The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Saving the ailing Republican Party I am really having a deuce of a time trying to save the Grand Old Party. Some weeks ago [NL, May 1], I wrote a column...
...It is hard for these friends to understand my concern...
...The others, even if they all flocked into one party, wouldn't be enough to elect anyone...
...Yet a mere five months later," he goes on confidently, "Republican optimism seems unparalleled in recent political history...
...It was a clever performance, to be sure, with some funny jokes...
...A lot of my friends have since inquired why I bother to fuss about the GOP...
...Contrasting the atmosphere of Democrats and Republicans at their respective $100-per-plate dinners recently held here in Washington, newspapermen saw much vigor and enthusiasm at the Republican evening despite the appearance of President Kennedy and his extensive entourage of official ringbearers at the rival affair...
...It doesn't occur to Ackerman that American citizens may want certain things and not want other things, and that they may be willing to organize and work for what they want...
...Ackerman seems to· be of the opinion that millions of American people will vote this way or that because conservative writers like Raymond Moley point this way or that...
...To the Republicans, organization is the great thing, not principles or objectives...
...What lucky people we are to have such nice Republicans to invent such a fine system and keep it going...
...Our industrial world, we are informed, has come through the recession, not because of the good work of the Democrats, but "by the unleashing of private enterprise forces...
...Some of the best men in this country are members of the GOP, I know, but they obviously don't run the party...
...The implication is, of course, that the Republicans deserve credit for the very existence of that magic individualistic system...
...Of course, the Republican leaders will not pay much attention to what I, or anyone else, say...
...When the GOP cheerleader really gets down to business he gives the AFL-GIO's Committee on Political Education (COPE) the credit for winning the last election...
...I can't help wondering what these sharp and tough-minded Republicans of my youth would have thought of the slick Republicans of today...
...But I must continue to plague the GOP, if only because on June 13 Dr...
...He assumes that the only reason the Republicans did not have a COPE was because they didn't hustle around and organize one...
...The minimum wage, due to Republican pressure with some Southern Democratic help, is still only $1.15, not the desired $1.25...
...My authority for assigning him this high function is Representative Thomas B. Curtis of Missouri, who slipped Ackerman's address into the Congressional Record, broadly hinting that it would help keep our two-party system afloat...
...Some weeks ago [NL, May 1], I wrote a column about a manifesto sent out by the Republican National Committee that was supposed to put the organization of Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower, and of Ev and Charlie, back on its feet...
...When it comes to finding things that are wrong with the Democratic Administration, the Republican publicity man slices his meat rather thin...
...So what, they ask, if the Republicans can't attract votes...
...Donald Ackerman, Staff Director of the Republican Policy Committee of the House of Representatives, made a much-touted speech which was designed to reinvigorate his party...
...On January 20, he remarks, the world looked dark...
...They will always have money enough to run big campaigns, put on a fine show every two years and keep the good old two-party system from disappearing...
...But there was not one thing in it from beginning to end that would convince any working man, farmer, small businessman or housewife to vote the Republican ticket...
...Only in one sentence does Ackerman hint at an interest in party issues: "The way for Republicans to recapture city votes lies as much in improved precinct organization as it does in shaping stands on civil rights, urban renewal and mass transportation to conform with the views of the city voters...
...It is as if a theater manager were to hire an extra-large claque and then kid himself into thinking that he has a hit...
...I'm afraid Ackerman's speech will do nothing of the kind...
...Party leaders, columnists and the public itself seem to have been transfused with the feeling of better things ahead in GOP circles...
...The man is so simple-minded that he attaches political significance to the enthusiasm of party leaders and professional journalists...
...Ackerman's first reason for Republican optimism is a curious one...
...I keep thinking of the sort of Republicans we used to have when I was young I can't forget about Teddy Roosevelt, Robert M. LaFollette, William E. Borah, George M. Norris and a lot of other fine progressives...
...The Democrats were obviously in the saddle and there was little to be done about it...
...And these people—the Republicans must be taught—are the basic American people...
Vol. 44 • July 1961 • No. 27
