Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
November 26, 1980
Slouch
By Jim Earle
‘Someone ought to fix that elevator!’
Reagan would waste
social mandate efforts
By DAVID S. BRODER
ATLANTA — In the closing days of his cam
paign, Ronald Reagan would conduct a quiz
with his crowds. “Are you better off than you
were four years ago?” he would ask. “No,” they
would reply. “Is your family more stable than it
was?” “No,” came the answering shout.
It was a revealing exchange — and one that is
freighted with significance for the future of
American politics. As William Safire of the New
York Times has pointed out, there were two
quite separate impulses reflected in the
Reagan-Republican victory. . .,. „ . .
One was the widespread discontent with the
economic policies of the Carter adnfiilistration bemsed to push his economic proposals.
— the burden of taxes, regulations and inflation
that made the Reagan voters tell him “No,”
they were not better off than they had been.
The other was the concern with drugs and
divorce, with the changes in personal and fami
ly relations, social and sexual norms, morality
and religion that made the Reagan crowds say,
“No,” they were not sanguine about their fami
ly’s stability.
Those two impulses, reflected in those two
questions, set two different agendas for the in
coming administration. The economic mandate
is to reduce government spending, taxation and
regulation and give people more room to seek
their own goals.
The social mandate is to expand the govern
ment’s efforts to prescribe and regulate indi
vidual behavior. As described by the Rev. Jerry
Falwell, spokesman for the Moral Majority, the
agenda includes constitutional amendments to
ban abortion and reinstitute school prayers,
legislation to restrict pornography and drug use
— and opposition to the Equal Rights Amend
ment.
As I have visited a series of campuses, civic
clubs and business forums in my post-election
wanderings, what has been borne home to me is
that Reagan and the Republicans face a fateful
choice on which agenda they accept.
To put it as directly as possible, if they choose
the economic agenda, they have a chance of
success that can broaden their constituency and
give them a leg up on the Democrats in the
struggle for the future of American politics. If
they choose the social agenda, they will squan
der their energies in what is probably a losing
cause, divide their won ranks and alienate the
very voters who could make them the majority
of the next three decades.
Those are sweeping and controversial state
ments, but the evidence that supports them is
clear. There is very broad readiness — at liberal
universities as well as in industry meetings — to
see what Reagan and the Republicans can do for P°btics.
an ailing economy with their free-market poli- Reagan has an opportunity to win their sup-
cies. But there is no such acceptance — either port by making the Republicans the party of
in the dormitories or in the board rooms — of a prosperity. If he devotes himself, instead, to an
return to Prohibition-era efforts to legislate so- effort to impose an older-generation view of
cial behavior. morality on the young generation of Americans,
In the campaign, Reagan and other Republi- he would waste a historic opportunity — and
cans reaped votes from new constituencies of divide his own party in the process.
Federal machinery about
to spit out wine regulations
By MICHAEL J. CONLON
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The government’s reg
ulatory machinery is beginning to grind out a
new labeling system for wine that should give
consumers some fresh or at least better defined
information about what they’re drinking.
A revision of wine labels begun early in the
past decade has progressed slowly because of
controversies over what information should be
required and the percentages of grapes to be
allowed for various titles, among other things.
Now Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms has set Jan. 1, 1983, as the date when
most of the regulations will take effect.
One is designed to assure consumers that
wines bearing geographic area designations are
really made from grapes grown in those re
gions.
BATF, an arm of the Treasury Department,
has received more than two dozen requests
from vineyards and wine making associations to
officially recognize their areas. More are likely
to come in.
They range from the familiar Finger Lakes in
New York State to the exotic, Lime Kiln Valley
in California and the unexpected, Fennville, a
two-county area in southwest Michigan’s fruit
belt.
Some are historic. The application to declare
California’s Guenoc Valley a viticultural area
notes that the 4,000 plus acres got the name
from Rancho Guenoc, an 1845 Mexican land
grant.
“In 1888,” the application says, “Lillie Lang
try purchased a ranch of 4,000 acres, which
includes much of the proposed viticultural area.
There was a vineyard and winery in operation
on Mrs. Langtry’s property prior to her purch
ase of it. The winery operation continued until
Prohibition.”
This kind of detailed information, down to
boundary lines, elevations and soil composi
tion, is required as justification for area designa
tions.
BATF will not approve an area'j
backers can show that the propostj
locally or nationally known as then
region. The backers must alsoprovij
information about area characterist
At least 85 percent of the grapes!
labeled or advertised as being fronj
nated area must be grown in that
Any winery currently usingagei
signation will have to submit it fora|
stop using it when the new regi
effect.
'Many wineries currently usee
tions — Sonoma and Monterey aretj
pies. That will still be permitted t
regulations.
