Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48, 09
ECONOMICS:
Burns churns out more
'good news'
Wednesday, November 24, 1976
"Cws Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at tie UnP ersity of Michigan
Turkey Awards: *Rond 3
By STEPHEN KURSMAN
ON THURSDAY ARTHUR Burns
spoke in New York and said he
expected an economic resurgence. On
the, same day the Commerce Depart-
ment released figures indicating that
the rate of growth of the GNP dropped
for the third quarter in a row. It is
an old story by now. It seems there are
some in politics who have dedicated
themselves to the perpetual churning-
out of good news regardless of reality.
-Neville Chamberlain assured us of de-
mocracy, Herbert Hoover assured us of
Steve Kursmran is a Daily Editorial
writer.
prosperity and now Arthur Burns as-
sures us of economic resurgence.
Fortunately the analogy is not com-
plete for Arthur Burns is not a head
honcho and our head-honcho-to-be
shows signs of taking a more realis-
tic attitude about getting our economy
back on the track. But the similarities
are nonetheless troubling. One won-
ders just how many people would have
to be out of work before Arthur Burns
would decide that unemployment was
a bigger problem than inflation.
IT IS FRIGHTENING to know that
one of our powerful public officials is
telling the unemployed amongst us that
it is better to be without a job now
because inflation is being checked. The
fundamental oversight in this "sooth-
saying" is that it's difficult to worry
about inflation when lacking the money
to make purchases. Such thoughtless
policy, if sustained, usually leads to
breeding of an equally thoughtless
policy 'that bears the markings of the
opposite end of the political spectrum.
The latest Commerce Department fig-
ures are but the latest - edition to a
long string of unsettling economic news.
Substantial economic evidence points
to a recovery running out of steam.
The figures are not conclusive and it
is by no means certain that a new re-
cession is on the horizon. But it is ob-
vious that the f recovery is slowing
down and Mr. Burns continuing atten-
tion to inflation despite the' slowdown
tells us that at the very least he is
being very stubborn.
AT A PRESS conference following his
New York speech, Mr. Burns referred
to an upcoming meeting with Jimmy
Carter and said, "I hope there will be
a meeting of minds." Indeed. If there
is not a ,meeting of minds we will all
be in a bind. Arthur Burns is the chair-
man of the Federal Reserve Board and
the actions of the agency he heads
have a big effect on an economy of
which we are all a part.
IN THE SPIRIT of turkey, stuffing
and pumpkin pie, The Daily awards
Its Third Annual Thanksgiving Tur-
key awards:
President Gerald R. Ford wins The
Appointed Turkey that fell off his
Training Wheels for his effort during
the last couple of years.
The I am Not a Racist Turkey goes
to President-elect Jimmy Carter for
his success at convincing the Plains
Baptist Church to admit blacks to
church membership.
Earl Butz gets the Loose Shoes
Turkey for his racist, sexist "Joke"
after the Republican National Con-
vention in Kansas City.
GARY GILLMORE gets the Tur-
key Shoots Turkey award for asking
to be murdered, and then trying to
commit suicide.
The If You can't Peat 'Em, Join
'Em Turkey is graciously bestowed
on Zolton Ferency for selling-out and
rejoining the Democratic Party after
six years of vicious criticism in the
Human Rights Party ranks.
The Home for the Holidays Turkey
goes to Patty Hearst, who once
claimed she was an "urban guer-
rilla," and is now sitting in her par-
ents' comfortable suburban San Fran-
cisco mansion.
The Kilocycle Turkey goes to Bob
Ufer, the football announcer, for his
constant militaristic references to
the games and their outcomes.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley gets
the Kingmaker is Dead Turkey for
not being able to find enough votes .
to elect his hand-picked guberna-
torial candidate Michael Howlett.
If you haven't reqd the Paper, You
haven't read The News Turkey goes
to Rep. Marvin Esch for his slander-
ous campaign against his victorious
Senatorial opponent Donald Riegle.
THE BREAK ME, Break Me Tur-
key is awarded to the Graduate Em-
ployees Organization (GEO) for its
determination to get a decent con-
tact from the Administration.
The 10 per cent Closest to my
Heart Turkey goes to University
President Robben, Fleming and the
Regents for raising our tuition and
then being unable to grant our
teaching fellows an equitable pay
raise and other economic benefits.
