April 8, 1965

Nation’s "Third Party" Regaining Its Place

My favorite reporter has just returned from her annual trek to Washington, D. C., to size up the political health of the federal government in general and the Republican party in particular. Her diagnosis: The liberals are in the saddle, the moderates are starting to grumble and the conservatives are in retreat.

It should be pointed out that this snap analysis pertains to the entire body politic and does not allude to party labels.

For example, it is Democratic senators like Wayne Morse (Ore.), Frank Church (Id.), Mike Mansfield (Mont.), and Ernest Gruening (Alaska) who harshly criticize President Johnson's Vietnam policy. Republicans Senator Everett Dirksen (Ill.), former Presidential Candidate Barry Goldwater, former UN Ambassador John Cabot Lodge and former Vice-President Richard Nixon support Johnson's firm Asian stance.

It is Democratic senators from the South who are threatening to filibuster against the 1965 civil rights bill. The bill was prepared by the Justice Department, aided by Dirksen, that redoubtable Republican. It was Congressman William McCulloch, Republican from Ohio, who almost single handedly guided the 1964 civil rights bill through the House. Incidentally, McCulloch was "rewarded" for his effort by receiving a miniscule Negro vote in his district during last year's election.

It was Congressman John Ashbrook, another Ohio Republican, and ranking minority member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, who initiated the investigation of the Ku Klux Klan when the majority Democrats refused to do so.

The present maneuverings in Congress remind us once again that we really have a three-party system in this country. We think of the Democrats as being left-wing and the Republicans as right-wing with one of them dominating. In reality it is the coalition of moderates of both parties which most often decides the big issues.

At the moment, however, the spenders and social reformers have the bit in their teeth and are running away with the causes they hold dear to their hearts.

Favorite Reporter, who doubles as the mother to my children, says both Republican and Democratic congressmen complain that the liberals are trying to ram Johnson's Great Society proposals into law without debate. The simplest rules of parliamentary conduct often are coldly disregarded. Democratic liberals feel they have a mandate in Johnson's overwhelming victory last fall to complete Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Moderates and conservatives of both parties are denied the opportunity to speak, much less move for amendments.  Consequently, they have just about resigned themselves to accepting many liberal-dictated bills which will have slim chances of passage and if enacted will be immediately hog-tied by court challenges.

Mrs. Williams reports a long and interesting conversation with one of Washington's top commentators to the effect that President Johnson's popularity most likely has reached its peak. The columnist, whose name we won't mention inasmuch as his stories are widely read in this area and we don't want to pre-commit him to our conclusions, believes a reaction is setting in among Democratic moderates to Johnson's sweeping and costly program.

If this is an accurate observation, we will see a return to the coalition of Democratic and Republican moderates which for so many years has frustrated the far left and far right. Personally, I feel the best course for this nation in these troubled times is a cautious middle road. I am convinced the true political mood of the country — Johnson's landslide election notwithstanding — is moderate. The sooner we get to that state of equilibrium the better.

Another significant chat was one with Congresswoman Frances Bolton of Cleveland.

Mrs. Bolton — a most intelligent, alert and charming woman at 80 — was asked about her son, Ollie Bolton, himself a former congressman. She said he was recovering from a recent illness, and the conversation then drifted into a mutual exchange of the problems of rearing children.

The tone of a sincere admonition by the older Mrs. Bolton to my wife reflects, I think, the effect of the current political scene on the Congresswoman's outlook.

"You must raise your children to be strong," she said, "to have ideals and a belief in themselves and in their country. They must have courage and determination to fight for principles. We're living in a complex and changing world, and it becomes harder every year to foresee the future.

"We do know, however, that we will have to live with many pressures we have never faced before," Mrs. Bolton continued, "and our children must be tough enough inside to deal with them."

Occasion for Mrs. Williams' trip was the national convention of Republican Women.

There is a tendency among my journalism colleagues to treat women in politics with amusement. Though fewer women than men are interested in politics, those who are take it more seriously and work harder at it.

The politicians themselves don't sell the women short. The big names of the Republican party turned out en masse to present their views to the gals. There was Goldwater, Nixon, Thruston Morton, Ashbrook, Frank Bow, Bill Ayres, Bolton and many more.

Ray Bliss, national GOP chairman and formerly Ohio state chairman, made a major policy address to the convention. His key note was, "I believe with all my heart that our job is to make the GOP stand for something more than the Grand Old Party.

"Let's make GOP mean the Golden Opportunity Party. Let's make it represent Government of the People. Let's make GOP mean Goodness and Obligation and Progress," he declared.

If this isn't a clarion call to the moderates of both parties, then I'm out in left field without a glove.

Author: Lindsey Williams