Throwing my vote-to Anderson
Wade, Richard C.
worKlvlew requires me suppression ot Ilt)erty everywhere Ior its own perpetuity. How one interprets the meaning of the Soviet empire is the number one political issue of our genera- tion. (Senator...
...He called the capture of American hostages in Iran "intolerable...
...Are we producing as much publicly assisted housing now as in 1976...
...In foreign policy: Are our relations with our European allies better now than they were in 1976...
...The president went on national television to tell the Russians that their military presence in Cuba was "unacceptable...
...I make no apology for that...
...It is not required that we resurrect the politics of the 1950s, but that we face the far grimmer realities ahead of us in the 1980s...
...That process must be halted, indeed reversed...
...Is Salt II closer to ratification now than in 1976...
...Senator Kennedy's irrelevance is illustrated by his fail- ure even to mention that issue at the Democratic convention...
...Are we closer to the control of atomic weapons now thah we were in 1976...
...I thought that there was an uncontrolled arrogance in anyone who would entitle his autobiography Why Not the Best...
...thought that any candidate who knowingly used that phrase should never become president...
...Carter's literature in New York, for example, trumpets that "revised housing programs (sic) are responsible for over 250,000 units in New York City...
...Is the Russian influence in Africa less now than it was in 1976...
...Some might say that Carter is an easy grader, but even the president himself considers his performance as mediocre...
...Are American products more competitive in international markets now than in 1976...
...He then said that Cuban military troops in Africa threatened the peace...
...He could have gracefully retired this year since he had said many times that a president should have only one term, albeit a six-year one...
...After encouraging our European allies to believe that we would support a neutron bomb, he unexpectedly (even if wisely) canceled the project...
...Facing our present weakness, they choose targets at their leisure...
...Probably not...
...And I apologize if my endorsement dooms him...
...their troops are still there...
...The president would prefer it otherwise...
...But he chose to run for reelection with the broad strategy of turning the issue to his opponents' perceived weaknesses rather than to his own record...
...He is a comfortable man...
...THROWING MY VOTE-- TO ANDERSON RICHARD C. WADE T HE CENTRAL ISSUE of the campaign is the four-year stewardship of the presidency by Jimmy Carter...
...He has already diluted the Democratic party platform and abandoned the historic tilt of that party to the weak and vulner- able...
...He flirted with a balanced budget as an "essential weapon" in the war against high prices, then sheathed the sword after Pat Caddell showed him some polls and Senator Kennedy romped over him in the primaries in the Northeastern states...
...There is a final reason why I prefer Reagan...
...He has faced relentless heavy weather from the more sophisticated parts of our population...
...The same questions can be asked about our domestic affairs: Is the economy now stronger and more productive now than it was in 1976...
...Reagan is a builder, not a knocker...
...After the deceptiveness of Nixon, the niceness of Ford, and the mean hypocrisies of Carter's pieties, I look forward to the implacable affability of Ronald Reagan...
...The power and influence of this country around the world is lower now than it has been for over a half century...
...Once the president is released from his need, indeed obsession, with re-election, he will drift farther and farther to the right where he is more comfortable...
...The fact needs no new 24 .October 1980:591 documentation...
...The president's reluctance to defend his record is understandable...
...The answers to these questions are obviously no...
...After making human rights the cornerstone of American foreign policy, the United States has wound up voting for Pol Pot in the Security Council and shoring up President Zia in Pakistan...
...The fact is that housing starts in New York are lower than at any time in fifty years, that abandonment continues at 30,000 units a year, and the South Bronx remains a monument in rubble to the broken promises of the president on aid to our beleaguered cities...
...Under the personal supervision of Stuart Eizenstat, the president's senior advisor in domestic affairs, they were voted down by the Carter group by a margin of two to one...
...The Carter administration's response to double-digit inflation was first to fight it with voluntary guidelines...
...So after four years the economy limps along stagnantly with high inflation, high interest rates and the largest accumulation of federal budget deficits of any president in history...
...The administration then did what Candidate Carter said he would never do: fight inflation by a self-induced recession...
...We've had fifteen years of contempt for our own political economy, this rare experiment among the world's nations...
...Moreover, he has successfully avoided having to defend his record directly bywriggling out of promised debates with his opponents both in the primaries and the general election...
...One must ask with Winston Churchill, "If this is what they will do in the green wood, what will they do in the brown...
...And surely there was not the case where one policy was advocated by the Secretary of State and another by the National Security Advisor...
