A CRITIC EXAMINES THE CAMPAIGN
Thomas, Norman
A Critic Examines The Campaign by NORMAN THOMAS IF AN intelligent stranger, utterly unfamiliar with free elections and the campaigns preceding the vote, should ask you their meaning, you would say...
...In most cases the big operator has little better case for receiving a subsidy than the manufacturer of other essentials like clothing...
...Neither on his record will press cooperatives as an answer to the unequal share of the consumer's food dollar which goes to middlemen...
...He has not systematically hit below the belt...
...They will be on the ballot in very few states...
...In some states, the old Socialist Labor Party (semi-syndicalist) will be on the ballot...
...so we could with China...
...Farmers deserve a better share of the national income, but rigid 90-100 per cent parity means continuance of a costly policy of piling up unduly large surpluses at the taxpayers' expense...
...Nixon...
...Nixon, so far, has not campaigned as outrageously as in all his former campaigns...
...he has partially altered his party's program, but to say that he has made it over is an example of wishful thinking...
...The fight seems to boil down to rigid vs...
...Indeed, he was wooing Herman Talmadge and his ilk in the interest of a united Democratic Party when the Eisenhower Administration went into court against segregation and when the Supreme Court handed down its decision...
...This service to the public should be free, a pari of the price each network should pay for an invaluable privilege of using one of a limited number of channels...
...China's admission, desired by most nations, should be proposed by the United States on condition that she signa the Korean peace and negotiate non-aggression treaties with her neighbors, including Formosa...
...Stevenson...
...Both Eisenhower and Stevenson would like disarmament...
...they're pretty much alike in viewpoint, and I can't take Nixon...
...I wish, however, that the platform had come out emphatically and specifically for river valley authorities like TVA on all great rivers...
...Our foreign policy should be organized as it has not been under Truman or Eisenhower on two major drives: 1) for universal, controlled disarmament...
...In 1932 I should have thought the millenium nearer than I do today if I could have foreseen what Republican and Democratic candidates would be saying and doing in 1956...
...Eisenhower, the man, could doubtless win over Stevenson in a popularity contest...
...Soil banks have their uses...
...All this leads to the conclusion that the candidates, their records, their personalities, and their speeches are more important than the party platforms...
...Both parties take a never-never attitude on the recognition of the Communist government of China in place of Chiang, ingloriously driven from the mainland, who governs Formosa only by our help...
...My opinion that, on the whole, in most states, the Democratic ticket is preferable to the Republican isn't strong enough to make me think that a Socialist vote would be thrown away...
...On the farm issue, which has aroused so much controversy, I cannot get excited about the difference between the platforms...
...Stevenson (whose crusading zeal at this point could be higher) than with a Republican Congress and Mr...
...more money for arms than the General in the White House wants, but in principle for universal disarmament—to which the Republicans only allude in passing...
...Certainly we can't have universal, controlled disarmament with China out of the U.N...
...There are, it is reported, thirteen other "Presidential hopefuls" besides Eisenhower and Stevenson...
...They represent a motley crowd of extreme right wingers, mostly from the South, and the melancholy tone of the National Review's comments on this right wing protest sufficiently tells their story...
...But to say this comes with ill grace from a man who was so long wholly silent on the issue as was Mr...
...You and your inquirer would turn first to the platform...
...Stevenson is a little farther to the left and more of a thinker along political and economic lines, but with obviously less of that rather extraordinary appeal that the Eisenhower personality makes to his fellow citizens...
...So long as parity subsidies of any great size are paid to big farmers and farming corporations for their produce as well as to operators of family-sized farms, the small farmer will not be saved by parity subsidies...
...In fewer states the Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyist) will present its ticket...
...Stevenson, in character and ability, rank high above some of the men between whom the voters have had to choose in the past...
...Both men, aided by competent speech writers, are above the political average in their addresses...
...Here, stripped of rhetoric, self-glorification, and criticism of the opposite party, you find comparatively little difference, scarcely enough by itself to justify the expensive campaigns now going on...
...Eisenhower—to say nothing of Mr...
...We should fare far better, however, if liberals were less easily satisfied by their old party leaders and their programs...
...At this hour in history foreign policy overshadows all else...
...But the right answer to the needs of ill-fed Americans in the lowest economic brackets is better pay, not handouts...
...Probably more support for its revision will come from Democrats than from Republicans despite the fact that the law's authors were prominent Democrats...
...A Critic Examines The Campaign by NORMAN THOMAS IF AN intelligent stranger, utterly unfamiliar with free elections and the campaigns preceding the vote, should ask you their meaning, you would say something like this: "Our free people, after hearing discussion between two or more political groups or parties on the issues confronting our society, choose between them primarily on the basis of the parties' differing programs, and secondarily on their judgment of the parties, differing programs, carry out these programs...
...Our own Socialist convention nominated those good men and dedicated Socialists, Darlington Hoopes and Samuel H. Friedman, as in 1952...
...Then you would have a hard time explaining to your inquirer—or yourself—how your explanation squares with the facts of life, or how the contest between the Republican and Democratic Parties—one of which is bound to win under our present conditions —conforms to your description...
...In the UN., China's intransigent communism might be modified...
...2) a cooperaitve program, utilizing the U.N...
...But for that situation in our democracy we, the people, must share the blame...
...We deal with Russia better in the UN than out...
...Eisenhower, but he might be even more handicapped in obtaining federal aid by the race issue which can't be ignored so long as Southern states defy the Supreme Court decisions...
...Although there are many things I deplore in this year's campaign situation, you and I are entitled to solid comfort in any comparison of the old party platforms and principal candidates with those of a comparatively recent past...
