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Mondale's Right Turn A Journal of Free Voices June 13, 1986 MONDALE'S RIGHT TURN BY THOMAS FERGUSON AND JOEL ROGERS Business Buys a Candidate and Sells Out an Election • EDITORIAL Radically Defective N THIS ISSUE, we are pleased to be able to bring you it-rx0BSERvER an excerpt from the forthcoming book by Thomas Ferguson of UT-Austin and Joel Rogers, Right Turn: The The Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 1986 I Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics. Vol. 78, No. 12 June 13, 1986 The excerpt concentrates on the politics ofthe Mondale camp and the failure of those politics. It is adapted from a wide- Copyright 1986 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. ranging chapter of the book, covering the 1984 Presidential Material may not be reproduced without permission. campaign. PUBLISHER Ronnie Dugger EDITOR Geoffrey Rips Many of you may have read an adaptation of the first chapter ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Denison of Right Turn, which appeared in the May 1986 Atlantic. CALENDAR EDITOR Chula Sims In that work, the authors state: LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Valerie Fowler The very structure of American politics has changed, with the EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Kathleen Fitzgerald center of gravity of the American party system — including both WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Vera Titunik Democrats and Republicans — shifting to the right. Because the POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE: Dany Loy stakes are so high, it is important to consider closely the basic EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerr- assumptions of political debate now shared by the two major ville; Chandler Davidson. Houston; Bob Eckhardt. Washington. D.C.; Sissy parties. Above all, it is vital to know if the central claim made Farenthold, Houston: Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam- by revisionist Democrats and Republicans alike — that a majority bridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham. N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, of the public has reached a stable, well-informed consensus on Ill.; Molly Ivins, Dallas; Larry L. King. Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick. the desirability of right, or center-right, policies — is true. Jr., San Antonio: Willie Morris. Oxford. Miss.: Kaye Northcott. Austin; James Presley. Texarkana, Tx.: Susan Reid. Austin; A. R. (Babe) Schwartz. Galveston; We do not believe that it is. While there is overwhelming Fred Schmidt. Tehachapi, Cal., Robert Sherrill. Tallahassee. Fla. evidence of a policy realignment, there is little direct evidence CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Warren Burnett. Jo Clifton. Craig Clifford, Louis that mass public sentiment has turned against the domestic Dubose, John Henry Faulk, Ed Garcia. Bill Helmer. James Harrington, Jack Hop- programs of the New Deal, or even the most important components per, Amy Johnson, Michael King. Dana Loy, Rick Piltz. Susan Raleigh. John of the Great Society, and little evidence of a stable shift to the Schwartz, Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh. right in public attitudes on military and foreign policy. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Alan Pogue. Russell Lee. Scott Van Osdol, Alicia Daniel. Ferguson and Rogers go on to state that the drop-off in CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Mark Antonuccio, Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger. Democratic preference did not signal a change in public support Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein. Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson. Kevin Kreneck, Carlos for New Deal social programs. "What changed," they write, Lowry, Miles Mathis. Joe McDermott, Ben Sargent, Dan Thihodeau. "was voter perception of the Democrats as macroeconomic A journal of free voices managers." The failure, they say, is not democratic, or New We trill serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find Deal Democratic, values but the revisionism of lowered it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human expectations offered by Mondale in 1984. and the Democratic values above all interests, to the rights of humankind us the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never Leadership Conference today. will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the power- To no one's surprise, that old expectation-lowering lunch ful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. companion of Nancy Reagan's, George Will, then threw Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply himself into the fray, attacking the Ferguson/Rogers Atlantic that we agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. piece in his syndicated column of June 2 (appearing in the Dallas Times-Herald, among other places). This churn of the Managing Publisher Cliff Olofson power elite and, according to James Fallows in the New York Subscription Manager Stefan Wanstrom Review of Books, $1 million per year wage earner, declares: Publishing Consultant Frances Barton "If the authors are right, the political system is radically Development Consultant Hanno T. Beck defective. It is producing radically unrepresentative govern- Editorial and Business Office ment." 600 West 28th Street, #105, Austin, Texas 78705 (512) 477-0746 Hallelujah! That is the point of Right Turn and that is the The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040-4519) is published biweekly except for a three-week inter- point the Observer has been trying to make all these years. val between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing As Molly Ivins said at a recent meeting of the Texas Lyceum Co., 600 West 28th Street. #I05. Austin, Texas 78705, (512) 477-0746. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. (see below), it is an insult to the people of this state to regard Subscription rates, including 5 118% sales tax: one year S23, two years S42, three years the Texas legislature as a representative body. $59. One year rate for full-time students. S15. Back issues $2 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl.. 300 When poll after poll show American citizens overwhelm- N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. ingly favoring the elimination of nuclear arms and opposing Copyright 1986 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. U.S. policy in El Salvador, there must be something "radically POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to: 600 West 28th Street, #105. Austin. Texas 78705. defective" with our system. As long as media moguls control coverage, PAC contributions control races, big donors shape 2 JUNE 13, 1986 issues, and well-behaved columnists shape perceptions, there inflationary 1970s, the Texas economy prospered because it is something radically defective with our system. G.R. is resource based. The prices of Texas commodities rose faster than the price of services and manufactured goods. This resulted in a transfer of income and wealth from industrial areas to commodity areas, Weinstein said. In the 1980s, the opposite occurred, when commodity prices fell while Viewpoints manufactured goods did not. Consequently, "there are more people unemployed in Port Arthur today than in the heart of the Depression," said L.G. And Values Moore of the John Gray Institute. On top of that, Harold Gross, of the Enterprising Center, said Texas is facing the expiration of at least 35 collective bargaining agreements in N THIS YEAR of state revenue plunges, oil crises, and the near future. Gramm-Rudman-mandated federal spending cutbacks, It puts people on the defensive. Moore, a former labor I there is one consolation: the Texas legislature will not organizer, said, "Labor leaders today understand that there formally and officially meet. Of at least that we have been has to be a different way of doing business in the state." spared, thanks largely to the fact that this is an election year And Charles Gandy, of the state Office of State and Federal and a legislature that meets in this year of crisis would have Relations — after saying how Gramm-Rudman will have a to do something to raise the expectations of the main part serious inpact on state and local spending on education, of his or her constituency while not lowering their take-home highways, toxics, and unemployment — said that he thought pay. This usually means satisfying the expectations of that "Gramm-Rudman is the best idea so far. Unfortunately it can't part of the constituency that owns the papers and greases the be at a worse time [for the state]." wheels of political enterprise. Ain't it a shame. It goes so much against the grain of Texas A constituency not unlike the Texas Lyceum, which gathered viewpoints and values to have to say you're not happy with in Austin to discuss the future of the state. Meeting on the a program that cuts social spending. But when those cuts take two days preceding Texas Speaker Gib Lewis's special meeting large chunks out of Texas coffers, it's just not possible to of the Texas House on May 30, these movers and shakers sign on. For instance, Steve Stagner, former assistant to Lt. got together to ponder the great imponderables — Texas Gov. Bill Hobby, said that the notion of imposing cuts in without money and taxes — in a conference called, "Economic the state funding of water and sewer plans is unworkable Transformation: The New Texas Revolution of 1986." The Lyceum describes itself as having been founded in 1980 "by a group of young, enterprising men and women from across the state who created a forum to discuss important issues facing the State of Texas. The Lyceum is dedicated to the CONTENTS development, discussion, and propagation of Texas' view- points and values." Apparently, it is up to these young, well-placed, mostly FEATURES white enterprisers to develop the viewpoints of Texas.
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