...His commercials dwelt on the "character" of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and now on Governor Ronald Reagan's, not on whatever "accomplish- ments" his adminstration might claim over the past four years...
...Surrogates are more useful to them than their own forces...
...Besides, he borrowed from an early essay of mine the themes "work, family, neighborhood, strength, and liberty," and is making a more intelligent and concerted effort than any Republican in history to represent the working class and sub- urban ethnic voters who have so often voted Democratic and been so often deserted by its party activists...
...For over a year he has tried to switch the emphasis to his opponents' personalities rather than to his own performance...
...I have voted for every Democratic nominee since i 948...
...As a matter of fact, this administra- tion would surely have become even more conservative in the past two years if it had not been for the challenge in the primaries from Senator Kennedy and now in the general elec- tion by Congressman Anderson...
...We are now plummeting towards war because we are deceived by our own desire for peace...
...Worse still, the conduct of foreign policy has been so erratic and contradictory that neither friend or foe can predict what American action will be on most important and delicate ques- tions in a dangerous world...
...The administration's effort to explain away this demonstrated failure is, of necessity, awkward...
...He is not as sophisticated as some with graduate school training, but on his feet he thinks as quickly as, and with greater common sense, clarity, and humor than, the two pietists with whom he fs competing for our votes...
...Has one state endorsed E.R.A...
...Are we nearer the federalization of health and wealth now than we were in 1976...
...My doubts about Carter started in i 976...
...Is the dollar stronger abroad now than it was in 1976...
...They were generally ignored by those powerful enough to do so, and the administration simply raised the guidelines to accommodate the violations...
...Is unemployment now nearer the level of four percent which Candidate Carter proclaimed as an "'indispensa- ble goal" in 1976...
...Facing strength, the Soviets will draw back...
...worKlvlew requires me suppression ot Ilt)erty everywhere Ior its own perpetuity...
...they are still there...
...Is the Middle East more stable now than it was in 1976...
...But the character of the Carter campaign prevents the return of this prodigal son...
...those hostages are still there...
...If he does not, I am happy to have publicly expressed my admiration for what he is trying to do...
...But, as voters, we have a right to ask certain elementary questions about the conduct of our foreign policy and the management of the economy over the past four years...
...I F THE FIRST Carter term is a disappointment, is there any reason to believe that a second one would bring any im- provement...
...A British friend of mine commented that Reagan always tries to do and say the decent thing and gener- ates feelings of health and purpose...
...There were many times, especially during the Vietnam war, that I dis- sented from that voice but at least there was no confusion about American intentions...
...Peace is obtainable through the dangerous decade ahead only through intense efforts to arm ourselves...
...since 1976...
...What you see is what you get...
...Is American influence in Latin America, especially the Caribbean, stronger now than in 1976...
...Indeed, I assumed that I Would with great reluctance and some distaste, "come home" to the party in November...
...Even the weakest was better than the Republican alternative...
...He described the Russian occupation of Afghanistan as the "greatest threat to peace" since 1945...
...they are still there...
...They ought to be thrown on the defensive themselves for the next fifty years, if the world desires fifty years of peace...
...Even with our foreign policy in shambles and our economy in near ruin, I find it hard to abandon my party on the presiden- tial level...
...The answers to these questions are once again obviously no...
...a candidate who didn't underCommonweal: 592...
...I like and admire him simply as a man...
...When asked by the press how he would grade his own performance, he gave himself a "C" on both domestic and foreign policy...
...I hope Reagan wins...
...l was a Kennedy member of the Democratic Platform Committee this spring and introduced amendments to the platform that would include both these programs...
...My suspicions were deepened by his "ethnic purity" remark in Cleveland...
...The handout also includes some interesting history which asserts that Carter "supported and signed into law the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act," and that "President Carter supports National Health Insurance...
...Is inflation less now than the seven percent that Can- didate Carter called "intolerable" in 1976...
...This, too, endears him to me...
...The American ambassador at the United Nationa voted to condemn Israel on a critical Middle Eastern decision only to have the president explain that the United States had intended just the opposite...
...There would no doubt be changes in the cabinet, but the Georgians will surely survive and there is no reason to believe that Carter will lose his keen eye for mediocrity...
...After refusing India the uranium necessary to build nuclear bombs he suddenly reversed his stated policy of controlling the proliferation of atomic weapons...
...For a quarter of a century, the world had come to depend on a single presidential voice in international affairs...
...He has reduced his press conferences to an occasional event, and then treats them as a campaign appearance, not as serious give-and-take with reporters on the crucial questions facing the nation...
Vol. 107 • October 1980 • No. 19