The Deep Fried Turkey Turkey
goes to Norman Lear for getting rid'
of Jimmy Joe Jeeter by electrocut-
ing him in a bathtub..
And finally, The Rabid Turkey
Turkey goes to Dr. Strange Hayes
for retaliations against his players
Democrat
liberals
but
By KEITH RICHBUF
wA
and his wonderful performance
Saturday in Columbus.
last
HIS R LIGAOUS BELIEV% siON L0 CIZeNS ~
,
t
MAKE NO MISTAKE about it, their
is still a liberal wing of the Demo-
cratic party and it is very much alive,
albeit in disarray. The progressive fac-
tion is constituted by both New Deal
spill-overs - who made their mark in
the early civil rights platform battles,
a la Hubert Humphrey - and by the
new young idealogues, reformers of the
Vietnam and Watergate era.
The question now is who willpick up
the reigns of the liberal cause?
The Kennedys stood long unchallenged
as the leaders of the Democratic liberal
wing. In fact, if Robert Kennedy cannot
be accredited with inventing the. pro-
gressive faction, then he certainly holds
claim to giving it new life with his
break from President Lyndon Johnson
over the Vietnam War., Kennedy's open
protest against L.B.J.'s Vietnam policy
- then known as the "Kennedy-John-
son feud" - was the first real mobili-
zation of the liberal forces. Some die-
hards like to credit Minnesotan Eugene
McCarthy with initiating the 1968 lib-
eral revolt, dismissing Kennedy as a
Johnny-come-lately. The fact is that it
was Bobby Kennedy, not McCarthy, who
the liberal antiwar wing backed for the
Presidency as an alternative to L.B.J.
When Kennedy declined for not want-
ing to appear ambitious, the liberals
approached Senator George McGovern,
who was too busy with his re-election
campaign to make a protest run for the
7I r-N-wr~rrrrr~~ r
Presidency. McCarthy was only the third
alternative, and it was not McCarthy
who "opened the door" for Kennedy, but
Kennedy who boosted McCarthy by dis-
couraging a "Kennedy write-in" vote in
the New Hampshire primary.
AFTER THE KENNEDY assassina-
tion, and the Hubert Humphrey "spoil-
er" nomination, the progressive wing of
the Democratic party was left leader-
less, refusing to support Humphrey for
his close alliance with Johnson. Ted Ken-
nedy, the surviving brother of Camelot,
"inherited" the leadership of the "shaw-
ow government."
Ted Kennedy can still mobilize the
liberal block at a moments notice, but
after inauguration day, the new Demo-
cratic President could usurp Kennedy's
control. Jimmy Carter, who calls him-
self a "populist" at best, depends on his
Vice-Presidential choice Walter Mondale
to keep the liberal support. There could
be a split among the Democratic lib-
erals.
Jimmy Carter campaigned on a pledge
bordering on fiscal conservatism, alienat-
ing a lot of the liberals. (Thus was the
reason for McCarthy's protest cam-
paign.) A split among the liberals would
pit the followers of Carter's brand of
liberalism and the Walter Mondale loy-
alists against the die-hard Kennedy fac-
tion, reminiscent of the Robert Kennedy-
Johnson feud of the 1960's.
HOWEVER, A NEW face could emerge
out of the 1976 elections to take con-
I *. * 1
trol of the progressive faction. Senator-
elect Don Riegle who has vowed to be
a "fighter," could rely on his "roll-up-
the-shirt-sleeves" Bobby Kennedy image
to jockey into position to head the re-
formist wing. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
could also pick up the fallen liberal ban-
ner, and if Mo Udall opts for a Senate
seat, he could easily become spokesman
of the left-of-center.
But the most interesting to watch will
be the "Fritz" side of the "Grits and
Fritz" ticket, Walter Mondale. During
the vice-Presidential debates, Mondale
claimed that he would not hesitate to
disagree with his boss if the occasion
arose. The test will be if the inevitable
occasion arises. If Mondale splits with
Carter, the Vice-President could control
the liberal following above even the
glamorous Ted Kennedy. If Mondale
staunchly defends the President from
Plains, right or wrong, he could fall into
the Hubert Humphrey syndrome. "The
Humph" defended Johnson to the end,
thus alienating the liberals.. If Mondale'
defends Carter in the not-so-unlikely
event of a liberal revolt, "Fritz" will,
like H.H.H., lose his liberal following
and his chances of ever being at the
top of a ticket in 1984.
