Viewpoint The Battalion • Texas A&M University Tuesday August 14, 1979 Nation in turmoil Nixon’s new staff inexperienced Say, isn’t that ^ j , ii> ,v Jane Fonda? Editor’s note: This is second in a three-part story about politics in the 70s. Much has been said about Nixon putting his 1972 campaign into the hands of loyal but immature aides. Supposedly it was their zeal and inexperience that caused Watergate and all the other hare-brained concoctions of the Committee to Re-elect the President. That might soothe some politicians, but they know there always are a lot of rash and untested people in campaigns. More plausible is the simple explanation that power corrupts. The Nixon people had it and they abused it. When they got caught, they made it worse with an attempted coverup. From a technical standpoint, Nixon ran a masterful 1972 campaign. Nixon sat tight on the presidency and let McGovern beat himself with such gaffes as the Eagleton vice-presidential choice and the $1,000 welfare payment. Nixon’s overwhelming victory made him independent of the Republican Party. He controlled the national GOP, but never tried to rejuvenate a party that was rotting at the bottom while it bloomed at the top. In 1972, Nixon carried 49 states, but the GOP lost three Senate seats and two gov ernorships and gained only 12 House seats. That left the party with barely a third of the nation’s major political offices. Nixon went down with Watergate, but the Republican Party bobbed to the sur face. One of Gerald Ford’s first political acts was to install a woman in the GOP chairmanship. Regarded as tokenism by some, it happened that Mary Louise Smith of Iowa was a natural in the kind of organizational work the GOP needed in its extremity. Robert S. Strauss, a Texan many Demo crats thought was just another creature of the LBJ-John Connally school of politics, was the party’s big surprise. Taking over the Demcratic National Committee after 1972, Strauss sought to restore unity to a party torn, by dissension. ^ and saddled by debt. . > Strauss turned out to be’ a genius jug gler. When he seemed to be favoring con servative regulars, he did something for liberal reformers to restore at the image of balance. In everything he said, Strauss reaf firmed the party’s commitment to the re forms of 1972, but he always added that the whole idea was to win elections — a pragmatic damper on intraparty throat cutting. As a result of Strauss’ exertions, the party was able to coalesce in mid-1976 when Jimmy Carter came from obscurity to win its presidential nomination. Carter won the nomination because his plans, his people and his personality fit the times. He made much of being an “out sider” but it was his sincerity and confi dence that sold best when many candi dates relied on “view with alarm” themes delivered to the accompaniment of orator ical thunder. The 1976 election was close, but really not very exciting. This was because neither Carter nor Ford were exciting candidates and the reliance of both on pre-tested campaign tactics. There was lit tle innovation in either tactics or sub stance, and the result was an almost even split of both votes and states. Carter won by raising from the grave the FDR Coalition, with emphasis on the South. Ford made it close by taking some eastern “bedroom” states — Jersey and Connecticut — winning the industrial midwest and all but sweeping the west. Carter talked about managing govern ment more efficiently and with more at tention to the wishes and rights of the people. Ford said he already was doing that and blamed bad situations on the Democrats controlling Congress. In the end, the voters decided to hire a new manager. If they were looking for a charismatic leader, they had no one to vote for. If they were seeking new ap proaches to the great global issues of war and peace and the tough problems of energy and inflation, there was little to chose between. Carter came to office in what historians doubtless will classify as a transitional time. The imperial presidency had been given a dirty name by Richard Nixon and Con gress had grabbed a number of old and new powers for itself, but a working rela tionship between White House and Capitol Hill had not been achieved. (Carter was to be constantly criticized for not knowing how to work with Con gress, but as his term wore on it became ; clear congressional leaders didn’t know how to deal with Congress either.) The values of the “Me Generation” had seeped into Congress and the bureau cracy. In the face of stubborn unemploy ment and ominous inflation across the country. Congress gave itself and its staffs hefty pay increases. Appeals to the public, business and labor for restraint in using gasoline, raising prices and demanding wage increases in itially were met with sullen rejoinders of “what is the other guy giving up?” Hightower’s a conference hit Laissez-faire best policy for Chrysler Chrysler Corp., one of the big three auto manufacturers, is begging for govern ment aid in the form of $1 billion in tax credits to return to financial health. The latest news reports indicate the Carter administration may recommend that Congress ap prove the loan although it would be “considerably less” than $1 billion. A touchy subject since it involves government meddling in the free enterprise system. Proponents of the tax credit argue that if Chrylser fails, the auto industry will be dominated by Ford and General Motors. Apparently it already is somewhat