The Battalion
Viewpoint
September 1,
Slouch By Jim Earle
“I’m not sure how well you did when you changed your
schedule. Although you did get rid of that afternoon class on
Friday, you lost your seat in chemistry, English, and phy
sics.
The Reagan strategy
is to break adversaries
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Ronald Reagan likes
to break things. He has this reputation as a
sweet, good-hearted fellow you’d love to
have as a neighbor or a pal. A nice guy who
walks old ladies across the street and helps
kids learn their Scout knots.
But you look at his record, and you see
he breaks things. Since he became Presi
dent, he broke the back of the Democratic
resistance in Congress and he broke almost
50 years of expansion of the welfare state.
He broke Congress to his fiscal discipline
the way a wrangler breaks a colt to a saddle.
He doesn’t brutalize. He applies force
cleanly, leaving his victims to say, in Tip
O’Neill’s words, “No hard feelings, old
pal.” But break them he does.
Last week he set out to break the air
traffic controllers’ strike and bust the union
that called it. A union, incidentally, that
endorsed him for President.
What nobody seems to notice is that for
Reagan, the action was perfectly in charac
ter. He rarely blusters. He doesn’t fight
dirty. But he lets nothing stand in his way.
Back at the beginning of his political
career, in 1966, he bowled over two nice
guys — Republican George Christopher
and Democrat Pat Brown — who made the
mistake of thinking this actor was a pushov
er. They never knew what hit them.
Two years later, he set his sights on the
presidency. The presidency. The prospec
tive nominee of his party was fellow-
Californian Richard Nixon, a man regarded
as a martyr and a hero by many Republicans
who thought he unfairly had been counted
out of the White House in 1960. Reagan was
not one of those sentimentalists. He did
everything in his power — right up until
roll-call time — to break Nixon’s grip on the
nomination.
In 1976, he came right back seeking the
same prize. This time, the Republicans had
a President. His name was Jerry Ford. A lot
of Republicans, including some of Reagan’s
own financial and political backers, thought
Ford deserved a chance for a full term. Not
Reagan. He fought until the last vote was
counted in Kansas City to break Ford’s
lease on the White House.
In 1980, for many observers, the key
break in the campaign came in Nashua,
N.H., on the Saturday night before the
primary. Reagan had lost to George Bush in
Iowa, and had agreed with Bush to a one-
on-one debate in Nashua. Bush kept the
commitment; Reagan broke it. He showed
up with four other Republican contenders,
demanding they be included, and so flum
moxed Bush that the erstwhile front-runner
was never the same again. A lucky break? If
so, it was one Reagan contrived.
Jimmy Carter thought he could sidestep
Reagan’s uppercuts, but in the Cleveland
debate’s closing round, Reagan nailed him
cleanly and left him on the deck.
The same go-for-broke approach has
characterized his presidency. He offered
Congress a “partnership,” but it quickly
became plain that it would have to be on his
terms. When the year began, the expecta
tion was that the tax and budget bills would
be hammered out between the Democratic
House of Representatives and the Republi
can Senate, in a consensus process reflect
ing the mixed verdict of the 1980 election.
But three times, Reagan rejected the
counsel of compromise and put the House
through his personal political wringer —
breaking away enough Democratic defec
tors to leave the opposition party de
molished, its leadership in disarray. The
bolters said they were afraid to oppose
Reagan, and the President raised his cham
pagne glass in triumph.
Then came his first bout with a labor
union. Critics had complained that Reagan
had no policy for controlling wage inflation.
They were wrong. His policy is the oldest of
all: union-busting.
The controllers were perfect for his pur
pose — a small union of highly paid govern-'
ment employees, performing a service that
was specially vital for Reagan’s business and
middle-class constituency. If 15,000 wel
fare workers had walked off their jobs,
Reagan might not have filled the Rose Gar
den with his righteous wrath. But with this
union and this strike, he was guaranteed
applause.
Citing the no-strike pledge in the con
trollers’ constract, Reagan moved in the
first hours of the strike to end negotiations,
decertify the union as a bargaining agen-
t,impound its treasury and jail its presi
dent. “He’s tough as nails on this,” an
anonymous aide said somewhat unneces
sarily. Within 48 hours, those who re
mained on the picket lines were being per
manently discharged from their jobs and
facing a presidential blackball on any future
government employment.
As in most of the previous instances of his
career, Reagan managed to make his
“break-the-so-and-sos” stance very popular
politically. His nice-guy character is so
deeply etched in the public consciousness
that nobody seems to notice his grip on the
adversary-of-the-moment’s windpipe.
In this sense, his response to the control
lers’ challenge is very much in character
with his earlier dealings with George
Christopher, Pat Brown, Dick Nixon, Jerry
Ford, George Bush and Tip O’Neill.
The message is getting around: Don’t
mess with this guy. Whatever gets in his
way, he tries to break.
Warped
Enthusiasm no excuse for rudenes
BY
Their faces were fresh and shining, their
eyes bright and wide. At first glance they
looked like your basic good of American
kids — wholesome, a little innocent, and
contagiously enthusiastic — all the qualities
we’ve been taught to strive for.
