The Liberal Crisis
TYLER, GUS
DANGERS OF THE 'DUMP-JOHNSON' MOVEMENT The Liberal Crisis By Gus Tyler As the nation moves toward the 1968 elections, American liberalism faces the most serious crisis of this century. The peril...
...In terms of issues, 1968 could be 1860 played backwards...
...Peace in Vietnam is not apt to reverse or check racial conflict...
...If Johnson continues on present course, he will be hit from both sides: either "get out" or "go all out" or both...
...A George Wallace candidacy would have a peculiar effect on the electoral, as distinguished from the popular vote...
...This conviction would be incendiary propaganda in the mouths of the militants...
...In 1948, Harry Truman??like Lyndon Johnson today??appeared to be in trouble...
...There were several attempts to reverse the Rauh approach at the ada board, probably the best attended in its history...
...A Reagan is not an Eisenhower??especially if a Republican President is elected in the House with Southern aid...
...But in terms of the electoral vote, the Wallace candidacy could have an altogether different impact on 1968 ??and on the future of American politics...
...They talk about 1968 but they mean 1972...
...and Alabama equals California...
...The big moment was to be the meeting of the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend...
...And it is far less likely that the present Congress will enact any program??massive or midget...
...The strategy is simple and suicidal...
...If Wallace runs, however, many of the same voters would vote Dixiecrat instead of gop, thereby cutting into Republican strength...
...Although the press reported this as a gathering to formulate policy on Vietnam, the ada board was actually without any authority to act on that subject because the Spring convention of the organization had already mapped policy...
...If peace were made in Southeast Asia before the first of the year, the most immediate impact on the American economy would be a dip in employment...
...In that event, it would be necessary for either the Democratic or Republican candidate for President to win at least 270 electoral votes out of the remaining 438??to be elected...
...The fuel for the fire will be on hand next summer...
...He opposed the movement on practical grounds...
...If the spirit of violence should flag either in the ghetto or in the surrounding white community, there are racist and reactionary forces to whip up the fury...
...If one must look for historical analogies for 1968, it is less in the America of the 1940s and 1950s than in the Germany of the 1930s...
...The latter course, a stalemate in the House, is unlikely because as matters stand right now the gop candidate will not be Rockefeller but someone more congenial to the Southern spirit...
...Riot makes counter-riot...
...Ordinarily, if Southern Democrats bolted their party they would be jeopardizing the prized seniority and chairmanships that the Dixie solons enjoy...
...parochial politicians will do it as a cheap and easy way to fame and fortune...
...In discussions about the forthcoming elections, 1968 has been analogized with other recent contests, particularly 1948 and 1952, with pro-Johnson people pointing to the former and liberal anti-Johnson people the latter...
...But they will not be alone...
...But 1968 will not be normal...
...In 1968, they might do otherwise...
...The first victims of this "beat Johnson" movement will be the Representatives and Senators in the "peace wing" of Congress...
...While it is entirely possible and desirable for America to work out "peacetime" plans to take up the slack, such plans would get little backing in the present Congress??and in no event could they have an effect in time to provide needed employment before the fall of 1968...
...The positive alternative proposal in the Rauh document was a drive to write a peace plank into the Democratic party platform...
...The Negro nihilists knocked that notion out of their heads at last month's National Conference for New Politics in Chicago...
...b) to undermine Johnson in the election of 1968...
...The riots of 1967 are a prelude and rehearsal to those of 1968...
...Should the history of 1952 repeat itself, liberals would have a chance to relive the agony of the Ike age in a time of trouble and turmoil...
...In fact, both analogies are right??and wrong...
...If successful, it will profoundly alter the direction of American politics and most grievously set back the Negro...
...The Communists termed the Social Democrats "social-fascists...
...Congress...
...Had this happened in 1948, or 1960, neither Truman nor Kennedy would have had enough electoral votes to win...
...Exploiting Vietnam and the Negro's agony, the Right wing prepares to launch a comeback...
...Then the great danger was Hitler...
...The most irreconcilable elements in this loose combine are the extremists who do not believe that America is a viable civilization, who feel the only hope lies in a nihilistic and uninhibited destruction of the society...
