Norman Thomas, Where Are You Now That We Need You?
Fein, Leonard
NORMAN THOMAS, WHERE ARE YOU NOW THAT WE NEED YOU? LEONARD FEIN "Where does Barry Commoner stand on Israel?" That is what someone asked me last week, and I think he was dead serious about the...
...As further evidence that personal virtue is an inadequate qualification for the presidency of the United States, let us take the case of Ronald Reagan...
...time, instead, to ring doorbells, time for hope, however faint...
...We do not have, in Mr...
...No, it is not sufficient, it is not satisfying, but if the government defaults on its commitments, even if it commits malpractice, that does not mean we have no recourse...
...The economy is a shambles because the nation lacks coherent, consistent and convincing leadership...
...The first misunderstand the people, the second misunderstand the problems...
...It is an America that believes in itself, not stridently but soberly...
...It is a West that works...
...Any of the above seems, at this point (this point being mid-April, so please forgive me if in the meanwhile the world has come up roses), more plausible than voting for either Mr...
...His presidency has been marked by such extravagant confusion on virtually every issue of general consequence and has managed to offend so wide an array of constituent groups that there is a warmly ecumenical feeling to being in opposition to him...
...I cannot imagine a more anti-American sentiment...
...Does one simply call down a plague on both the political houses and leave the fray...
...But what a shame, what a waste...
...But that is not enough...
...It is called the most serious threat since World War Two, we respond by trying to pass a cheap bribe to that bastion of freedom called Pakistan, and we discover that there are, after all, significant domestic uses for the wheat we were going to sell to the Russians—and that the Russians have enough bread anyway...
...American arms shipments have stayed in place through all the political tempest, American aid to Israel remains awesomely high, and above all, there is a peace treaty that would not have happened without Mr...
...Reagan's views on Panama, on SALT II, on abortion, yes, even on Israel and the Middle East, reflect a simpleness of mind that would be comforting in an insurance adjustor, but is deeply upsetting in a prospective President...
...Carter or Mr...
...In the early stages of a fragile peace, in the first stages of continuing negotiations on the Palestinian question, confidence in America is a critical lubricant...
...Going fishing is another thing to do, or looking at the sky...
...But long-term, it's not planes and tanks and dollars, not even an easing of the pressure, that will make the difference for Israel...
...Wrong...
...We have a natural and legitimate special interest in the Middle East, an area that becomes more complex with each passing day...
...Five months after the hostages are taken, we get around to expelling Iranian military trainees from this country...
...And Israel itself...
...Too soon, still, for lamentations...
...That is what someone asked me last week, and I think he was dead serious about the question...
...We've been there once before...
...Why wonder what to do in November when there are still things to be done in May and June and July...
...it is a problem of method...
...It is a responsible solution to our insane over-dependence on foreign oil, and a continuing effort to redeem America's pledge to its—and the world's—less fortunate...
...The PLO...
...Shoot," he said...
...One cannot fairly accuse the President of malice towards Israel, of a lack of concern or commitment to Israel's welfare...
...And lest that sounds too snobbish, let it be clearly stated: if the day of the simpleton has arrived, it is because the sophisticates have already had their day, and failed...
...We are an adaptive people, and given what the Democrats and the Republicans appear to be preparing for us, the Commoner cause (he is running as the nominee of the Citizens Party) may at least solve the problem of what to do on Election Day...
...Well, it's only mid-April...
...Or we can be citizens on our own...
...And surely the West, in disarray, and the world, in despair, both need and deserve the kind of leadership and inspiration America, at its best, can offer...
...A cartoon not long back showed a man with a gun to his head, ordered to choose between Carter and Reagan...
...If we are to take his own statements at face value, it appears that his view of the world derives directly from his experience in the cinema: the world consists of good guys and bad guys, and the way you deal with that is to build a sturdy fence, and if that doesn't keep 'em out then you try some straight from the shoulder talk, and failing all else, you round up a posse...
...Instead, we have a non-stereotypic right-wing know-nothing...
...It is not that we are unwilling to follow him...
...Too soon, for sure, to settle, as have some of my friends, from whom in recent days I've heard pro-Reagan mutterings...
...Where does that leave us...
...It is as simple as that...
...Wonder about the shallowness of government-in-general...
...He is, and he means to be, Israel's friend...
...Who would have imagined that the Republicans would put forward a candidate who makes Gerald Ford seem a savant...
...The gun is not yet here, and it will not be until after convention time...
...Expecting the worst, they are trying to persuade themselves that it won't be so bad...
...Jimmy Carter is not Israel's enemy...
...He does lead—one day in this direction, the next in that...
...And the last five months of surrogates has provided no therapy, none at all...
...The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan...
...Where Reagan violates the conventional stereotype is that he is, from all reports, a genuinely kindly person, even compassionate...
...Carter's very active intervention...
...Reagan, your average stereotypic right-wing know-nothing...
...Call the hope Anderson, call it Kennedy, call it a still-nameless horse, call it a miracle...
...Yet there have been so many false starts, so many mistakes, so many inexplicable glitches that Mr...
...Carter and his people have committed, whether wittingly or unwittingly, have fouled the lubricant...
...Carter does not lead...
...Less of an America than that is dangerous for Israel...
...Which is, in its way, a comfort, since that settles the "one-issue" problem...
...Reagan...
...no policy, no principle...
...It was called Nixon then...
...Wonder instead about what it is in our times that creates such dismal dilemmas...
...In the current context, I cannot accept that view...
...Jimmy Carter is not the enemy of the American economy, either, and that has not been much comfort to the economy...
...we are unable to...
...Wonder about how citizens, working together, can create their own small polities within the whole...
...For surely no people deserves the shabbiness and mediocrity which has come to be our condition...
...It is said that people get the governors they deserve...
...Four years of such massive misdirection, the White House become a railroad switching station with an overachieving amateur dispatcher at the controls, are more than enough...
...Wonder about how to conserve energy even in the absence of government-sponsored solutions, about how to insist on quality and on decency and on equity and on all those other things we care about even without volumes of government regulation...
...A president who is not good for America cannot be good for Israel...
...The blunders which Mr...
...The only good thing about the Carter candidacy, as it has unfolded, is that it has become plain that you don't have to be Jewish to oppose the man...
...As between the know-it-alls and the know-nothings, there's not much to choose...
...For three years now, the public confidence has gradually eroded...
...Those Jews who imagine that their concern for Israel entitles them to vote for the candidate who seems "best" for Israel, no matter what other positions ne holds, what other merits he has, do America no service and Israel no favor...
...a policy of muddle and blunder...
...And that is what is wrong with our foreign policy as well...
...You don't have to be Jewish to oppose Jimmy Carter, but it does help...
...The American response...
...such a presidency should not be borne again...
...The critics are wrong when they say that Mr...
...Tsk, tsk to terrorism, but if the baby-killers wear suits and ties, and say some sweet things between their murders, then their moderation should be rewarded...
...The Carter problem is not a problem of motive...
...It is an America that not only endorses freedom, but practices it, that not only defends freedom but nurtures it...
...Carter's successes seem almost accidental, a product of random frenet-ecism: If you try enough different things, some are bound to succeed...
...Short-term, perhaps, a few more planes, a few more tanks, a few more dollars, a bit less pressure...
...We can turn away and inward, give up on the common weal...
...a policy of muddle and bluster...
...And anyway, Reagan will be good for Israel, right...
...His is a much more complex case than many people seem to think...
...Unfortunately, the glitches—the jumble of postures that substitutes for policy—erode both Egyptian and Israeli confidence in America's good sense, in America's seriousness...
Vol. 5 • May 1980 • No. 5
