THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Take Heart, McGovernites I have just come across some interesting political poll findings that may be of special interest to readers of The Progressive. Haynes Johnson,...
...Charles Wrong University of South Florida Tampa, Florida 'Expression of Ignorance' I have been considering whether or not to renew my subscription to The Progressive and have decided against it, partly because of Daniel Zwerdling's article, "Stockholm Exposes a Nagging Paradox," in your August issue...
...Harold Bock North Bend, Oregon Eagleton on Top Erwin Knoll's article "Practical Politics '72," in the September issue, was disheartening mainly because it expressed and reinforced the views and opinions of many longtime admirers and supporters of Senator McGovern...
...Elizabeth E. Hoyt Professor of Economics Iowa State University Ames, Iowa...
...This is a simplification of the "American experience," but pragmatically these two traditions manifest themselves in the words and actions of both candidates for the Presidency...
...This doesn't mean that Meany himself, or any member of the union as an individual voter, is required to be neutral...
...In other words, these voters still prefer the Democrats in Washington...
...Even Sargent Shriver, after all others had rejected the Vice Presidential post, jumped at it with such glee and lack of dignity that one wonders about him...
...Nixon over McGovern by a 59-to-31 per cent margin, they responded to another political question quite differently...
...Ross quotes Elmo Roper, a leading pollster that year, as saying after the great upset that he should have known something was wrong about his polls...
...We were pondering at this time last year whether to donate our support to the Senator's campaign...
...But people responded and now we'll see if it has come to a situation in this country when a decent man can't be elected President...
...I should have placed special significance on that fact...
...Zwerdling's article is the expression of an ignorance or lack of honesty in recognizing the purpose of a conference...
...for eggs in your beer—and certainly not to pay so much attention to the polls coming out of the reactionary press because they have been proven time and again by McGovern to be biased, downgrading, and inaccurate...
...For a long time this nation has been unsuccessful in reconciling two conflicting forces in our historical tradition: those seeking a life in privileged status through the exploitation of others and a rigid class and economic system, and those who struggle to keep some room for alternatives and some flexibility in American economic and social life...
...For those who are against welfare, take note: In 1971, 122 persons who "earned" over $200,000 paid no taxes whatsoever and forty-three per cent of our corporations paid less than five per cent taxes...
...This would seem to be much the same kind of situation that The Washington Post team—and others—discovered...
...One cannot cry over spilled milk, but I believe McGovern would have done better to insist on keeping Eagleton, with whom he would have been happier than with Shriver...
...And the right to choose his companions for a game of golf...
...I was amazed that "the experts agreed...
...McGovern's bid is not one to create a pure equalitarian society, but one that seeks to make some room for all...
...Who picks up the tab when these "fat cats" jump through tax loopholes...
...What everyone wants is a perfect candidate—and there is no such animal...
...Erwin Knoll, writing in your September issue, is an example...
...Our advice to Doubting Thomases like yourself is not to ask...
...I refer to 500 large farmers in California's Imperial Valley who received $12 million in farm payments last year...
...The Truth about 'Welfare' "I'll vote against George McGovern because of his guaranteed income proposal...
...Second, this neutrality of Meany's...
...Has he ever said anything that would lead us to suppose that he has no personal preference as between the two candidates...
...We found out and I reported the incongruity," he said, "that majorities agreed with Truman rather than with Dewey on the issues yet the majorities said they were going to vote for Dewey...
...The Richard Cains would like to believe they are independent of the economic conditions which result from the activities of industry and government...
...The only one who came out of the Eagleton fiasco on top was Senator Eagleton...
...I refer to public assistance itself locking people into poverty while providing welfare subsidies to local merchants...
...This does not sound like disaster to us, Mr...
...Supporters of McGovern should take heart from this parallel for the big push of the last days of this campaign...
...It may well be true that "before developing nations can even talk about economic progress and pollution they must free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation...
...McGovern knows that to counteract our emerging totalitarian government there must be a genuine sense of hope and idealism in the people...
...Welfare for the rich and powerful, capitalism for the middle classes and poor...
...In a practical world in need of hope and repair, McGovern offers some of both...
...It is difficult for them to understand that they carry both the rich and the poor on their backs (while taking it out on a woman who receives ADC payments, payments not adequate to buy decent housing, clothing, and food...
...The storm would have blown over, as Eagleton suggested, and McGovern would have retained full credibility...
...Frances Long Washington, D.C...
...I went back to Irwin Ross' book, The Loneliest Campaign, which is a study of the 1948 election in which Harry Truman upset all the pollsters by defeating Thomas E. Dewey...
...Meredyth B. Swisher Visalia, California The Choice To me the underlying choice this election year is a statement of belief or disbelief in the integrity of American character and interests...
...George McGovern is much superior to what we have in the White House...
...Edward A. Benton Morongo Valley, California Agrees with Knoll To his credit, Erwin Knoll has put down in words in the September issue what many of us who are supporting Senator McGovern have been thinking...
...When asked whether they thought it would be better for them and their families if the Democrats or Republicans were in power in Washington, the Democrats got the lead by five percentage points...
...The real difference is one of emphasis...