Yes, the freshmen at Texas A&M Uni
versity have been well drilled in Aggie tra
dition and enthusiasm. It was evident Mon
day at All-University Night.
Painfully evident, I hate to say.
As I sat amidst the crowd at G. Rollie
White Coliseum, I couldn’t help wondering
if maybe enthusiasm can be taken too far,
even if that enthusiasm is part of our be
loved Aggie tradition.
When an acting president of a major
university can’t get a word in edgewise be
cause of the constant onslaught of Aggie
whoops and hisses, I have my doubts about
the wisdom of integrating any dire need for
those whoops and hisses into the minds of
incoming freshmen.
Somehow I’ve always wanted to hold the
tradition of whoops and hisses as slightly
sacred.
After all, older Aggies told me when I
came to Texas A&M that Aggies never boo
or whistle. It isn’t polite, they said. Big
deal.
thing. Yell practices such as theom
the end of the program Monday^ 0 Ume
On My Own
time and a place for whoops.
games and concerts are places fori) vailat
Bad calls by referees are a time for
lis is
are Army Rock stories.
By Belinda McCoy
I’ll even go so far as
applause after the introduction of
known speaker or after an enl
speech is a time for whoops. Alta
are an Aggie tradition, and tht)
wanted to be an Aggie.
I personally don’t find it a bit more polite
to interrupt a speaker with constant whoops
than I do with occassional whistles.
And is it really necessary for an entire
coliseum full of Aggies to hiss during the
introduction of a speaker just because that
speaker attended some other university be
sides Texas A&M? How can it possibly be
considered “mature” for more than 8,000
college students to whoop three times and
hiss twice during one sentence by a
speaker?
I’m not against enthusiasm. I think it’s
great. I fell in love with Texas A&M be
cause of the enthusiasm Aggies have for
their school.
But there is a time and a place for every-
But I also think that if a person
out of his schedule to deliver at
speech to students at Texas A&!
serves the privilege of an attend,
who responds to his statement
genuine enthusiasm, not somej
reaction produced as the result oli
found freedom.
n
Oi
Speeches by dignitaries are neil
time nor the place to hold practiceis
for Aggie whrxrps and hisses—trail
no tradition — from either wholes indhij
nocent, enthusiastic freshmen ortl«P™f 01
er counterparts.
Being an Aggie doesn’t included*
to be rude.
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Saturn and the single girl
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The spectacular, yet
mystifying, photographs sent back from
Saturn by Voyager 2 raised many questions
about the planet’s moons and rings.
Since the scientists in charge do not
themselves know quite what to make of all
they have seen, it might be presumptuous
of me, a mere layman, to offer definitive
explanations.
Yet any project that cost as much as this
one surely should be examined from every
perspective.
Take, for example, the moon Hyperion,
which seemed to change shapes each time a
new photograph was taken. My cousin Jus-
tina was a lot like that.
In one snapshot, Justina would appear as
thin as a No. 2 pencil; in another, she
assumed blimp-like configurations. Even
today I cannot tell from looking through the
family album whether Justina was angular
or rotund.
Admittedly, Justina’s shape was not as
versatile as Hyperion’s, which was various
ly described as resembling a peanut, a
prune and an arrowhead.
From my angle, I would have said
Hyperior more closely resembled a baked
potato. But I am willing to concede the
resolution of my television set is not as reli
able as it might be. Some nights even Bar
bara Walters looks a bit potato-like.
Anyway, Hyperion’s mutability suggests
there may have been more wrong with
Voyager 2 than a stuck camera platform.
Weak flashbulbs is my guess.
Permit me to quote a passage from “Side
Effects, ” a book by the noted amateur astro
loger, Woody Allen:
“Lying on his back in bed, with his fat
stomach jutting into the air and his mouth
forming an inane smile, he appeared to be
some kind of inanimate object, like a large
football or two tickets to the opera. A mo
ment later, when he rolled over and the
moonlight seemed to strike him from a dif
ferent angle, he looked exactly like a 27-
piece starter set of silverware, complete
with salad bowl and soup tureen.”
This is precisely what I suspect happened
in the Hyperion photos.
Hyperion is, after all, a moon. Of
are its reflected light created i
sions in the Voyager 2 cameras,
account for the phantasmagoric slf
the pictures.
As for Justina, I recall that \
ment was troubled by insomnia,
he couldn’t sleep, he passed thetimij
ticing moonlight photography,
could account for the phantasi
shapes of Justina.
Now that Voyager II is on its
Uranus, I hope NASA technicians
some attention to juicing up its flasli
Uranus may not be as photoi^
Saturn but it does have nine rings
moons. Thus arises a danger offiirt
tuations brought about by eii
moonglow.
If, in some pictures, a Uranus
shaped like Justina, they can’t say
warn them.
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press AssociaHon
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Angelique Copeland
Managing Editor Marcy Boyce
City Editor Jane G. Brust
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StaffWriters . . . Frank L. Christlieb, Terry Duran,
Phyllis Henderson, Colette Hutchings,
Belinda McCoy, Denise Richter,
Rick Stolle
Cartoonist Scot McCullar
Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon
Photographers Brian Tate
Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel
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