THEY SAY HISTORY. repeats itself,
and it is solely on the basis of his-
tory that this writer substantiates any
predictions. In this case, I predict that
a battered Republican party will return
in 1980 with a conservative-rightist can-
them?
didate (possibly Reagan or Texan John
Connally) something like the 1964 Barry
Goldwater run. In such an. event, the
conservative-Republican will take a beat-
ing a la 1964 and give President Carter
a landslide, reminiscent of L.B.J.'s and
Richard Nixon's. Landslide Presidents,
have a tendency to become imperial
Presidents, and I predict'an immensely
popular Carter will fall prey to the
precedent. In such a case, the Demo-
cratic party will be idealogically split
in the 1984 election primaries between
a Carter loyalist and a liberal Demo-
crat (possibly Kennedy, but don't bet
on it). The Democrats will be so split,
as they were in 1968, that they 'will de-
liver the White House into the hands
of a moderate; appealing Republican
(keep an eye on Howard Baker and
Illinois Governor-elect James "Big Jim"
Thompson). Not only would this align
with history, but it would follow the
established cycle started in 1952 of eight
years Republican, eight year Democrat-
ic, and eight years Republican with Jim-
my Carter coming up for the Democrats.
AT ANY RATE, Washington-watchers
will be glued to their chairs for the next
four years. Some say that after the elec-
tion, the game of "politics-watching"
comes to a close. Quite to the contrary
- I think that that's when the game
really begins.
Keith Richburg is a Daily cartoonist
and frequent Editorial Pale writer.
/
.
. i 'i
/
Distributed by os'nieges 'ZImes SYNDICATE
Thanksgiving food needs
nobler populace to feed
QINCE EVERYONE FROM Eric Sev-
areid to "Bitsy Booper," our
ten-year-old 'neighborhood CB buff,
has expropriated my original Turkey
editorial, I wanted to be innovative
again this year 'and do a column on
Punkins (good people) and Cranber-
ries (wry little slices of Americana).
But after Lillian Carter, Phil Hart,
Betty Ford, and Rebecca Shelley, and
the builders at Division and Liberty
who could have ripped up eight
shrubs but didn't, I ran out of Pun-
kin .
Besides, most of those awards were
earned by virtues of omission rather
than commission, and that in itself
was enough depressing commentary
for one week. The seminal Cranberry
went to John Dean, who (you may
remember) didn't have a friend to
use for a reference when he applied
for a library card. All the other in-
cidents I could find were much more
bitter than sweet: not suitable
Thanksgiving fare.
AT FIRST I FELT. vaguely guilty
that I couldn't think of more good
neonle and instructive events in nub-
public consumption is saddening, but
it is also infuriating.j
The American populace, no longer
mesmerized by Nixonian newspeak
jargon, can differentiate between
thrown mud, inherent slime, and can-
did speech. Recent election victories
demonstrate that clearly enough:
Carter and Riegle were unhurt by
revelations that, according to con-
ventional media "wisdom," should
have crippled them. Anyone who
thinks Betty Ford is immoral for her
briefs about dope and abortion is
probably a misogynist anyhow. Press
reports of Butz's latest racist crack
shocked people for a variety of rea-
sons (iot the least of which was the
titillating treatment it got), but the
worst of what he said was surely its
vicious±.es and not its diction.
So why do the wives of men in pub-
lie office (and their children and
dores and turtles and press agents-
not to mention man and women Do-
liticos. and the husbands of the
handful of prominent female politi-
cons) mmble along, talking along
a line that c-r 'n't really exist?
And why is it that everyone -
south africa
To The Daily:
TODAY THE EYES of the en-
tire world are focused on South
Africa. The heroism of the work-
ers and students battling
apartheid inspires all the ene-
mies of racist oppression, while
the Vorster regime with its vi-
cious police, attack dogs, ban-
stutans, pass laws and barbed
wire, can only be regarded with
hatred.
At the -recent SYL forum on
South Africa the brutal nature
of the Vorster regime and a re-
volutionary perspective for its
overthrow were discussed and
debated. However the Revolu-
tionary Student Brigade (RSB)
excluded the SYL from its No-
vember 11 forum entitled "U.S.