...I do not think that McGovern has changed his stand on any of the issues except welfare, and I have always felt that he would have to make some changes on that...
...In essence his efforts are to preserve our historically conflicting interests...
...Everyone seemed to love Tom Eagleton, and his personal crisis was nowhere near as bad as Ted Kennedy's, except that it happened at a more crucial time...
...At any rate, it would not in the least surprise me to hear that they had been playing golf together...
...I understood it to mean only that the AFL-CIO, as such, would endorse neither candidate...
...Like the rest of us, George Meany has the rights of a citizen...
...In the ringing of "Come Home, America" there was the usual liberal message to the retrievably disillusioned, and there was another message...
...people in the country I dislike more, but if he invited me to any kind of a social occasion, I would go...
...Steven ]o Ickes Oregon, Wisconsin Guilt-by-Association Shame on The Progressive for adopting the guilt-by-association gimmick of the late Joe McCarthy...
...There are few...
...he was too decent to win the nomination...
...If McGovern wins it will be our loss that Tom Eagleton will not be at his side...
...That includes the right to vote for candidates we don't approve of...
...The people believe in McGovern because he is an honest, compassionate, and credible man, or he would not have won the nomination in the first place...
...Knoll...
...To all of these buckshot shooting critics I say McGovern has remained the same patient, courageous, determined, shrewd campaigner that he was from the beginning...
...Martha Brandt-Erichsen Solvang, California Knoll's 'Buckshot' McGovern has been dodging buckshot from his horde of critics ever since he started on the campaign trail almost two years ago...
...Every time a segment of the private sector of the economy receives money in the form of a Federal subsidy or "special favors," that is welfare...
...I refer to Page 6 of the September issue: "George Meany played a round of golf with Richard M. Nixon recently, thus providing convincing evidence of his 'neutrality' in the 1972 Presidential campaign...
...If so, they had better devote themselves to what they see as their real problems and not try to divert attention to these problems in a conference called for another important purpose...
...It is even argued by some people that he has a duty to vote...
...This message was aimed at restoring within the system a balance in historical traditions...
...He has not changed an iota on the main issues, he has not appeased, he has only modified certain controversial issues to keep unity and harmony in the Democratic Party...
...The economic, social, and political problems of "developing" nations may well be the greatest problems in the world, but the Stockholm Conference was called for a different purpose from discussing them...
...But after deciding to, as thousands have with their mail-in donations, we began to listen more closely to what he said...
...This finding rang a bell in my memory bank...
...I also refer to a recent Federal Power Commission ruling (Nixon's henchmen dominate it) that allows the Tennessee Pipeline Company to shift costs of an unsuccessful project from the stockholders to the customers...
...As a friend of mine recently put it, "There is nothing so pathetic as a poor Republican defending the system that is exploiting the hell out of him...
...I agree with Mr...
...and it would not lead me to suppose that either had moved an inch towards supporting the other's political views...
...Besides, Nixon is, after all, the incumbent President...
...Every time a taxpayer avoids his fair share of Federal taxes, that is welfare...
...If McGovern loses it will be an incredible disaster for our country and the world...
...If the Richard Cains of this land of opportunity are so opposed to welfare, why do they support this Administration that bestows billions of dollars of it (welfare) upon people who really don't need it...
...Within the context of emerging totalitarianism and restricted human rights, our choice is clear...
...So stated Richard Cain in The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, on September 3, 1972...
...He has the right to vote, however much you may object to the way he is likely to do it...
...Environmental problems are exceedingly serious in their own right, and deserve attention in that right, not as problems which distract attention from "poverty, hunger, and disease...
...This is especially proven here in the important state of California where the press polls on primary election day indicated he was favored to win over Nixon in California by fifty-one per cent to forty-nine per cent...
...Most of these critics were reactionaries, but there have been some critics from the left who thought it permissible to carp, criticize, and cast mountains of gloom over McGovern's chances in November...
...First of all, you can play golf with people without endorsing their politics...
...To do so would indicate a breakdown of morale, and we could no longer trust calls to any conferences, which, announced for one purpose, could be carried on to serve another...
...If other problems are more important, that is the business of other conferences...
...who profits from food stamps...
...we decided we liked what he said...
...There is reason to believe this lead has increased because of the registration of more than 1,500,000 new young Democrats in the last few years...
...A conference should discuss the problems for which it was called...
...McGovern will at least slow down our attacks on others and turn our thoughts home as a people...
...J. K. Galbraith and William Buckley appear to be on at least moderately friendly personal terms...
...I refer to such items as the $250 million "loan" subsidy to Lockheed...
...Knoll that "McGovern has come a long way by being George McGovern...
...I refer to a tax system which permitted one oil company to pay 1.2 per cent in Federal taxes on nearly $1 billion in net income...
...I still believe this is a land of opportunity and I'm against welfare...
...Certainly Senator McGovern looked as if he had bowed to public opinion and party influence, and Jack Anderson made such a fool of himself that his reputation will never recover...
...Haynes Johnson, writing in The Washington Post, reported that a national survey, conducted by that newspaper's staff, produced this significant paradox: "Although our voters said they favored Mr...
Vol. 36 • November 1972 • No. 11
