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Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, October 9,1984
Opinion
America's future:
debatable or not?
In the debate Sunday night, President Ronald Reagan
asked: are Americans better off today than they were four years
ago:
This is a moot question.
Walter Mondale asked wi//Americans be better off in the fu
ture than they are today?
Not if you’re black, poor, old, disabled, foreign-born, an en
vironmentalist, an auto worker, a non-Christian, a farmer, a
small businessman, a woman, a marine.
But even Mondale’s question doesn’t directly address the is
sue that worries us most.
That is, does anyone care about America? How many people
cared enough to watch the debate through to its conclusion.
How many people will care enough to listen in on the other de
bates?
It seems that the only people on the Texas A&M campus
who are concerned with politics are those dressed in tweed and
blue blazers — the people training to be government tools. They
include almost none of the people who will feel the negative ef
fects of the current Reagan administration policies.
The future depends on all people becoming aware, register
ing to vote and voting. We’re glad to see the debate had some
effect; United Press International reported that over 400,000
people registered to vote in Texas on Monday after the debate.
It is important for all Americans to listen in on the debates.
So, Thursday night when you have a choice between watch
ing the debate or watching MTV, make the choice that will af
fect your future — not your next record purchase.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Real-life events distract
artificial campaigners
DAVID BRODER
WAHINGTON POST COL UMNIST
NEW YORK - The terror bombing of
the U.S. Embassy Annex in East Beirut
did not set off shock waves in domestic
politics, but it did serve as a reminder of
the impact of real-world events on what
has been so far a largely artificial cam-
paign.
The destruction of the Annex, the
wounding of the ambassador and the
death of two Americans brought back
memories of the far worse casualties this
nation had suffered last year as a result
of the unwise decision by President Rea
gan to make an open-ended commit
ment of Marines to the misnamed inter-
national “p eace_ keeping force” in
Lebanon.
It is a disservice to the nation and to
Reagan himself. He has earned a repu
tation as a politician of conviction, but
the cautious conunselors around him
act as if they did not trust either Reagan
or his ideas in the arena of political de
bate.
I think the President is foolish to ac
cept their advice, for he is denying him
self the opportunity to win anything he
could legitimately claim as a policy man
date from this election.
The reason he has been able to sus
tain his above-the-battle posture is that
he has built a deserved reputation as a
strong leader. And he is enjoying a
strong economy, whose reality is also
visible to the voters.
But even in Grand Rapids, where one
of two American casualties had lived,
the news of the bombing did not stir any
great political upheaval, as far as this
visiting reporter could see. It will take
something larger than that to shake
people’s inclination to give Reagan a
second term.
Were those realities not present, none
of the balloons, the bands or the ads
would be sustaining Reagan’s lead in the
polls. If there were a perception of
failed leadership, or serious and visible
problems, then the Democrats — what
ever their difficutlies — might be com
petitive in this election.
What that something might be is
speculative, of course, but it would have
to be something of large dimension and
consequence: a serious presidential ill
ness; a sharp warning of looming eco
nomic or international trouble; or a ma
jor blunder by Reagan himself.
Nothing Democratic challenger Wal
ter F. Mondale does is likely to shake
Reagan’s lead, and my impression is that
the standard political arguments are not
going to change things much, either.
The reason for saying that is that Rea
gan’s current strength seems rooted in
twin realities that are of massive political
weight - the force of his personality, and
the health of the national economy.
Those are realities, and it is foolish
for so many Democrats to be wringing
their hands about the way Reagan is ex
ploiting them - or the way Mondale is
failing to deflect their political conse
quences.
But does the likely Reagan victory —
and especially his strong support from
younger voters - herald a permanent
political realignment? Maybe, but I
doubt it. Not unless Reagan is proven
right and his critics wrong on the issues
they say are not being debated in this
campaign.
If the key to perpetual prosperity and
low inflation lies in cutting tax rates and
running up huge trade and budget defi
cits, as Reagan has done, then four
more years of Reaganism may produce
that “Republican majority” some have
seen emerging ever since 1968.
If ever-rising defense expenditures
and start-and-stop diplomacy in every
critical part of the world from Central
America to the Middle East to the Soviet
Union are the key to peace, as Reagan
seems to believe, then Republicans
should enjoy a long reign.
A good many liberal columnists and
commentators have argued that Reagan
is cynically exploiting a situation for
which he can claim no credit and, con
versely, that he has engineered a politi
cal revolution as large and lasting in its
consequences as the Franklin D. Roose
velt political realignment of 1932-36.
Both theories strike me as being the
products of hyperventilation. It is cer
tainly true that Reagan and his man
agers are doing their best to deny the
country the benefits of a genuine policy
debate in this campaign, by jamming
Mondale’s message, by holding the
press at bay, and by keeping the Presi
dent’s speeches at such a stratospheric
level of partiotic banality that even Rea-
.gan seems bored.
It is, as I said of a similar tactic by
Richard Nixon in 1972, “a parody of a
political campaign.”
If the baby-boom generation wants
the preachers and the courts dictating
their private sexual morality and pro
viding school prayers for their kids,
then Republicans are the wave of the fu
ture.
Personally, I don’t buy any of those
propositions, any more than I believe
Reagan is winning on his soft, fuzzy ads
or because his people stage more photo
genic rallies. He is winning on low infla
tion, a rise in real income for the record
number of employed, and on leadership
that is palpably stronger than that of his
recent predecessors.
mips
m, BWPNEY/
COME OFF III
GET OUm HERE!
Cruising Austin’s Sixth Street
AUSTIN — Sixth Street is oply an
hour and a half away from Aggieland by
car, but worlds apart by culture.
