The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Picking a Loser To one whose memories run back to the first Grover Cleveland campaign and whose loyalties were then tied in with the Republican party,...
...Against Rockefeller, too, is the fact that the arch conservatives in the GOP apparently feel that they would be unable to boss him in the event he were elected...
...And to a man with my memories that would be a painful sight indeed...
...He has, however, one slight disadvantage: He cannot possibly be elected...
...He is too much of a social theorist, and today his theories do not really hold out much attraction for the public...
...Rockefeller has been successful as the chief of one of our great states...
...The Democrats met in saloons, the Republicans in churches and grocery stores...
...Throughout the nation, the Republicans came from the most respectable elements of the population...
...He obviously has the qualities which make a man popular...
...But we did have the cracker barrel and a good deal more time for lengthy argument...
...It appears that they would rather go with an arch conservative who is sure to lose than with a liberal who has a chance of winning...
...If he had his way, all the rags and tags left over from the New Deal would be bundled up and tossed into the garbage...
...Today, however, the Republicans are at their wits' end simply trying to select a candidate for the presidential election that is only slightly more than a year away...
...Rockefeller could fight it out with Kennedy on the New Deal grounds which he knows so well, both in theory and practice, and we would have a terrific campaign...
...This brings us to the other man, Barry Goldwater...
...In those days it was generally taken for granted that the Republicans were responsible for winning the Great War—that is, the Civil War—and for bringing about unexampled prosperity by their introduction of a high-tariff policy...
...But Goldwater's chief distinction is his defense of free capitalism and state's rights against the welfare state...
...The oldest American families, for example, were members of the Republican party, while the Democrats drew their supporters from among the immigrants...
...They seem to have no idea how to go about it, and this, for them, is unfortunate since the country will probably keep for some time the shape it settles into in 1964...
...It is easy to see why the Republican insiders are for the smiling, facile Senator from Arizona...
...But the insiders who are chiefly directing the preconvention campaign are against Nelson Rockefeller, and it is the insiders who do the nominating...
...Like Kennedy, he is enormously articulate and has great stamina...
...True, we had neither radio nor television and our press was childishly partisan...
...The GOP'S strength and respectability seemed unshakable...
...No one who falls within the circle of the Senator's warm personality can resist being personally impressed by him...
...The great debates in those days were about slavery and the tariff, and they were carried on in saloons and around the red-hot stoves in grocery stores...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Picking a Loser To one whose memories run back to the first Grover Cleveland campaign and whose loyalties were then tied in with the Republican party, the GOP'S present effort to commit political suicide is a gruesome spectacle...
...There were thousands of take-offs on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and every boy over eight years of age was on his way to becoming an expert in national affairs, since every debater inevitably had at least one admiring youth at his side...
...I think of the politics of my youth as far more public and democratic than anything now on the scene...
...Visitors from other countries expected our two-party system to last a long time, and of course they were justified in their expectations, but when I was young it looked as though the Republicans would rule forever...
...If his party were to nominate him, he would put on a campaign which would make John Kennedy stretch his wings...
...These were the auditoriums in which small boys received their political education...
...At this date, the Republicans have two strong possibilities to head their ticket: Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Senator Barry Goldwater...
...Rockefeller is too liberal for them, too close to Kennedy and Roosevelt...
...I have no business to be giving advice to the GOP, but if they reject Governor Rockefeller and nominate Senator Goldwater they are inviting certain defeat...
...In keeping with tradition, President Kennedy will undoubtedly be next year's Democratic candidate...
Vol. 46 • September 1963 • No. 19
