The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Political Parties And Non-Partisans I SUPPOSE I am not precisely non-partisan. The word "omni-parti-san" suits me better, if there is such a word. As I look back...
...Of course, the Republicans—or most of them—also favor improvements, but the Democrats seem more in earnest about all these things...
...Candidate John Kennedy stood up for it in a straightforward address in which he said: "If we cannot pass the Anderson amendment...
...If millions of our fellow citizens could have seen and heard what I saw and heard, they would have a broader and surer basis for making up their minds about the parties and the Presidential candidates...
...Last week I spent a couple of days in Washington...
...As I look back over my political history, I must confess thai it looks a bit silly...
...but I do object strenuously because many of them are too poor...
...In ray five-hour-long birds-eye view of practical politics I saw precisely how this difference between Democrats and Republicans works in practice...
...It would not take many important changes to get me set to end my kaleidoscopic political career with the conservative Republicans...
...That brilliant and honest man, Senator Barry Goldwater, tried to swing the Republicans in that direction, but Richard Nixon, with an active assist from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, skillfully headed off that move...
...But let no one suppose I am now devoted to the party of Jackson and Jefferson...
...The Democrats are, at least theoretically and program-atically, in favor of rapid and definite advance...
...According to their eloquently proclaimed principles, both parties are progressive...
...Medical care is far too expensive for many of our people...
...People would soon begin to realize that we really have three parties, not two...
...They are so poor that their children cannot have decent education, food or medical care...
...The Republicans, on the other hand, would like to advance along all the same lines, but not quite so fast...
...If that is partisanship, so be it...
...According to their language, they are liberals in a hurry...
...I think it means we are going to have an extremely difficult time passing any progressive legislation in this session of Congress...
...But they wear their liberalism with a difference...
...By that I mean that I want to see things gradually evened up among our citizens...
...When the Republicans and the Southern Democrats get together on any issue they can rule the country, and that is what I saw happen last week...
...There was no provision for regular financing of the project...
...And the Republicans are, for the most part, conservatives from all over the country except the Southeast...
...In my time I have cast my lot and used my energy to promote the political fortunes of William McKinley, Eugene V. Debs, Woodrow Wilson, Norman Thomas, Robert LaFollette, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson...
...Our two national political conventions went to show that we now have no national party which dares to confess that it is conservative...
...One day I sat in a Senate gallery seat from 2 PM until 7 and listened to and looked at the strategy of our two political parties...
...Then came the discussion on and the vote on the Anderson-Kennedy amendment...
...This proposal was defeated 67 to 28— with Democrats voting against the bill because it was regarded as sleasy and inadequate...
...I do not complain because some of our people are too rich...
...I came away from this rather strenuous patriotic exercise more firmly convinced than ever that sessions of Congress should be broadcast as television programs...
...The Southern Democrats are from the nine states of the Southeast...
...New York Senator Jacob K. Javits introduced a bill which provided help only for the very poor, and ladled this help out to states which were able to pay their share of the program's cost...
...The Senate Finance Committee brought in a bill so minimal in its provisions that it was taken for granted that some important amendments would have to be added...
...to let them make the decision...
...Before the Senate was the problem of selecting one among several measures dealing with the problem of health care for the aged...
...It was a definite move in favor of realizing the Democratic platform...
...In selecting candidates to support, I am controlled by a desire to see America an even better place before I bid it good-bye...
...sometimes I think it is the silliest political organization that ever was...
...These men represent four parties—starting with the Republican and ending with the Democratic...
...Midwest and West...
...There are the real and regular Democrats, the Southern Democrats and the Republicans...
...It was drawn up by Democrats who believe in social security and human equality...
...That was a different sort of bill...
...Everyone—even the President—agrees that something should be done to relieve this situation...
...The Democrats who believe in democracy are from the North...
...both favor all sorts of good deeds—in relation to education, agriculture, health, highways, etc...
...I have more faith in their will to do something...
...Then I think we should take the matter to the people of this country...
Vol. 43 • September 1960 • No. 35