“It’s eleven o’clock in Austin,” a radio
from a blue Ford truck blares. “We’re en
joying another fun Saturday night at
KLBJ-FM.”
The Ford is cruising Sixth Street.
Three males are crowded into the cab, and
a girl in shorts sits on the wheel base of the
bed. She has a silver balloon flying beside
her.
Bonnie
Langford
Huey Lewis comes across the airwaves, but the light hold
ing back the truck has turned green and the sound disap
pears and the balloon sails past.
Not that they’re going anywhere. The truck dwellers are
studying the streets. People are jammed together on the side
walks; watching the truck, and other cars going by.
One sports car revs its engine, but the driver isn’t trying
to move out fast either. That isn’t the point on a Saturday
night on Sixth Street.
Further down the street another car tries to beat the am
ber light. The driver gets across half the street as the walk
light comes on. It’s the pedestrians’ cue. A mass of people
starts walking across. The car is trapped, as well as traffic
coming the other way. No one honks or even seems to care.
The car occupants are embarrassed, but it’s their First night
on Sixth Street. They don’t know the rules.
The streets are filled with T-sips, flyboys from Bergstrom
Airbase and Aggies. Yes, one brave soul even wore his ATM
shirt. Two young girls appear beside the Aggie. One girl
looks no more than 10, the other couldn’t be older than 8.
But they know Sixth better than the crowd.
Both girls run through the people. The youngeront
barefoot; both are wearing more make up thananyoneil
age should even own. They run past a prostitute arguinjn
her pimp. The pimp tries to ignore his employee,
keeps yelling.
The girls go past a scantily dressed brunette sellingrac
The brunette is wearing a short black dress. She’s ilirtinp;
a guy trying to buy a rose to impress his date. Hisdatew
gets mad.
The girls are lost in the crowd, just past the seller:
glow-in-the-dark flowers and ropes. These hawkers also*
young women in titillating clothes. They’re havingsomek
impressing a young flyboy. The boy with shortly)
hair and a look of small-town innonence watches shyly an
hawker drapes fluorescent string around his neck.
Across the street, in front of a bar, an old woniendressi
in a fancy cowgirl outfit complete with fringe, plays
morrica. She looks down on her luck, but some of the awl
gather by and start clapping along. Her eyes lookupaff
ciatively.
Another instrumentalist sits in front of an empty bui
— a young Hispanic with a guitar. He’s strumming the
turday Night Blues,” but no one claps with him.
Nearby, a guy who looks like he just stepped out of IT 1
turns to his date. “It’s a zoo here tonight,” he tells her.
She replies, “Yeah,” shaking her frizzy, wild hair
looks like she missed her last grooming appointment.“La
at those fools in the truck.”
The blue Ford has made it’s way back down the stiff
Blue Oyster Cult now blaring out. The girl and her
have been joined by four laughing males. It’s gonna bet
Austin night.
Bonnie Langford is a night news editor for The Battalion,
Student Body President:
work with administrators
During the last
three years, I have
repeatedly read
on these pages a
number of rather
vituperative asser
tions directed to
ward the adminis-
t r a t i o n of our ———————
university. To
their credit, the in-
divi duals who
make up this much-flagellated
Reader’s Forum
Reader’s Forum
Reader’s Forum
administration. The important thing to
remember is that when such issues sur
face, the reasons for them generally re
late to an old economic axiom; to wit,
while there are limited resources, peo
ple have unlimited desires.
group
have generally withheld any response,
although in most instances a reasonable
rejoinder could have been given.
And if this country is comfortable
with steady encroachments on environ
ment, civil rights and civil liberties pro
tections, and steady growth in economic
inequality, then Reagan and Reaganism
are the new New Deal.
Having had the opportunity to asso
ciate with the aforementioned on nu
merous occasions, both formal and in
formal, I have found them to be quite
concerned about student opinion and
the implications of various policies
thereon. Since this newspaper plays a
role in shaping students’ perspectives, a
reminder herein, amid all the clamor to
the contrary, that the administration of
TAMU is not actively researching meth
ods to inconvenience students is in or
der.
As a case in point, there are reasons
for the cancellation of check cashing in
the Fiscal Office. The fact is that the
staff of the above mentioned office was
overburdened with an increase in com
pulsory responsibilities, not the least of
which included the additional duties as
sociated with a 30 percent increase in
the volume of student financial aid ac
tivity. While this administration of Stu
dent Government remains committed to
the restoration of these priveleges in
some form and does therfore disagree
with the outright cancellation of this im
portant student service, it is our obliga
tion as responsible students to consider
the dilemma in which the administra
tion Finds itself.
Before inflammatory thoughts re
garding a lack of commitment to stu
dent interests on my part are put to pa
per, 1 assure the reader that I am not a
sycophantic turncoat who occupies a
second-floor office in the Coke Building
or resides in a house on Throckmorton
Street.
I recognize the irrepressibility inher
ent among youth and fervently hope it
is never squelched. That the administra
tors generally have student interests at
heart is an overlooked fact which should
occasionally be noted.
I add in conclusion that students are
encouraged to visit the Student Govern
ment office at 221 Pavilion or the office
of the Vice President of Student Serv
ices in the YMCA Building whenever a
legitimate concern arises.
Give him his due, dear liberals, but do
not sign any articles for surrender.
Indeed there are occasional issues on
which the majority of students have an
opinion which differs from that of the
David Alders
Student Body President
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
/n memoriam
Bill Robinson, 1962-1984,Editor
The Battalion Editorial Board
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Dorm Eriedman, Editorial 1'age Editor
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