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Page 4-Tuesday, March 11, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Could Anderson go the way of McCarthy?
He is a handsome, eloquent, witty speaker
quite popular in his native state. after years of
distinguished service in Congress. He is the
only presidential candidate of his party to
openly oppose the growing military mentality
engulfing the country. Droves of college
students have rallied around his banner,'
working alongside long-term liber'als and an
army of independents who hope to transcend
traditional party politics.
The press is slow to recognize the strength of
the growing coalition and is surprised by the
candidate's strong showings in early
primaries. After storming New England and
thereby grabbing the media's and the nation's
attention, the candidate heads for crucial
primaries in Illinois and Wisconsin, The pun-
dits say he must do well to qualify as a genuine
contender.
THE CANDIDATE'S rise is threatened after
the strong early showings both by financial
woes and by the emergence of a nationally-
known figure as a presidential possibility. The
new candidate, formerly unannounced,
threatens to enter the race soon, like a
scavenger come down from the hills after the
battle to shoot the wounded.
If the scenario described sounds familiar, it
could be because Rep. John Anderson of Illinois
hasl fit the pattern quite closely. But the events
transpired before, in another presidential
campaign. The candidate was Eugene McCar-
thy; toye year, 1968.
McCarthy, for those who have forgotten, was
the liberal, anti-war contender for the
presidency who stunned the nation. twelve
years ago this month by garnering 44.2 per cent
of the vote in New Hampshire's Democratic
primary, only 410 votes fewer than were cast
for incumbent president Lyndon Johnson.
Pollsters had predicted that McCarthy would
receive less than five per cent of the vote in that
election.
ANDERSON HAS gained similar notoriety
this year and has given a scare to Republican
front-runners Ronald Reagan and George Bush
with razor-close second place finishes in the
Massachusetts and Vermont primaries. In the
Massachusetts race Anderson laid claim to 31
per cent of the vote vs. Bush's 31 per cent and
Reagan's 29 per cent. In Vermont the vote was
30 per cent for Anderson, 31 per cent for
Reagan and 23 per cent for Bush.
Beyond the unexpected victories in key
By Tom Mirga
primary states, the similarities between the
campaigns of the Illinois Republican and the
Minnesota Democrat are striking. After Mc-
Carthy's narrow loss to Johnson, Sen. Robert
Kennedy of New York decided the time was
right to launch his own campaign for the
presidency. Kennedy pledged to work side-by-
side with McCarthy in the fight to de-escalate
the war in Vietnam, an offer the Minnesotan
flatly refused. McCarthy was well aware that
any such coalition would be destined to fail in
an inevitable showdown for the votes of the an-
ti-war and liberal factions of the party.
Anderson finds himself in similar straights
now that former president Gerald Ford has all
but announced his intention to , enter the
presidential sweepstakes. Just as Kennedy's
entry into the 1968 campaign split the Democ-
ratic liberal faction into two bitterly opposed
camps, a belated declaration of candidacy by
Ford would further split the anti-Reagan
Republican vote this year, which is already
divided between Anderson and former CIA
director George Bush.
ANDERSON, WHO has worked hard to
groom an image distinct from the staunch con-
servatism of his rivals, is heavily dependent on
non-Republican support. Sixty-one per cent of
the votes cast for him in Massachusetts came
from independents, and thus he is expected to,
do well in the Illinois, Wiscdnsin, and Michigan
primaries where crossover voting by both in-
dependents and Democrats is allowed.
Come July, Anderson may find himself in a
position similar to the one McCarthy was in af-
ter the 1968 Democratic convention. McCarthy
withheld support for the nominee, Vice-
President Hubert Humphrey, and was called
upon by a .coalition of disenchanted blacks,
youth, and middle-income suburban whites to
lead a fourth parth challenge for the presiden-
cy. He refused the torch, but still held firm in
his denouncement of Humphrey and promised
to support any candidates who shared his anti-
war views, though none materialized.
