First-Hand Vol

6

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of those who witnessed
the Depression and
Holocaust.

JAMES D. RESSER
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

ast week, the incoming House
freshmen stood in front of the Capi-
tol for their first class picture, and
it was a fresh-faced, eager-looking
group. Their youthful energy is com-
mendable, but another quality of the new
lineup in Washington should concern
the Jewish community: The arrival of
73 new House members and 15 newly
minted senators, along with the defeat
of former Sen. Bob Dole in the presi-
dential contest, complete a sweeping
changing of the guard in American gov-
ernment.
Almost gone from the political scene
are members of a generation whose lead-
ership was forged in the fires of World
War II and the trials of the Great De-
pression, who remember the Holocaust
and Israel's traumatic birth as real mem-
ories, not just facts gleaned from blood-
less history books.
Their successors — people of my gen-
eration, and Bill Clinton's — may be per-
fectly capable and competent, but they
lack a certain perspective created by
first-hand knowledge of the great his-

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torical events that shaped our world.
It would be foolish to say that the
World War II generation's formative ex-
periences turned them into political sa-
vants. Veterans of the war, after all, were
the ones who got us into the quagmire
of Vietnam; it was "Tail Gunner Joe" Mc-
Carthy whose distorted historical analy-
sis almost tore apart American
democracy.
Still, this group brought to the public
forum a baseline of experience and mem-
ory that incorporates, to varying degrees,
the seminal events of the century.
On the domestic front, even many con-
servative Republicans of that generation
understood the importance of govern-
ment social safety-net programs.
It's interesting that the cadres of the
New Conservatism in Washington, who
propose a dismantling of whole govern-
ment departments and sweeping cuts in
decades-old programs, are people too
young to remember that terrible time in
the 1930s when the bottom fell out from
under the lives of countless Americans.
The average age of the House fresh-

man class is 45; most of the newcomers
were born during the Truman or Eisen-
hower presidencies.
The neophyte legislators lack first-
hand knowledge of what it was like
when compassionate government pro-
grams didn't exist, or what happened to
people when the nation's network of
charitable services — which lawmakers
now expect to pick up the slack when
federal programs are slashed — failed
to keep up with the human tragedy of
the Depression.
Without that personal experience, it's
easy to see only the flaws of big govern-
ment: the excessive bureaucracy, the
sometimes-absurd rules and regulations,
the undeserving recipients and the out-
right ripoffs.
When your only frame of reference
is the unprecedented security available
to most Americans since the war, it's
easy to buy the argument Republicans
have been making since the dawn of
time: that the nation does best when
business is entirely unregulated.
Just tell that to someone who re-
members the bank emergency of the
1930s, and maybe lost his or her life sav-
ings in the collapse of unregulated, unin-
sured savings institutions.
This doesn't mean that all members
of this generation are New Deal liberals;
Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan
were World War II- generation politi-
cians who played a major role in resur-
recting American conservatism.
Still, even they didn't envision the
kind of wanton dismantling of govern-
ment promoted by today's conservative
firebrands. Mr. Dole may have tried to
wear the conservative mantle during the
late, unlamented presidential campaign,
but he, too, spent a career in the Senate
clinging to a status quo based roughly
on the legacy of Franklin Delano Roo-
sevelt.
The other aspect of the generational
shift involves our collective under-
standing of the world beyond our bor-
ders.
Mr. Dole's generation came of age
when the United States was a power
shrinking from its world responsibilities,
a retreat that contributed to the tragedy
that followed. Later, they saw this coun-
try scramble to meet the challenge of
Hitlerism and Japanese imperialism.
Today's young congressional fresh-
men grew up in a time when our foreign
involvements were sources of contro-
versy, when our leaders failed to gener-
ate a strong national consensus behind
their military actions.
The models are now Korea, Vietnam,
Lebanon and Somalia. Against that CO
backdrop, the idea of a great national 0)
0)
crusade against unequivocal evil is for-
eign to our experience. It's hardly sur- C•J
prising that there is a growing resistance CV
to any American leadership role in the CC
LU
world; isolationism always makes sense CO
in the absence of historical knowledge. LL,
That brings us to Israel.
Despite tentative moves toward peace CD
in the Middle East, an active American
presence in the region is an indispens-

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