...Stevenson made over his motley aggregation, nor is he likely to...
...He put no discernible pressure on his party for action on the legislation belatedly introduced...
...I like Stevenson's suggestion for a world food bank and for a more aggressive policy of distributing stored-up food to the hungry—plans more or less paralleled by the Republican Administration...
...Two conventions meeting simultaneously in Memphis, Tenn., the States' Rights Conference and the Constitution Party, endorsed T. Coleman Andrews and Thomas Wertel as candidates for President and Vice President...
...But few even of his partisan champions would pick him for President of the United States...
...As between the two parties, the foreign policy issue is one of judgment of men and their respective words rather than of programs...
...In view of Eisenhower's medical record, Nixon's chances of succeeding to the Presidency are greater than would usually be the case...
...The Democrats are for reciprocity and higher tariffs...
...We citizens as taxpayers and consumers would pay less than we will pay under President Eisenhower's dubious partnership plan...
...Presumably he would have more influence with a Democratic Congress and on Mr...
...Both the President and Mr...
...On the repeal or drastic amendment of the Taft-Hartley Law (apparently less of an issue than in 1952), if anything is done in Congress it will not be on strict party lines, and important men in both parties must have said "aye" to their platforms at this point with their tongues in their cheeks—an observation which applies equally to a desperately needed revision of the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act...
...Both platforms on this subject are similar when stripped of rhetoric and both are unsatisfactory...
...Neither candidate on his record has any adequate and specific plans for the poorest of our workers, farm laborers, neglected about equally by Congress and organized labor...
...Four years ago, I liked Ike as a man but feared his political inexperience and ignorance...
...But both men, especially Mr...
...Stevenson somewhat tentatively would like to end the draft and to stop experiments in nuclear weapons...
...as far as possible, to provide an alternative to communism for improving the economy and raising living standards in poverty stricken, underdeveloped areas...
...Considerations other than the popularity of the Presidential candidates should have considerable weight with conscientious voters...
...Would it not be better if Eisenhower and Stevenson should face each other, after the manner of Lincoln and Douglas, on platforms in carefully chosen cities and there argue out their differences with full benefit of television and radio...
...Stevenson in his own right is a high grade speaker...
...Stevenson might help by letting us know who would be his Secretary of State—Chester Bowles, Thomas K. Finletter, or some other of his able advisers...
...He is said to have shown real ability in the last four years at various jobs under Eisenhower...
...Henry George raised so effectively: why should any land owner in town or country be entitled to the economic rental value of land—apart from improvements — since such rental value is entirely a social creation...
...On the whole his running mate, Senator Estes Kefauver, especially in view of the fact that he comes from Tennessee, has taken a bolder stand and thus far has made a better record...
...But he's not crusading and seems to deplore our failure to spend more on defense...
...The Eisenhower Administration introduced its minimum civil rights program—and it is an absolute minimum — belatedly, and the President might have done more to create a climate of acceptance...
...That statement leads me to the greatest of immediate domestic issues: civil rights...
...In the general field of conservation the Democrats have a dedicated and well informed champion of the public in Senator Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon...
...He is the author of many books and articles on foreign and domestic affairs...
...In fact, this bitterly fought campaign tends to confirm my long standing opinion that our campaigns are too protracted, far too expensive, undemocratically financed, and of little educational value...
...Stevenson as the very active campaigner, have felt obliged to overstress criticism of their opponents...
...and we should fare better if it were not true, as James Reston has said, that the principal candidates are getting their best popular results on their weakest arguments...
...Both can be classified as liberal conservatives or conservative liberals...
...He has done a better job than I thought he would, but he is no great political thinker or planner...
...In early October, as I write, nothing has been said or done by either candidate greatly to change my judgments formed before the campaign began...
...Of the hard campaigning Vice-Presidential candidates, Kefauver is certainly preferable...
...Although, for reasons of socialist educational strategy, I favored other methods this year than nominating candidates, I would, of course, vote for them if I lived in a state where they are on the ballot...
...They are standing on an excellent platform, calling attention to fundamental issues which the old parties ignore...
...This year, even less than in 1952, no minor party is arousing attention or stirring up fundamental political thinking...
...I have often been sharply critical of John Foster Dulles, especially some of his speeches, but as I write I think he is acting about as wisely and effectively in the crisis over Suez as can be expected considering the stand of our British and French allies...
...As it is I sympathize with the man who told me some months ago: "I'd like to vote for a ticket of Eisenhower and Stevenson...
...In my judgment, the Democratic platform, and on the whole the Democratic record, is much better on the extremely important issues of public power and conservation...
...None of these men will be on the ballot in many states and some may not be on in any...
...Both parties dangerously assume that our chief danger is frontal attack by Russia despite the evidence that the Communists (who have not changed their basic goals) are no more anxious than are we for atomic war and have high hopes of winning without it...
...and make excessive claims for their respective parties...
...Through no fault of their own, but because of our Party's weakness, they are standing, not running...
...Here the Republican platform is slightly better or less hypocritical, and the Republican record since the Supreme Court decision somewhat better...
...If we don't want a new war sooner or later, we must deal with the government that very effectively—though cruelly—is making the most populous nation in the world an industrial power...
...somewhat more flexible parity payments...
...But there is much evidence that the Democratic Party, as a party, is the more popular, and that Eisenhower's health will greatly influence voters...
...Both parties and their leaders will continue to be silent on the issue NORMAN THOMAS himself sought the Presidency six times—as the candidate of the Socialist Party...
...On federal aid to education, so sorely needed, both parties despite fair words have very bad records...
...Stevenson might possibly advocate better general policies in office than Mr...
...Neither has Mr...
Vol. 20 • November 1956 • No. 11