...Congressmen and Senators will not escape the conflict unscathed...
...At the September meeting of ada??the commonly alleged establishment of the liberal community??the question of a "dump-Johnson" movement was at the core of the agenda...
...It killed a national third-party, for this year...
...But in terms of long-range historic impact, what happened in Germany in the '30s may be closer to the danger we face in 1968 than what happened in America in either 1948 or 1952...
...So far, the liberals have failed to convert the New Deal coalition into a "party...
...Put otherwise, in a divided and splintered liberal coalition, the first to suffer will be the men who are liberals on domestic issues and who are foreign policy doves...
...Ike put the New Deal on ice...
...At present, the strongest ticket the Republicans can field against Johnson is Rockefeller-Reagan...
...they turned the "main fire" against those closest to them...
...No doubt this analogy??like most historical parallels??is faulty...
...So the "beat Johnson" faction now turns to the Democratic party a) to name convention delegates to nominate someone or anyone other than LBJ...
...ada??in a memorandum he had circulated on July 28, 1967...
...The resolve of the peace-at-all-cost people to defeat the Johnson crowd will also hit the liberals who back the Administration on Vietnam...
...This improbable, but possible, freak could put a Reagan directly in the White House, although he runs for Vice President rather than President...
...In the New York State Legislature just a couple of years ago, it was the Republicans??together with "Wagner" Democrats??who gave Anthony Travia and Joseph Zaretski the necessary votes to head the Legislature...
...his "right" wing by Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats...
...Two other moves were defeated: one to allow chapters and individuals to join the dumpers in the name of ada...
...Unless liberalism can close political ranks to check the onrush of reaction, America can be swept into a dismal abyss of prolonged reaction...
...What started many years ago as spontaneous and sporadic outbursts has, in recent years, taken on form and direction...
...In 1968, the ever dormant spirit of vigilantism is likely to arise brutally ??both on the streets and at the polls...
...Here, too, the net result is bound to be few, if any, delegates and a minimization of the peace strength in America to a fraction of its true proportions...
...In the House, the balance of power would be in the hands of the South...
...For a brief moment, this faction in the liberal community toyed with a third-party movement: the Spock-King ticket...
...Mississippi equals New York...
...Johnson's liberalism— especially on civil rights??has lost him many voters who in 1968 would go Republican...
...If this is carried one step further, though, it becomes most unappetizing...
...violence makes vigilantism...
...Until recently, some of the loudest voices in liberal circles spoke out for a third party...
...Regardless of Johnson's actions in Vietnam between now and Election Day, moreover, the issue will be with the country on that fateful Tuesday...
...In the election itself, Truman came galloping up to win— with liberal backing, as may happen with LBJ...
...In setting this altered direction, the South would be in the driver's seat...
...The Republicans will grab each loose thread to unravel the Administration, wrapping their yarn around the accusative query: "Is this what our boys died for...
...Demobilization of Negro soldiers, fewer job openings, a higher rate of Negro joblessness??especially among the young??could only add fuel to the flame...
...In terms of popular vote, Wallace would help LBJ win a plurality...
...He ran a bright, brittle campaign in which he restored the English language to its proper place in Western civilization...
...In 1968, there will be a vigilante vote??as well as vigilante violence...
...Its logic runs in three steps: 1. Any Republican, including Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan, is more likely to settle Vietnam than Johnson, in the same way that Eisenhower settled Korea after Truman...
...For the militant Negro idealogue or demagogue, American withdrawal from Vietnam would provide conclusive proof that this civilization is on the way out...
...The plan is to run anti-Johnson delegates to the Democratic national convention...
...But in a "realignment" the South could easily make a deal with gop leadership??and the President-to-be??to "organize" both houses in an overt conservative coalition thus preserving Southern superiority in the Senate and House committees...
...But whether or not riots, inside or outside the ghetto, are on the drawing boards of the "revolutionaries," there are enough combustibles around for the most accidental spark in 1968 to set off the explosion...
...Indeed, its power is heavily exaggerated since each state including the thinly populated states of the South, casts only one vote: Louisiana equals Illinois...