McCarthy's campaign was dubbed "the
children's crusade" by the press because the,
backbone of his supportwas a cadre of hard-
working, idealistic, college-aged activists who
worked outside traditional party lines and for-
med effective- grass-roots organizations. After
losing in 1968, this same group threw its loti
with George McGovern in 1972, and lost again.
The standard-bearers of the McCarth
crusade, cynical after two consecutive defea
either refusea to vote in 1976 or grudgingly
cast their primary ballot for Jimmy C'arter,
Morris Udall and Gerald Ford.
ANDERSON, WHO opposes draft
registration, favors the decriminalization of
marijuana, and supports the Equal Rights
Amendment and abortion on demand, has also
drawn the support of college-aged students by
the thousands. But the support of college
students, as McCarthy learned, cannot ensurO
a presidential nomination. A true presidential
contender must have the support of the
establishment to win an election.
Today, many of the student-radicals of the
late 1960s have turned in their love beads and
denims for Cartier wristwatches and three-
piece business suits. They are the establish-
ment. And more important, they seem ready to
spurn the Democratic party and its candidates
for a liberal Republican like Anderson, whose
policy positions sound amazingly like those of
McCarthy twelve years ago.
Whether this group throws its support behindw
Anderson in the upcoming primaries remains
to be seen. But the undeniable fact is if they do
not, the Anderson campaign could very well be
destined for the same end as McCarthy's, his
comrade in spirit, if not party.
Tom Mirga is the Daily's
editor.
University
John Anderson
Eugene McCarthy
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Ni t ele Eian alu
Nintet , Years o f Editorial Freedom
ECB 'formulaic'
study plan assailed
Vol. XC, No. 125
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of-Michigan
Was. the flip-flop intended?
M OST EVERY Democratic The Administration was still not
soothsayer in the country has satisfied that its incompetence had
ceded the party's nomination to the been sufficiently displayed. The White
incumbent president, but that hasn't House exacerbated the situation by
kept Carter administration officials disavowing its support of the U.N.
from behaving as if they expect to be resolution some 24 hours after the vote.
voted out of office. The principal arena The idea in so doing was evidently to
of fumbling on the part of the placate the American Jewish lobby as
president's "family" to'date has been well as the Israelis.
that of foreign affairs: It is comforting Some speculation has sur faced that
to see that the latest misstep keeps up President Carter actually intended
with that time-honored tradition. both the vote and subsequent
In the latest debacle, U.S. disavowal right from the start.
ambassador to the U.N. Donald According to the claim, Carter thought
McHenry cast a vote in favor of a he could please both sides in the
Security Council resolution conflict by offering concessions to each
condemning Israel for its settlement of (one on each day of the controversy).
the West Bank. The resolution also If this is indeed what the president
mentioned Jerusalem in several.- intended, his thinking is even more
contexts, suggesting that Israel's poorly organized than his State
domination of that city was to be Department.
construed as a hindrance to peace. Israel is understandably 'reacting to
The bungling was initiated when the the U.S. complicity in the U.N. vote as
State Department told McHenry to see if it were a threat to her very survival.
to it that the several references to Israel's leaders have thus begun to fall
Jerusalem were excised from the into a hard-line stance on the
text's resolution. According to news settlements, which could make a final
sources, McHenry got one mention of solving of the West Bank problem even
the city removed, but left many others more vexingthan it already is.
in place. The usual course of action for When candidate Carter was pleading
the U.S. on the document as it then with the voters to "trust me" four
stood would have been to abstain, since years ago, few anticipated that his
only part of the text was acceptable. behavior would turn out to be so very
McHenry went ahead and cast his vote untrustworthy. It's just surprising that
in favor of the resolution, making the Carter has let such a conspicuous
vote unanimous and the Zionists instance of mismanagement show this
furious. close to Election Day.
I
To the Daily:
Your article "Gettin' rid of the
midterm blues" (Daily, Feb. 22),
which describes the English
Composition Board's clinic on
how to study for and complete
essay exams, raises doubts
about the survival of meaningful
education at an institution that
increasingly rewards form over
substance.
