A Country Ripe for Change

...the idea of socialism is also, however, a spur toward achieving as much as we can in the next few years...

...For radical changes are desperately needed...

...and they are politically essential if the blue-collar vote is to remain with a liberal-laborminoritiespeace coalition...

...American politics is so structured that coalitions, partial and/or temporary alignments, are just about mandatory...

...Partly it is the result of the enormous barrage of social criticism launched during the same period of time...

...Intelligent people make them...

...Partly this sense of worry is a legitimate response to the events of the past decade...

...How well does the political system fulfill its proclaimed ends, and what changes would enable it to do so better...

...hair-dos neglected, either way...

...These are measures for widening and deepening the social legislation that extends from FDR to LBJ—social security, minimum wages, help to education, welfare, etc...

...The amorphous ranks of the peace-reformliberal constituency and the better-disciplined unionists have this in common: neither can get very far politically without at least partial agreement with the other...

...CLEARLY THERE IS A MOUNTING CONVICTION among large numbers of Americans that major social and political changes are needed...

...And as a rule, such changes don't come until after there has been a lot of noise, complaint, denunciation...

...They are intrinsically significant and politically essential, but it is important that they not be allowed to blot out more "conventional" issues of jobs, livelihood, survival, and safety...

...But politically, there seems little doubt that a significant portion of the American people have been stirred to a vague sense of apprehension, sometimes a concrete sense of dismay...

...Only in the actuality of working together in a sustained political effort—which means a political campaign helping to set up a new Administration and pressing it to live up to its promises—can the rudiments of a new coalition be formed...

...But even as we continue to advance the belief that a socialist democracy is the best hope for mankind, we have every obligation—precisely because of that belief!—to work together with others, socialists, semi-socialists and non-socialists, in behalf of immediate and intermediary ends...

...Despite endless publicity about separatism and nationalism, the single most powerful and important semipolitical group among American Negroes remains the prointegrationist NAACP...

...Some intellectual leftists find such measures "boring" or "irrelevant...

...For such measures are intrinsically necessary for millions of poor and working people...

...The image of socialism gives us a valuable yardstick for measuring the inadequacies of what seems likely to be possible within the next period...

...workers, by and large, don't...

...IF, NOW, THERE IS A WIDESPREAD FEELING that change is needed, and if at least some of the most burning issues are clear enough, why should there be any doubt as to the political outcome...

...Very likely they will remain...

...Surely this is a dangerous trend, but precisely which structural reforms can best cope with it remains a matter for serious study...

...594...

...Mainly because of the disarray and internal conflicts among the political and social elements that have in the last few decades made possible a measure of liberal advance...

...In what ways does the socio-economic structure violate democratic norms...

...it has an effective national organization and is influential in many localities...

...New Social Issues: These include an ill-defined but increasingly important range of problems from abortion to drugs, from ecology to anti-bugging...

...Who the Democratic candidate will be is important...

...Nevertheless, a liberal campaign that raised such questions without pretending to answer them would strike a responsive chord among many people...

...The reasons for such disarray and conflict are well-known and need not be looked into again...

...On the whole, this is a good thing...

...One way of talking about them at the present moment is to insist upon the need for reordering national priorities...

...On the other hand, some of the rigidly ideological leaders of the trade unions would do well to recognize, if only in behalf of their selfinterest, that many things have changed in this country...

...His strategy would perhaps be to stress the idea that the only way to get that desired stability is through large-scale reforms and innovations...

...How can socialists who care about the life of their fellowmen and the future of this country declare themselves indifferent, or ex empt themselves from participation, in the effort to realize such an advance...

...Still, for people on the Left, those, say, who are active in the various liberal or reform groupings within the Democratic party, there are a few simple things to bear in mind: There ought to be a clear understanding of the difference between media happenings and social reality...

...Issues of Democratization: Here is a new and exciting possibility in American politics...

...the question is whether a coalition can be created despite such differences...

...indeed, it's a weakness of the American system that too much importance is placed on one man and thereby, all too often, an excess of power lodged in his hands...