...This is constitutionally possible, since the top three names for President go before the House and a majority is needed for election...
...they welcomed Hitler to power with the proclamation: Nach Hitler, Kom-men Wir...
...2. Even if this does not happen, in 1972 the Democrats could oust the Republicans...
...A battle over convention delegates will deeply divide the Democratic party ranks...
...There is no constitutional provision to prevent the same from happening in the U.S...
...And four years later there was more of the same, only more so...
...The "dump-Johnson" people, such as James Wechsler, prefer to parallel 1968 with 1952...
...3. At that time, the Democratic party will be in the hands of its liberal wing...
...Discussing 1968 at a political action meeting of the afl-cio...
...Given the choice between a Johnson and a Reagan, the Southern delegations could decide to go for Reagan or??if wooed by LBJ??to succumb at a devilish price: my body for your soul...
...If one is to trust knowledgeable rumor, the next move will be to carry the flames outside the ghetto to adjacent neighborhoods...
...Given the alternate choice between a Johnson and a Rockefeller, the South could say, "a plague on both your houses," and cast its vote for Wallace to elect NO President...
...If he makes a settlement it will, of necessity, be frayed with loose ends: boundaries, role of the Vietcong, presence of guarantors, etc...
...Right extremists can do it by financing the sparks to set the fire...
...That was the year Truman decided not to run, allegedly because he was scared off by the New Hampshire primary...
...Whatever evils issued from that confab, it was an ill wind that blew some good...
...it would fail, and it would discredit the movement for peace: "Just as the Kennedy-Fulbright draft will fail to produce delegates because Kennedy will repudiate it in most dramatic form, so any other similar effort in behalf of anti-Johnson delegates will fail because no responsible people inside the Democratic party will allow their names to be connected with a drive against a Democratic President, and especially so hopeless a drive...
...at the moment...
...Anti-Johnson liberals hope to scare LBJ off from running in 1968...
...The support for George Wallace is much greater than that for Thurmond...
...But it was not he??it was Ike and Dick??who ended up in the White House...
...A conservative Congress??much more conservative than the present— will not only affect legislation but may very well turn topsy turvy all calculations on the presidency in 1968...
...Riot and threat of riot are used as conscious instruments to win demands??specific and vague...
...Americans for Democratic Action started a "dump-Truman" movement and turned to Dwight Eisenhower as an alternative, just as some individual liberals (though not ada this time) are now involved in a "dump-Johnson" movement that seeks another General as a possible candidate, James Gavin...
...Legislators can do it by callous disregard...
...or others like him, who are already in deep trouble because of their "dove" posture, a further division within their party is a guarantee of defeat...
...It may prove the pivotal power for putting a like-minded man in the White House...
...The South may now lead America down the path to reaction??by playing an independent role...
...Nobody spoke for the corpse, including those who??in the recent past??were for it...
...Out of the cauldron is emerging a political coalition of black revolutionaries, Muslims and the Negro underworld which seeks to use violence as a tool of purpose...
...The liberal community has not, until recently, been even dimly aware of the dangerous potential...
...The first impact of such disturbances would be to swell the Wallace vote??both North and South...
...Southern strategy in this situation must be envisioned against the background of riots in the summer of 1968...
...Both will profoundly affect the outcome in the voting no matter what the Johnson Administration does either in urban America or in Southeast Asia...
...If neither Democrat nor Republican get a majority of the votes in 1968, then the contest goes to the House of Representatives??at which point the political complexion of the House becomes decisive because it is the body that will now pick the President out of the top three runners...
...about to be pushed into oblivion...
...Thus whatever the merits may be for hastening a settlement in Asia, it is a vast misjudgement to assume that the fate of the ghettos will be settled in Vietnam...
...The far greater danger arising from the political crisis within the country has gone almost unnoticed...
...If he carries as much of the South as predicted, he will garner some 100 electoral votes...
...In Congress, the conservatives have long had such an informal "party" on Capitol Hill, voting in consistent concert...
...Indeed, quite the opposite is probable...
...In 1968, this Congressional coalition of conservatism may have its first chance to elect its President by its own acts ??with the South holding the power and mapping the strategy...