dominated by those two, since Chrysler was edged out in sales. The free enterprise system is based on survival of the fittest. If a company fails, the entreprenuer should regroup and learn from his mistakes. With government aid to a financially wobbly company the bureaucrats would argue thay should have a say in the way the company is run. .After all, don't some stockholders have voting rights? Big government has already proved it can’t run the country, so why turn big business over to them? g- By DAVID BRODER WASHINGTON — When the steering committee of the Conference on Alterna tive State and Local Policies was debating the location of its fifth annual meeting, it decided it should be held in an eastern city. The conference is a loose-knit collection of elected officials, union organizers, community and public-interest group workers, bound together in part by past ties to the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s- Their first four conferences were held in Madison, Wis., Denver, Austin and St. Paul, so they thought this year they should come to an eastern city, where they could bold their debates among the people they were trying to reach. Instead, for reasons that were never quite clear, they ended up meeting last weekend on the campus of Bryn Mawr College, an elite women’s school in a fancy Main Line suburb 12 miles from downtown Philadelphia. That missed direction was somehow characteristic of the position of these New Left activists, who are approaching the 1980 election in more than their custom ary disarray. There are, as always, more organiza tions being created by the frenetic energy and the fragmented ideology of the Left than there are members to support them. Out west in California, where the cli mate seems to draw many interested in restructuring American society, the most obvious schism centers on the personality and policies of 1980 presidential hopeful Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown, Jr. (D). Brown has successfully courted Tom Hayden, the onetime Chicago Seven de fendant who is as close to a focal figure as the New Left has, and his wife, actress Jane Fonda. But others in the Left are less tolerant of Brown s embrace of Proposition 13 and sponsorship of a federal balanced- budget amendment than are Hayden and Fonda. The result was something unthinkable. Hayden was hissed by his own longtime friends at this conference, when he gave Brown a favorable mention in his speech. There is broad distaste for President Garter among the New-Left organizers. There is disquiet about Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a mixture of ap prehension that he may not run and fear that, if he does, he will immediately, as socialist author Michael Harrington said. “head straight for the center, like all politicians do.” With a few people eyeing a third-party option and others ready to write off 1980 as a lost year for politics of the Left at the presidential level, there was a sense of aimlessness that was unusual for a group that is accustomed to having a cause for which to fight. But for all their problems, it is probably a mistake to dismiss these folks as irrele vant. Their local grassroots organizations are growing in numbers, and the energy- fueled inflation is giving them their best talking point against big business in many years. District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, one of the many alumni of the group who has succeeded in local politics, brought them back to earth with a remin der that, however unfashionable, it might not hurt the New Left to rededicate itself to such plebian goals as full employment, fair income distribution and adequate housing and health care. After three days of droning discourse, there was palpable joy when Jim High tower, a young Texas journalisLpolitician, reminded them that political points can be made with humor as easily as with dialec tic. Hightower is planning a longshot cam paign for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, the powerful state body which regulates the oil and gas industry and which has traditionally been a captive of the industry it is regulating. When solar collectors were installed on the roof of the commission’s new building in Austin “to impress us environmental freaks,” Hightower said, “it was like put ting earrings on a hog — you can’t hide the ugliness.” He urged his pals to climb down from their ideological perches and dirty their hands with politics, arguing that ever since the 1972 McGovern for President cam paign, “the progressive movement has been afraid of the people — afraid of rejec tion.” Instead of cowering, he said, they should adopt the slogan of an Austin car tage company, Hightower said: Tfwecan get it loose, we can move it.” With a few more Hightowers and a lot less New Society groups, they might even do it. But not in 1980. fcj 1979, The Washington Post Letters to the Editor A&M not for everyone Editor: Until recently I was a probationary transfer student at A&M (out of school five years). A grave personal loss made me p and was glad to see that the University Police De partment does indeed have a few §ood men. Thank you. —M R., ’80 Readers’ Forum Guest viewpoints, in addition to Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces submitted to Riders forum should be: 11 • Typed triple space • Limited to 60 characters p e r fine Limited to 100 lines News Capsules CAMPUS Street to be blocked for stadium worl The east-bound