21, 1977-The Michigan Daily I ow safe the political woods are today By STU McCONNELL My God," urges the white-haired ator from the Midwest, leaning in- tly over the table in the packed' ate Caucus Room. "It's not just the or of a man's skin or the social class > which he was born. You're missing whole point }of being human! If we ild only learn to live together in, ice and stop hating one another..." s he utters the word "together" he igs his fist on the conference table I even the fat Republican from Ohio firms because he knows this man ans business. 'he dynamic, intensely committed aker is the stock caricature of an ierican species which hasn't been n in the political woods for some fe - the fighting liberal. JP UNTIL ABOUT five years ago, rting liberals seemed to be all over place - Gene McCarthy, George Govern, Ted Kennedy, Birch Bayh, ilter Mondale, Morris Udall, even bert Humphrey. My parents, who uld be pleased to be called fighting erals, once spent an evening over ner trying to convince me that bert Humphrey was a pretty radical buy that idea even less than the pular myth that Jimmy Carter is ac- ily a liberal in sheep's clothing. But question then becomes: if these guys aren't the liberal agitators, who on earth is? What has happened is that the best liberal thinkers have been withdrawing from the field of action at a disturbing rate. Some, like Gene McCarthy, have simply become defeatists, people who enjoy moaning about the injustice of the political system and the difficulty of fighting it. Others, like Walter Mon- dale, have simply eased themselves in- to the existing system, and though they won't always say that Jimmy Carter is a good guy, they will consistently say that at least he isn't a bad guy. In between these alternatives lies a number of ways for the liberal to chick- en out of his political responsibility. A PRIME FLAW of recent Ameri- can liberal and radical thought, and one which can lead to Gene Mc-' Carthy-style pessimism, is that it is both action-oriented and intensely mor- alistic. Programs for social change are described in vast, idealistic terms - the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society. Poverty, to the liberal mind, is -not simply annoying; it is Wrong. So when Lyndon Johnson set out to fight it, he did not simply give the poor a few bucks, he declared a War on Poverty. Liberals have tended to look at issues as Crusades, as knight- against-dragon affairs. Unfortunately, victories over things like unfair tax structures and class distinctions tend to be slow and partial, and may leave the crusaders with a feeling that the wounded but still living dragon, even as it lies bleeding, has somehow still gotten got the best of them. This leads to defeatism and often to nostalgia for the good old days when it looked like total victory for the righteous. At least the Good Fight was good. As the journalist I.F. Stone pointed SOMETHING SIMILAR has happen- ed to liberal reformers in the wake of the '60s. Carter, they are saying, is really a pretty liberal President. All right, so he says human rights come second to political stability, and that the lot of the poor is sometimes "tough luck." But a candidate any further left wasn't electable in 1976. This is to say that reform is less im- portant than winning an election, a ':::i:: :"::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::: : : .::: ::::: ":::::*:::.:::::::is iiii "ii:iiii::ii3i::'::::::: :: :'::::5:::::: ::::::::::: 'Left-leaning liberals shake their heads over Carter's policies and do nothing. Right-leaning liberals nod their heads and., do nothing. And on this basis, one is classified as "left" or "right."' .::.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-::::-::.::*:C. ..::::..:.:~~~iiii~~~~iiii~~: THE PROBLEM with this smug line of thought is that nothing is in- evitable. There are probably a few Rea- ganite yahoos who believe that the an- nexation of Latin America is inevit- able. Then there are the cost/benefi lib- erals, a group of rationalists for in- action who disturb traditional liberal minds greatly because the two groups have graduated from the same tradi- tion of thought. Political liberalism has always meant a commitment to freedom, to rights of the individual over the mass, to equal opportunity for the poor, decision by free election and the basic goodness of man. Economic liberalism, which in the 19th Century was yoked with political liberalism, was the doc- trine of the free marketplace, of laissez faire. Economic liberalism is now some- thing altogether different, but the residue of the old free market school still weighs on the liberal's mind. A capitalist system is still fundamentally good, he believes, if only everyone had equal chance to share it. The free mar- ket breeds equality of opportunity, or so I was taught in grade school. But accepting the righteousness of capitalism also means accepting profit as a proper method of evaluating any given enterprise. And on anybody's scale, the social change programs of the '60s did not show much of a profit. Even with massive infusions of money, we barely made a one per cent dent in the unemployment rate. And endless sociological studies showedthat despite job training programs, young men ten- ded to wind up at about the same in- come level as their fathers. THIS IS THE KEYHOLE through which the cost/benefit liberal sneaks in. Social justice is a wonderful idea, he says, but the benefits simply aren't worth the investment. The feel- ing that they aren't getting their mon- ey's worth leads many thinkers to sub- scribe to the theories of such thinkers as Governor Jerry Brown of California, who seems to believe that if govern- ment simply tries to do less, the prob- lems may right themselves, and even if they don't we haven't blown a lot of money. In a nutshell, do nothing. The problem with the liberal rationales is that they are excuses for shedding teeth and staying out of a tough fight. Left-leaning liberals shake their heads over Jimmy Carter's poli- cies and do nothing. Right-leaning lib- erals nod their heads and do nothing. And on this basis, one is classified as "left of center" or "right of center." Since the liberal intellectuals who were the heart of the '60s action move- ments have withdrawn from the field, one might expect President Carter to pick up some of the slack. But he seems content merely to manage the govern- ment and offend no one. Nothing is less dangerous than an animal