The rules also provide for a nu
changes ranging from the percentaisj
in a varietal wine — at least 75 pen
new definition of estate bottled—ir
the winery bottling the beveragealjl
the grapes for that wine on landiij
controlled in a specific viticulturali'
Dash C
nize at 1
White C
fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics by
sympathizing with some of their social-issue
concerns. But giving priority to that social agen
da could carry substantial risks — as George
Bush has been saying — of alienating the high-
church Protestant voters who comprise the Re
publican base. These are men and women
whose celebration of their party’s victory is
tempered by their firm opposition of having the
government dictate what they read, or think, or
say — or how and where their children pray.
If Reagan makes Falwell’s crusade his per
sonal cause, he will find himself expending
energy and political capital that could otherwise
And many of those who would fight him on
the social agenda would be his own people.
It is possible — though far from certain —
that Reagan has some answers to the economic
woes of America. It is highly unlikely that he or
any other President can “cure” the social ills of
our time.
Jimmy Carter may be responsible, to some
degree, for the resurgence of inflation, but the
rise in the divorce rate, the emergence of
homosexuals from the “closet,” and the growing
number of unmarried couples sharing domi
ciles are evidences of social changes far beyond
the reach of any President or any democratic
government.
Besides, there is no American consensus that
the changes are as destructive as Falwell and his
followers sincerely believe them to be. When
the Washington Post Poll asked, a year ago, if
divorce, cohabitation, coed dorms and other
such phenomena were evidence of “moral de
cay” or “greater social tolerance,” by a 3-to-2
margin, the cross-section of Americans of all
ages answered “Tolerance.” Among those be
tween 25 and 35, that was the answer by a 3-to-l
margin.
In that poll and others, less than one-third of
that “baby-boom” generation expressed agree
ment with the Moral Majority condemnation of
the Equal Rights Amendment, cohabitation by
unmarried couples, homosexual teaching in
school, easier divorce laws, open sale of pornog
raphy or use of marijuana.
Those young people between 25 and 35 are
vitally important to our political future. They
comprise 36 million of our present voting-age
population of 160 million, but most of them are
on the sidelines of politics now, watching but
not participating in the elections. When they
make their choice of candidates and parties —
as they undoubtedly will late in this decade —
they will put their stamp on the future of our
DOS\
Capital in process of being dedixified
Southern drawl no longer D. C.
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Speaking of unfortunate
timing, Bantam Books has just published a
paperback original called “More HowTo Speak
Southern.”
If the rest of the country is anything like the
capital, this book will be voted least likely to
make the best-seller list.
In the initial stages, however, they are pro
vided with grits substitutes, such as cream of
wheat and cornmeal mush.
Texas A&l
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As frequently happens during a transition
period, the capital is teeming with charlatans
and mountebanks. One of the more blatant fast-
buck traps is a store-front language school that
claims to have a cure for southernese.
sense of civility that goes with the ten#
After giving me a routine gentility tfi
counsellor at one of the dedixification ce< j Ue
told me I was terminally courteous. - y
The capital currently is in the midst of a
transition period. Which means, among other
things, that it is in the process of being dedix
ified.
Pseudo-southern accents so painstakingly ac
quired four years ago are disappearing from the
cocktail circuit. The Y’all-Haul truck rental firm
is changing its name back to U-Haul. And so on.
“Students” are exposed to intensive doses of
West Coast vulgate and theoretically come out
talking like native Californians. More often
than not, however, the school merely separates
them from their tuition money.
“We can’t do anything for you,” he
solemnly. “Even if you learned to
Down Easterner, you could never
Yankee. Your gracious manners wouldg#
away. ”
I said, “Suppose I went to Mexico?!
they’ve got a clinic down there that has® 111 wee
successful in treating certain types of
hursday . .
riday
aturday . .
unday... .
The A.P.
rill close at
eo pen Mon
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What we don’t need at this point is a re
fresher course in southern fried diction — e.g.
‘Ah shot an arrer into the ahr. ”
When they emerge from the indoctrination,
they still have spoonbread on their brpath and a
tendency to drop the final “g” from their
gerunds.
He shook his head. “Not when southern
pitality has spread all over your body,”lies
arrer, as in,
People in the upper social stratum, where
appearances count most, usually can afford to
hire private voice tutors to help then stop
drawling.
For those of us who are of and from the
South, the problem is even more serious. In our
cases, it’s a matter of overcoming the inborn
He did, however, hold out one fain
plastic surgery. A cosmetic operation, he|
might give my congenial countenance
lish look that would be acceptably nonsoufe
People who are less affluent generally check
into one of the neighborhood dedixification
centers that are springing up all over town.
Those who enroll in public dedixification prog
rams are required to quit grits cold turkey, and
to give up cold turkey as well.
Warped
The Battalion
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