Backlash, Violence, Politics

...And as another sign of the moment, the Nixon administration, thoughtrying to oscillate from left to right, is certainly lurching far more strongly to the right than the left...

...Imposition of reactionary laws and hardening of existing institutions...

...A letter from C. R. Winegarten of Toledo, Ohio, to the New Republic states the point excellently: It is necessary to give explicit and sympatheticrecognition to the popular demand for personalsecurity, and to understand that demand as nomore reactionary, in itself, than the desire forfull employment, safe cars, or peace in Vietnam...

...Every citizen knows, for instance, that money is the key to the problems of the city...

...I do not say there is any reason whatever to approve such shifts...

...b) the spreading notion that "violence will out," that rage need not, ought not, be controlled...

...his political weight can easily shift further to the right, and men like HEW Secretary Finch can go or be quelled...

...All true...

...Many people objected to the President's sticking his nose into the moonlanding operation because it made them think of LBJ, someone they're keen on forgetting...

...WHAT MATTERS IS not so much the danger that this administration will precipitate events through its own actions, but that it will do little or nothing about the conditions that already prevail: Vietnam, the "black revolution," the city crisis, inflation and cost-of-living issues, the courts and social justice, etc...

...Essentially, it is set by small-minded men...

...Surely the most lively and forward-looking section of the party, these young Democrats have permitted their leadership to be heavily infiltrated by "new left" ideologues who have interests other than the concerns of New York...

...the rest is talk...

...But what I want to urge is this: If we are asked to understand the sociopsychic causes of black rage and violence, as indeed we should, then must we not also try to understand the sociopsychic causes of white fear...

...THAT THE PRESIDENT is often a mean-spirited man is no discovery...

...rural "center," smallcity and small-town America, of steadily less weight in American society and with a natural bent for the Republicanism of Nixon himself...

...if they had developed a positive program on this issue, involving among other things restraint and retraining of the police, the outcome of these elections might have been different...

...Even his gut conservatism is without conviction and drive...

...If we on the left continue to withhold such recognition, we shall intensify the alienation ofordinary working people, without whom wecannot hope to win and with whom the rightis now most incongruously allied...

...if a backlash at all, it is conceived by its supporters as essentially defensive and not punitive...

...During the primary, the NDC showed a singular lack of sensitivity to the "crime in the street" issue, and, more recently, an incapacity to negotiate with Mayor Lindsay so as to forge a coalition that in November would address a progressive appeal to New York's still liberal population...

...So far, this administration is one of talk, while money is not forthcoming except for military ends...

...Well, what is the tone of his administration thus far...

...Liberals and democratic leftists must accept the fact that a major issue right now is that of "crime in the streets" and "law and order...

...that he struggles painfully to overcome or conceal his character is also clear...

...The New Democratic Coalition showed far more concern over jobs, etc., in Lindsay's doubtful second administration than in forcing the Mayor to change his stance...

...Many years ago Trotsky said that in the 20th century we live on our nerves...

...In New York City, one must conclude reluctantly that there is little else to do but cast a vote for John Lindsay—reluctantly, because this arrogant and incompetent man has pursued a divisive ethnic and racial policy contributing to the chaos of our city...

...quite the contrary...

...Politically, the Nixon strategy is clear enough: to preempt the sacred American middle...

...Mr...

...We are not much better or worse than others...

...If it is important to grasp the outlook of a desperate black youngster, isn't it also important to grasp the response of an aging garment worker...

...And the four liberal and radical Democratic candidates in the New York primary (Wagner, Badillo, Scheuer, and Mailer) received a combined vote of more than 500,000 or 2 to 1 against Pro caccino...

...Unless we recognize the realities behind this issue and unless we remove the demagogic husk that surrounds it, the right will continue to exercise a monopoly of concern and we shall go from electoral defeat to defeat...

...but not enough...

...no, it is strongest among working-class whites who have been the main bulwark of liberal victories...

...The land of Gandhi's "satayagraha," for instance, has a history drenched in bloodshed...

...the effort to castrate both voters' protection and school desegregation programs...

...But he never suggested that thinking was no longer part of living...

...If this is "white backlash," let us hope it never gets more serious...

...the proposal giving federal narcotics agents authority to break unannounced into private residences...

...It is a shift among those who think of themselves as "moderate," and so far it takes "moderate" forms...

...Especially disappointing in New York is the uncertainty and ineffectiveness of the liberal Democratic wing, the New Democratic Coalition...

...Our power does not come out of the barrel of a gun...

...Julian Bond recently said that we'd better learn why people vote for Yortys, Wallaces, Procaccinos, and Marchis, rather than contenting ourselves with denouncing them as racists (as Mayor Lindsay did in his hysterial reaction to his defeat in the primaries...

