The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Dr. Gallup and the GOP Once again I am worried about the Grand Old Party. Under President Kennedy the Democrats have formulated both foreign and domestic...
...Just why Catholics should differ from Protestants in their appraisal after the first year of a President who happens to be a Catholic is not explained," he writes, "especially since it has been taken for granted recently in politics that Mr...
...And Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon or some other GOP leader will have to face the same problem in 1964...
...The only response that most Republicans—and with them many Southern Democrats—appear to make to President Kennedy's proposals is the cheerful gurgle that they will not be allowed to go through...
...Democrats who were interviewed registered a resounding 87 per cent...
...But the Republicans lack any positive program of their own...
...But the President's popularity among Catholics surprises him...
...If the Republicans expect to do well in the next election they had better practice interpreting publicopinion polls on their own...
...Under President Kennedy the Democrats have formulated both foreign and domestic programs that seem to furnish a solid basis for the party's future...
...And Catholics were for our young President to the tune of 88 per cent...
...What can they say when asked how they have used their precious influence in "the most powerful legislative body in the world...
...After acknowledging that the recent Gallup poll fairly represents the public's state of mind, Lawrence goes off on the same tenuous tangent that led him and many others astray in the last Presidential election...
...that in general they did their best to bring about a state of graveyard quiescence in Washington...
...He does not bother, of course, to consider the fact that the President and his family are constantly in the limelight because of the press's unending appetite for news...
...Catholics, as well as other folks, like that sort of thing...
...I wonder, though, what sort of argument these men will be able to present to their constituents —the ordinary farmers, workers, businessmen and housewives—when they find themselves up for re-election...
...Can they answer that they have made trouble for the President wherever they could...
...Fifty-eight per cent of the Republicans polled expressed approval of the President...
...These are questions that Republicans will have to answer in their Congressional election campaigns this fall...
...A good example of what, regretfully, I find to be the present Republican malaise of negativism and refusal to face facts was the discussion of a recent Gallup poll by David Lawrence, a widely read conservative columnist...
...Lawrence's general attitude toward these figures is notably honest and straightforward...
...According to the pundit, John F. Kennedy, like the two Roosevelts, owes his political success to "the most powerful and comprehensive publicity campaign ever undertaken by an American President...
...Kennedy has alienated many of his supporters because of his adamant opposition to Federal aid to private or parochial schools.' Lawrence ought to weigh a few simple facts: The President is still a Catholic...
...No matter how cleverly depreciated, they continually intrude on our fondest fantasies...
...that they helped prevent some of his bills from passing...
...Among independents—by no means a negligible portion of the electorate —75 per cent were found to be in favor of Kennedy...
...He generally stands up for his political beliefs...
...Nevertheless, many commentators, Lawrence included, were astonished by the figures...
...Gallup and his colleagues will be roaming the country between now and November, and there is something curiously stubborn about the figures the pollsters turn up...
...The results were what one would have expected...
...Conceivably, his fellow Catholics retain their respect for him because he holds to his convictions...
...One of the questions put to those polled was: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Kennedy is handling his job as President...
...He announces, for example, that President Kennedy's popularity at the end of his first year in office is higher than that of our last three Presidents...
...As a result, the party's future seems, at the very least, clouded...
Vol. 45 • April 1962 • No. 9