lane of Joe Routt Street will be closed from Bailey Street to Houston Street during the period of August 19-24. This temporary blockage is required by the renovation work being done on Kyle Field, according to the Campus Police. The west-bound lane of Joe Routt will be temporarily marked for two-lane traffic from Bailey to Houston. Parking, including service vehicles, will prohib ited on this segment. Persons with valid random street parking per mits will be authorized to park in either PA 48 or PA 62 during this time. STATE Houston to draw up 9-5 districts Houston Mayor Jim McConn will try to start hearings Thursday on drawing boundaries for the nine new single-member City Council districts voters approved in a weekend charter election prompted by Justice Department pressure. “I realize that it is short notice, McConn said. “Whether it is possible or not I don’t know.” Eleven percent of Houston voters Saturday decided 47,706 to 26,385 to ex pand City Council from eight members, all chosen city-wide, to 14 members — nine elected by district and five at-large. The mayor will remain on the council. The Justice Department had demanded that the city change council makeup to overcome the dilution of black and Mexican-American voting power federal experts said would result from 1977 and 1978 annexations of mostly white areas. McConn said he planned early hearings on boundaries to try to avoid delay of the Nov. 6 local election. The law requires 30-day public notice of an election. McConn said he hoped boundaries can win federal approval by Oct. 6. NATION Stadium roof collapse kills five The roof of a stadium under construction in Rosemont, Ill., col lapsed in an earth-shaking roar Monday, killing at least five workers and injuring more than a dozen others inside. About 15 workers were trapped when the half-completed Rosemont Horizon Stadium, 25 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop, collapsed about 8:30 a.m. but were freed about 45 minutes later. A Rosemont police spokesman had reported eight dead but a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said his office could account for only five dead. I couldn’t say if that (the five confirmed) is the final count, but that sail the bodies that have been recovered so far, said Roy Dames, an administrative assistant. A temporary morgue was set up at the Rockford Paper Mills Inc. plant near the stadium site. At least 15 persons were reported injured and taken to three area hospitals, two reported in critical condition. Six Haitians drown near Florida Six Haitian refugees, including four small children, drowned Monday morning after they were forced at gunpoint to jump from a boat and swim to shore, police in West Palm Beach, Fla., said. Nine refugees made the half-mile swim to shore and three others were missing, said Palm Beach County Sheriff Richard Wille. They were coming into the country on a small boat about 6 a.m., Wille said. “When they got near shore, the person bringing them in forced them overboard at gunpoint.” Wille said a suspect found in a nearby waterway in a 34-foot cabin cruiser was being questioned. However no one had been arrested. There was no immediate identification of any of those aboard. But, Wille said the four children who drowned were between the ages of 4 and 12. Pope might visit Harlem on NY visif Church officials are considering plans to have Pope John Paul II visit Harlem and hold masses in Shea and Yankee stadiums on his trip to New York in October, a spokesman said in New York Monday. The pontiff is scheduled to arrive Oct. 2 for a 24-hour visit in which his only definite plan so far is an address to the United Nations General Assembly. Tentative plans call for the pontiff to arrive the morning of Oct. 2 at Kennedy International Airport, on a flight from Ireland via Boston. The pope mingled with neighborhood residents during his visits to Mexico and the Dominican Republic last January and to Poland in June. Also on the agenda for the pope’s United States visit are stops in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, with possible visits to Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit. WORLD Floods kill three in Mexico City Torrential rains killed three people and flooded more than 200 houses over the weekend in the western Mexico City suburb of Naucalpan, authorities said. Two rivers overflowed, flooding some areas with as much as 6V6 feet of water following the downpours and hailstorms on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Red Cross spokesmen said two people drowned and one person was electro cuted as a result of the rains. / Six houses were destroyed and 200 others were flooded. United WASHIN Department city of Phi frank Rizzi condoning F from shootin In an unpr civil rights ; ment officer: suit alleging policies “di such brutalil The suit v court in Phil cent years v brutality cm volving polic the shootin overwhelmii It names Rizzo — om the city’s p current P Joseph O’Nt officials. They are policies thal mit randon shootings a rights violat In Philad Tony Zecca of the suit, Zecca dec self, other “ludicrous." Rizzo tol commission don’t see ai misconduct, is “all medi But the : O’Neill vie police offi< handcuffed tion. The ] cussions wi complaint. It says si commende The Battalion USPS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station. Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. 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