Out of South Africa."
It is impossible to ignore the
connection between this action
of the RSB and their tacit sup-
port to South Africa in the An-
golan war. In the confrontation
between the Cuban led/Sovet
backed MPLA and the South Af-
rican / CIA led FNLA-UNITA
armies, the RSB refused to
stand for the military victory of
the MPLA - preferring instead
Kissinger's "neutrality" policy!
The RSB's idols in the Peking
bureaucracy sent advisers to
Ithe South African led armies,
thus betraying the Angolan peo-
ple and the international prole-
tariat, and weakening the de-
fense of the gains made through
the Russian and Chinese revolu-
tions.
THE PRESENT ISOLATION
of the RSB is largely the result
of their lining up with the ra-
cists in actively opposing busing
for school desegrregation. In
Boston they have agitated
amdng the racists for a strike
against busing, while the Octo-
ber 1974 issue of Revolution
bore the banner headline: "Peo-
ple Must Unite to Smash Boston
Busing Plan"! They also prais-
ed the "tremendous fightback"
of the Louisville racists rioting
against busing.
Students, workers and facul-
ty members at the UM should
protest the RSB'seexclusionism.
The RSB disagrees with the
Letters
in its miserable politics. The
SYL welcomes such open and
public debate within the work-
ers movement, secure in the
knowledge that our revolution-
ary politics will prevail and
will lead the working class to
a successful proletarian revolu-
tion.
Spartacus Youth
League.
o'ordI usage
To The Daily:
OUR LEVEL OF awareness
and political copsciousness is re-
flected in our everyday use of
language. This point was well
illustrated by the blatant dis-
play of male supremacy in re-
cent Daily news items on the
Michigan-Ohio State footbdll
game. A photograph showing
fans with a sign reading "FUCK
the BUCKS" appeared on the
day of the game. This same
theme was continued on the
front page the following day
(Sun., Nov. 21) where another
fan was quoted as saying: "I
don't give a shit (referring to
to
a traffic jam after the game),
we just fucked Woody."
To argue against reading be-
tween the lines of these state-
ments, is to confuse first-rate
machismo for innocent expres-
sions of enthusiasm for the Wol-
verines. Much more is at stake
here than a Rose Bowl. The use
of the word "fuck" to express
one's contempt for an opposing
team is no innocent use of a
metaphor. This is true even
when people who use the word
in this way are themselves ig-
norant of the full message it
communicates.
WHY SHOULD THE word
"fuck" be used to express one
person's contempt, and the de-
sire to humiliate another per-
son? The reason can partially
be traced tothe taboo surround-
ing this "dirty waord" that once
made it a private adult-male
commodity, expurgated (by
men) from the mouths of babes
and women - a symbolic ex-
purgation of all sexual desire
the
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Jay Levin, Ken. Parsigian, Stu
McConnell, Bill Yaroch, Linda Will-
cox, Lisa Fisher, Bill Turque
Editorial Page: Rob Meachum, Tom
Stevens, Mike Beckman
Arts Page: Lois Josimovich
Photo Technician: Chris Schneider
Daily
from the minds and loins of the
non-initiated (Women who ran-
gress the taboo of sexualdesire
still risk being slandered as
nymphomaniacs).
More importantly, these ap-
parently innocent expressions
use the word "fuck" as a syno-
nym for "rape". The Buckeyes
could not simply be defeated.
They had to be humiliated, and
forced to accept our victory. To
be completely humiliated, they
had to publicly renounce their
masculinity, become "cunt",
and be force-fucked (raped) on
the field. A half-page ad in the
Saturday Daily, sponsored by
25 local merchants, went so far
as to advise in bold print:
"Crack Woody's Nuts!"E -
THE FOOTBALL RHETORIC
of "hail to the victors" and "the
conquering heroes" must be
seen from the macho perspec-
tive to be fully appreciated.
Let's make no mistake about
who is "number one". The U-M
football team' is everyman.
The lesson to be drawn from
this football talk is clear. To
be fucked still means to lose.
We are all living in Man's
Country. Unless cock privi-
lege is overthrown a lot of peo-
ple will continue to be "fucked
over" especially women, chil-
dren, and gays.
Lionel A. Biron
November 21
... JM'APRCN N(
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