without teeth. out in his recent speech on campus, there are historical precedents for the disappointed reformers of the 1970s in the post-French Revolution intellec- tuals of the early 19th Century. Many were horrified by the excesses of the revolutionary government of 1792, or disappointed by what they saw as abor- ted reform. When the status quo, in the form of Napoleon, returned, many be- came willing members of the Imperial government. Many others simply slip- ped into obscurity, their energies spent on what now seemed a fruitless revolu- tion. dodging of the call to action which would make the white-haired senator shudder. Liberals of the Carter-is-OK school enjoy being in power almost as much as the martyred McGovernites of 1972 like being out of power. Another easy retreat, for those who don't mind being labeled Marxists, is, of course, liberal Marxism. Class divi- sions will be ironed out eventually, this argument goes, because such change is historically inevitable. So let's just sit back and watch it. History is with us. God is with us. The Force is with us. No need to lead riots in the streets. --Rol 1 irYtguut t ail Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vil, No. 12d d t UyNews Phon Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan ne: 764-0552 'Hi there! Can I help you?' Vol. LXXX Vherefore art thou, Jody? ONIoN RIA)&$ qo FRE Nc 30 O OON RI f~lrS qo10 ,b OA~tON RIV&GS B~EN- W HERE ARE THEY NOW-Eliza- beth Ray, the B-1, Checkers, Jody Powell? Remember him? The White House press secretary who leaked a completely unfounded rumor to the press last week in an attempt to dis- credit Sen. Charles Percy (R-Ill.). The press gave Powell front-page coverage when he apologized for his abortive attempt at character assas- sination, saying it was "regrettable and dumb." But that was the extent of the press's concern over the matter. So while newspapers continue to attack Bert Lance for possible offenses com- mitted before he was in office, they ignore Powell's confessed impropriety, committed while in office. In this mass media age, when the press can make a person (eg. John Kennedy) or break a person (eg. Bert Lance) by simply giving one story ex- tensive play and burying another, the press must determine news play with the greatest possible equity. What Powell did was a gross abuse of his power as press secretary, and it shouldn't have been dropped just be- cause he admitted it was dumb. Nixon admitted he made some mistakes, but the press was properly unimpressed. Confessing after one is caught hardly absolves one of blame. The problem of corruption in govern- ment can only be solved if people are aware of it, and they can only be made aware of it by the media. The press has shirked that responsibility with Jody Powell. 1 r m a THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL DIST.FEUD NEWSPAPERSYNDICATE, 1977 .. :-J ,'V 9. By JIM TOBIN The traffic light flashed from green to red, reflecting in dark puddles at the empty corner of State and William. At William and Thompson, the clock on the bank flashed from 1:06 to 1:07. CRUDDY NIGHT, muggy, mis- ty, and dark. Down the block, at the corner of Maynard and Lib- erty, an orange flow lit the night. In all of dark, sleeping An.n Ar- bor, only Burger King was awake. Which was why, in my hunger, I had called up a moment before to see if they were still open. Try- ing to psych myself up for a dou- ble-meat Whopper with cheese, I listened to the phone ring seven times. Not open, damn, I thought. Then, like a bugle, a voice cried, "Burger King, may I help you?" Stunned, I hesitated and said, "Uh, uh, what time are you open 'til?" Wondering if America loves Burger King "UNTIL 1:30, SIR, and I'm tendants is needed. The crushing pretty busy so will that be about lines of lunchtime are absent, and it?" a few mangy types in the corners Now, what an asinine thing to are all that are left to keep the at-. say. First of all, at 1:00 on a Mon- tendant and his half-seen col- day morning, when it's hot and leagues in the kitchen company. rainy and I'm up too late, I am There is something so not a sir. Second, in the time it ORANGE about Burger Kings. took him to say ". . . and I'm Smothering the ski-lodge-rustic pretty busy so will that be about paneling which slants from floor it?" I could have said "Thanks" to ceiling, the color seems to and hung up. Obviously, this guy touch and stain the food itself. liked being officious better than And orangest of all that night was doing his important business. my friend. His cap and uniform So when I stumbled down the were orange, I think, but whether brick stairs and through the door, they were actually the color or and saw a young man in one of not, he was so much a part of the, those caps behind the counter, place as to make them so any- rushing to catch a Whaler as it way. slid down the chute, I thought, TALLER THAN MOST, with a. "Here is the fool himself." thin moustache and a slight bulge FROWNING, I approached., around the belt, he danced from Late at night, only one of these at- -the counter to the food chutes, hustling and happy. The slogan danced before my eyes with him: "America Loves Burgers, and We're America's Burger King." At 1:15 on a Monday morning, this person was bending close to the kitchen window, straining to grab micro-wave-cooked food be- fore it hit the edge of the coun- ter. I stared, then ordered, then continued to stare. Fast as light- ning, he parked my double-meat Whopper with cheese in my hand, the bag steaming. Then it hit me. For this guy, and his type is not rare, Burger King is the greatest. What could be better than this space-age place where the food is instant and the bag still warm when you get it and everything is soft- edged and orange? Burger King, the New Royalty. Jim Tobin is co-editor-in- chief of The Daily and directs the editorial page. He wrote this comment on the strength of two Yumbos. TW E MVERSITY MAY NOT HAKE ENOUGH F(SS70 PROVIDE ADEQU9TE HODUS AG, UT I C GUARANTEE WE WIL KEEP ACCEPT/MG NEW STJDEN1S wJlI. WE LXV i II I VI',"T I fr 0 --) 0 g i, I 'Congratulations, Bert! I knew you'd fit in!' OTbJ iRihwgn 19 ttUl -%J L 1 ILL? 4 A-N- zx\* EDITORIAL STAFF ANN MARIE LIPINSKISJIM TOBIN Editors-in-Chief STAFF WRITERS: Susan Barry, Rick Berke, Brian Blanchard, Michael Beckman, Lori Carruthers, Ken Chotiner, Eileen Daley,. Ron DeKett, Lisa Fisher, Denise Fox, David Goodman, Michael Jones, Lani Jordan, Janet Klein, Garth Kriewall, Gregg