...The board decision, however, has not inhibited a handful of individuals in ada (though without ada authority) from going ahead with their "dump-Johnson" effort...
...But if Rockefeller (or someone like him) is the candidate and the South should decide to stalemate the election, the political potential becomes bizarre: The Senate chooses the Vice President on a one-man-one-vote basis, and if the House cannot agree on a President, then the Veep becomes Prexy...
...Should it turn out that the Senate— and not the House??chooses the President, Reagan becomes a real possibility for the Presidency, riding into the White House on Rocky's coattails...
...In the case of a George McGovern (D.-S.D...
...The leadership for the systematic use of violence will, by 1968, have established its authority??in no small part as a result of operations run in 1967...
...But this unity is lacking...
...The board meeting dealt with political??rather than foreign??policy, concentrating on matters such as third-party, "dump-Johnson," convention and endorsement strategy...
...The election is apt to be run against a background of flaming cities, with a reactionary South discovering new allies in the North and a last best hope to run America...
...The drama of the 1968 elections will be played against a double backdrop: violence and Vietnam...
...The racial riots of 1967, like other riotous moments in America, are part of a continuing and developing movement with its own momentum and inner dynamic...
...The response to such an explosion can be predicted from several centuries of American experience with social conflict...
...Bayard Rustin recently said: "The nation moves toward 1968, a year of historic importance, in a mood of confusion, unrest, uncertainty...
...But above all else, the mood of the country is different: Black "revolution" is stirring white "counter-revolution," an atavistic return to a dark dead past...
...This tar the analogy holds, but not much farther...
...With the collapse of third-party-ism, some of its sponsors together with other anti-Johnson elements began to beef up a "dump-Johnson" campaign...
...If Truman had lost the whole South, he would have lost the Presidency...
...In this regard, 1968 could be unlike any other election in American history...
...a Republocrat President in 1968 and beyond would put the nation on fire...
...They are thinking like Louis XV standing on his head: Apres le deluge, moi...
...The notion that peace over there means peace over here is a self-delusion induced by incantations in a dovecote...
...The great preoccupation has been with Vietnam??both pro and con??almost exclusively...
...if LBJ is defeated in 1968, they will also have won...
...The year 1968 may be as abnormal as 1860, when a new party on a newly realigned base came to power...
...While a massive program for the ghettos would undoubtedly do much to dampen the explosive materials of riot, even the most generous effort is unlikely to have meaningful impact by 1968...
...Johnson would overcome both these obstacles??violence and Vietnam??with a united liberal front...
...From their view, they cannot lose: If LBJ is beaten at the convention, they will have won...
...Within the progressive community in 1967 there is a group whose basic strategy is negative: "beat Johnson...
...The peril to the liberals arises from dark and destructive forces at work in the country, and from deep divisions within the progressive-minded community...
...In short, the "beat Johnson" movement inevitably, if not intentionally, becomes a beat-the-liberals-for-Congress movement: both liberal doves and liberal hawks...
...Upon Truman's withdrawal, the Democrats named Adlai Stevenson, the liberal's dream boat, for the Presidency...
...The coalition that might have halted Hitler was torn with fratricide...
...But to a sector of the Left??the Communists??the real enemy was social democracy...
...The formal burial took place at the ada national board meeting in September, when the organization formally went on record as opposed to a third party...
...the second to instruct ada to seek an alternative candidate to LBJ...
...His "left" wing was being torn away by Henry Wallace and the Progressive party...
...The second impact would be on the Southern Congressional delegations that would normally vote for the Democratic candidate for President if the contest went to the House...
...c) and then in 1972 to use this movement to name a true liberal to take the White House...
...Such an eventuality would be a bit of historic irony for liberals who have long urged party realignment...
...The first proposal??to have ada back the "dump-Johnson" movement??was defeated 73 to 12...
...The Southern Democrats in House and Senate would normally not bolt their Presidential candidates...
...The "left" Democrats were hitting Truman because of his cold war policy, the "right" Democrats were hitting him for his pro-civil rights policy...
...The heaviest blow against the "dump-Johnson" movement was struck by Joe Rauh??mr...
Vol. 50 • October 1967 • No. 21