...So it was in the late twenties and early thirties...

...Life-styles be damned, for the moment at least...

...That we are likely to have severe moral problems, problems of existence and values, no matter what happens politically, I also agree...

...Let us look at the kinds of social change that are on the agenda for the seventies: Traditional welfare state reforms: Many of these are specified by Leon Shull and Stina Santiestevan (p...

...It just won't do to dismiss reform sentiments associated in the past with Eugene McCarthy or in the present with George McGovern as the opinions of "a bunch of kids...

...Nor will it do to keep repeating some of the worn-out and sterile slogans of the Cold War, not merely because they make no sense but because they insure the loss of necessary allies...

...III NONE OF THIS SPELLS UTOPIA, the good society, socialism...

...For one thing, there are a very great many kids around, and many of them will be voting...

...That is why the 1972 election is likely to be one of the most important in American history...

...Intellectually one must make sharp distinc tions as to the level, value, and seriousness of these criticisms...

...In that way, one hopes, ultimate ends and immediate possibilities come into a rough harmony...

...Politics is an art of timing, and the time has come for a Left turn...

...Whatever the faults of the union leadership, it has never been one to become infatuated with visions of glorious defeat...

...The success of a liberal Democrat would largely depend on whether he could satisfy both the need for significant socioeconomic changes and the desire for reestablishing a sense of stability in national life...

...A variety of polls testify people feel the country has been adrift and their anxieties grow over the possibility that it is somehow cracking up or coming apart...

...and it surely represents a far larger segment of black opinion than the groups with which leftish-intellectuals-in-searchofvanguards have bemused themselves...

...if their voices prevail we can look forward to a smash ing defeat...

...If all, or even half, the proposals outlined in Leon Shull's and Stina Santiestevan's article were to be realized in the next several years, that would constitute a tremendous change, a major advance...

...Foreign Policy: About this I will say nothing at the moment, since it has been discussed in several other articles in recent issues of DISSENT...

...Just as the arousal of desire in the individual can lead to frustration if not allowed to come to a natural fulfillment, so the arousal of anxiety in a society can lead to sourness if not brought to political fulfillment...

...The NAACP retains a membership of over 400,000 people...

...It is most unlikely that an effective coalition can be reestablished for 1972 by bringing together representatives from its various constituencies for heart-to-heart talks...

...Some of these issues are politically immediate though by no means clarified: e.g., the alarming rise in Executive power in the federal government vis a vis foreign policy...

...so it may be in the seventies...

...American democracy has some major failures and blunders to its recent discredit, but in one respect it has worked pretty well: there has been a tremendous outpouring of criticism, dissent, assault, and clearly it has had some effect...

...Take, for instance, the black community...

...But even if we assume what is probable, that the candidate will not be someone closest to the heart of the Left, we should still understand that the crucial question is the magnitude and kinds of popular pressures that are placed upon him...

...yet unless there are some adaptations to the new reality, some looseningup and speaking-out, such as Leonard Woodcock, the new UAW president, has demonstrated, glorious defeat may well be what the unions will be preparing for themselves...

...The publication of the Pentagon Papers is certain to reinforce this conviction...

...Yet there are dangers too...

...ideologically obsessed people do not...

...That we are likely to have severe social problems even if such an advance is taken, I agree...

...College-age voters, middle-class liberals respond to them...

...The country is ripe for change—not "revolutionary" and probably not as radical as we would like, but radical change nevertheless...

...It is merely—merely, indeed!—a perspective for a large forward step in American politics, an extension of the welfare state as it helps humanize, though not fully remove, the root injustices of capitalist society...

...If, say, within the next few years there are not elected federal, state, and local officials capable of enacting significant reforms, we may witness, first, a descent into despair and widespread dropping-out and, second, a flare-up of ressentiment (hostility, nastiness, impatience) among large segments of the population which would feel that "all this carping" leads nowhere and must be stopped...

...By contrast, the flashier SNCC, CORE, even the Panthers have either disappeared entirely or been reduced to tiny warring factions...