as was the case with domestic policy, it has fallen into trouble by following the very programs that, in your opinion, will restore its untroubled status...

...Your ideologic~ sister, Mrs...

...McCarthy's independent presidential campaign in 1976...

...The system of probabilism is not a favor granted to the church by a benevolent ruler but a hard-won victory of the forces.of compassion over a rigoristic authority...

...Alas, you will not be able to claim it...

...You decide to go along with him, so anx- ious are you to restore' 'the position of military superiority that the American people demand...

...Ronald Reagan wants to be president...

...If so, you have become as utopian in your thinking as we were in ours...

...Either way you slice it, you are going to be very unhappy...

...He guessed the subcon- system, but simply as an alternative to the presidential candi- scious thought ofestablishment leaders to be: "Here is a guy dates the system is coughing up this year...

...You quite rightly look forward to your reward...

...You despise Mr...

...Reagan come to power, the contradictions in your foreign policy prescriptions would become glaringly ap- parent...

...To ease your discomfort as prices go through the roof under Mr...

...the loss of credibility in a magisterium to which the faithful should be able to listen with reverent confidence...

...the time when I believed that electing the right men to follow The New Left was victimized by the very economic con- the right policies would change the world to my liking...

...I YOU'D BETTER GET READY--FOR DISAPPOINTMENT Open letter to Republic, an conservatives ALAN WC) LEE T O YOU WHO ARE ABOUT to be disappointed, my sym- pathies...

...Innocence is the monopoly of no one political tendency...

...There can be no doubt that our government is big, even though it ranks among the smallest in the modern word in terms of the percentage of the GNP that it annually eats...

...The history of moral theology provides ample reason for modesty on the part of all who teach on moral issues...

...He may instead help save the system by providing a it will look strangely like the Carter administration...