The ECB's approach to the
problem, at least as it was
described by the Daily, is
dishearteningly formulaic: study
with friends, "split up the cram
time, divide the readings and
pick out the key words" (that is,
to be expeditious, don't bother to
cover all the material, focus not
on the ideas but the terms that
seem significant and will, one
hopes, make an impression on the
instructor); fill your exam with
structural vocabulary such as
"moreover, nevertheless, in con-
clusion," which provide the in-
structor with the "reassurance
that you answered the
questions."
The ECB's advice is entirely
instrumental-that is, it ignores
(and thereby implicitly
disparages) intellectual process
(grappling with concepts, com-
peting perspectives or methods)
and recommends instead
technical devices that one can
manipulate for effect. This
strategy is the intellectual
equivalent of Dress for Success.
The message: Be more concer-
ned with the package than its
contents.
One can only marvel at the
poverty of an educational
program that splits the task of
writing from that of thinking and
thereby devalues both: writing
becomes a purposeless act, or at
best an attempt to tailor a
product to meet certain
specifications; thought
degenerates to mere calculation,
i.e., the organization of produc-
tinat lowest cost. rY
The ECB's approach will seem
peculiar to those who assume the
University seeks to encourage
critical thinking and develop-
ment of free, self-determining
adults. The ECB and the Univer-
sity may, however, have pur-
poses quite different than those
they proclaim. The sobering fact
is that in a University where
teaching is undervalued and
faculty advancement depends
primarily on research, the ECB's
instrumental advice is very likely
to help students "get through
their midterm blues." The
elaborate con is complete: both
students and faculty persuade
each other that real learning is
going on and that the liberal,
hurmanistic tradition of the
University is being upheld.
The consequences are chilling.
Through the substitution of
image management "skills" for
critical and analytic faculties,
students are given a false sense
of self-determination. We know
that people are managed most ef-
ficiently when they believe them-
selves not to be managed at all,
like white-collar workers who'
"internalize -,the norms" 'of the,
enterprise and as a result do not
require constant supervision.
People are most easily managed
when they lack the tools to
critically examine their circum-
stances.
Perhaps, then, the Universi*
seeks not to cultivate critical
abilities but merely to make
students tractable in their
present and future social roles. In
this context, the ECB's in-
strumental advice is not:peculiar
at all, but in complete accord
with an examination and grading
system which aims at behavioral
training. The' ECB's forthright
counsel may in fact reveal th
hidden curriculum of the Univer
sity: Learn to do your job without
complaint, even if that job means
nothing to you-even if, subtly or
unsubtly, it destroys body and
soul.
-Sandy Silberstein,,
Lecturer, Women's Studies
Feb.26
Too much Prn.sterman
To the Daily:
The Michigan Daily frequently
carries "rightside" columns
about Israel and the PLO written
by one H. Scott Prosterman, a
Pro-abortion stance 'bigoted baloney'
To the Daily:
Your editorial "Abortions for
the Poor" (Daily, Feb. 24) shows
the same bias, bigotry, and
baloney we have encountered so
often on this issue in the Daily.
One wouldn't expect you to
change your bias, but hopefully,
we will someday be spared the
bigotry and baloney.
Neither the court nor public
opinion determine the humanity
of a fetus; biology does. If a new
life is conceived by human
beings, it is a human being. The
destruction of this life is called
abortion; unless a human life is
destroyed, there is no abortion.
While "the Catholic Church and
its fellow travelers" (of all
religious persuasions and of none
at all) oppose abortion, as they do
all forms of direct killing, this
opposition is based on a moral
law that is accepted by civilized
societies for the good of the
, society. Setting the most
helpless, innocent segment of
humanity outside the protection
of this law hardly seems worthy
of a civilized people.
"Pro-lifers" are not concerned
only with ". . . the fetus, at most
three months old." Twenty per
cent (260,000) of abortions are
performed on fetuses from six to
nine months old; abortion is legal
until the time of birth.