...And this fear isn't mainly a matter of rich or middle-class or intellectual whites...

...But since it deals with living people, it cannot merely sit still...

...One sees this everywhere: in schools, in the streets, in conversation...

...Specifically, our main concern here ought to be with the views and apprehensions of workingclass whites, a substantial portion of whom are union members...

...If liberal and radical forces in these cam paigns had recognized the authenticity of the concern over crime and security, without yield ing an inch to the dangerous sentiments that attach themselves to this concern...

...on the contrary, it tries to subdue excitement...

...But he scents the trend and his cabinet is built to respond...

...The president is a weak man, all his instincts are weak...

...These comments were written before President Nixon announced his new welfare program, which will be discussed in our next issue.—En...

...It is conservative (not reactionary), courting stasis rather than change...

...It just won't do, either by way of social understanding or political tactics, simply to yell that these are masks for racism...

...Weingarten is saying that neither Yorty in Los Angeles nor Stenvig in Minneapolis nor Procaccino in New York need have won...

...Fitted together under Nixon's administration, this reestablished coalition of the center is having a revival of influence and power...

...the sordid maneuvering to "save" something in Vietnam, if no more than a most miserable petty tyranny...

...The COMMENTS AND OPINIONS alternative is the incredible Procaccino who, if scarcely a vicious racist, is the epitome of narrow-minded limitations...

...But there are many "centers" in America, both political and social: urban "center" or middle-class city folk who have leaned toward progressive democracy since Roosevelt's time...

...The present administration would prefer to float on its own "Sea of Tranquility...

...and the "center" of the farming areas, solidly right-Republican states...

...yet I know a considerable number who shifted to Procaccino...

...These are New Yorkers who have voted liberal-democratic since the days of FDR...

...I share the New Republic's conclusion that, as a starting point, "liberal disavowal of violence must be made more emphatic"—and without the slightest compromise in our devotion to due process, civil rights and liberties, black advancement, or educational reform...

...But a president sets the tone of his administration and Nixon is no exception...

...But simply to use the catchphrase "white backlash" as an explanation for what is happening in many parts of the country is an error...

...The vote against the two real or quasi backlash candidates (Procaccino and Marchi) was 623,111 or 63 percent of the total for both parties...

...IF MUNICIPAL AND STATEWIDE ELECTIONS con tinue on this rightward trend, the Nixon administration will follow suit...

...High moral principles accompany heavy budget cutting...

...To the extent that the administration has felt compelled to act, the results are far from promising: the proposal for "preventive detention" and the significant change in the Supreme Court's composition...

...To RETURN for a moment to the theme of violence and the failure of substantial sections of the left to repudiate it decisively as a means to progress: I share the view of those who deny that America and its people are "violence prone," or that our history is abnormally rich in the use of violence...

...No misunderstandings, please...

...These actions, together with recent municipal elections or primaries (Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York), have caused some on the left to cry in alarm: Police state and "cold" fascism...

...Still, as the New Republic recently said: Each of these cities in upset elections rejectedrespectably liberal candidates in favor of men COMMENTS AND OPINIONS who brayed about law and order, withholdingmeanwhile any information on how that blessedstate of affairs can be brought about...

...To suggest that such outcries, at least thus far, are excessive, and to urge that there is great political and intellectual danger in using "fascism" as an all-purpose political put-down is not to deny that an important shift of temper is occurring...

...but that isn't all they are...

...the significant growth and use of wiretapping by the FBI and other agencies...

...But I do believe there is a new and startling attitude on the issue of violence in America, expressed in two ways: (a) an increased "understanding" and condoning of violence on the part of liberals, induced either by "guilt" or intimidation and implying a loss of belief in our capacity for social change...

...In my own dwelling, for example, where at least five muggings and robberies, always involving eld erly people, havetaken place since the start of the year, shall we say that the right of these people to spend their final years in tranquility and safety is not every bit as legitimate as other civil rights...

...The resort to violence, or condoning it, is politically and socially self-defeating, and we of the democratic left ought to cling hard to this truth...

...the capitulation to AMA over the medical chief...

...It is an inert and institutionalized conservatism that we have most to fear: the proposal for "preventive detention" (a clear violation of the Constitution...

...The polls indicating two-thirds of the people mildly satisfied with the administration tell us that Nixon is succeeding...

...This is hardly an exciting administration...

...it must move, sometimes with a lurch but mostly with a glide, now to the "right," now to the "left...

...After all, the Negro liberal Bradley in Los Angeles received 48 percent of the vote...

...As a result, Procaccino remains a likely winner...

...To some undetermined extent, they are...

...One need only imagine what a really organized "backlash" would be like to see how crude this thinking is...

...the insistence upon making ABM (Dickey's Edsel) into a major issue...