Recent statistics reported in
your paper from the Center for
Disease Control cited twelve
abortion deaths, eight of which
could not be connected with the
cut-off of Medicaid funds. Your
inference of many lives lost 'in
back alleys is not substantiated.
Not even the most staunch pro-
lifer objects, to a woman con-
trolling her own body; abortion is
the destruction of a life other
than the woman's. Could the fact
that the bodies destroyed by
abortion are tiny, hidden from
view and voiceless-totally
unable to defend themselves-be
the reason that the deaths of
1,320,000 of these littleones last
year were accepted and even ap-
plauded by some segments of our
population? What a brave, heroic
stance to take!
It is a sad commentary on
today's mores that insisting on a
baby's right to be born alive can
be called "zealotry." Please note
that the first right set forth in the
Declaration you quote is the right
to life.
-P.M. Rose
Feb. 26
graduate student in the Cente
for Near Eastern Studies.
Editorial balance on this subject
has suffered in the process.
The virulence of 'his language
and the style of his argument do
not reflect well on the University.
Mr. Prosterman Is devious. He
tells us that things are so because
(for bxample) "In his conver-
sations with Yassir Arafat
Jameson learned. . ." But fro4
some sources the amount of
genuine learning is distinctly
limited. Fear not (we are told),
the agreement in question (the
promise of the PLO not to launch
any attacks on Israel from
Lebanon) has been well verified.
Ahi, but the problem is not the
giving of one's word; it is the
keeping of it.
Mr. Prostermag is nasty.
''Brutally victimized,'g
"ravaged, " "indiscriminate,'
"relentless bombing"-these are
only some of the elements of his
polemical vocabulary. He con-
cludes with a general proposition
that no one would deny: "No race
of people can assert its
supremacy over another and op-
press it as a manifestation of its
own ideals" using it to call the
Jews racists without sayint*
openly what he intends. Not a
handsome mode of discourse, to
say the least.
Mr. Prosterman reasons badly.
He claims that his Jewish
background qualifies him to pass
judgment in these matters. In
fact his being Jewish qualifies
him to make no pronouncements
at all, least of all about Israeli
Jews whom he hates, it appears,
as one can only hate oneself.
Mr. Prosterman is bitterly,
venomously anti-Israel. Such a
voice has a right to be heard, and
the Daily is right to publish his
views. May I respectfully
suggest, however, that once or
twice is enough? Continually
repeated dosages of editorials in
this style, always with the same
target, give one ground to con-
clide that whichever side of the
Stop crematorium planned near Arb
To the Daily :
Forest Hill Cemetery and the
neighboring Arboretum have
been the most used and the
largest public area in the city for
walking, bird watching, running,
picnicking, contemplating
nature, contemplating old tom-
bstones, baby-carriage pushing,
photography, sledding, cross-
country skiing, dog walking, get-
ting married, frisbee throwing,
music playing, and medieval
festival performing for many
generations of students and
townspeople.
We do not know whether your
readership is aware of a proposed
amendment to city law which
m171 nmrmit nnetrueti1n and
crematorium floating over the
Arb, the old graveyard, an
elementary school, the homes of
neighbors, and the student dor-
mitories and apartments nearby
is repellent to us. Even if the
crematorium were to meet EPA
pollution standards, a
crematorium stirs up dreadful
associations and images from the
not distant past. These emotional
reactions are serious. We believe
that any possible benefits of this
location for a crematorium are
trivial by comparison with its
negative aspects. The ap-
propriate place for a
crematorium is an industrially
zoned area of minimal human
use. Local undertaking
establishments now make
arrangements for cremation in
such areas.
We hope that people in both the
University community and the
town will do what they can to
prevent the proposed amendment
from becoming law.
-George H. Forsyth, Jr.
Kirby T. Hall
Patricia and Beverley Pooley
Johanne E. Smith
Nesta and Walter Spink
LaDonna and Wendell Weber
March 9
Anowailopp"I", V ! L A 0 r/I I M 0 0 WA WROM 0 0 L 6 1 G. I