European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page the stars and stripes thursday september 28, 1978 Tom Wicker is tax Cut a sure fire Issue not necessarily two of the More startling upsets of the 1978 election season have been scored by proposition 13 candidates in the Minnesota and Massachusetts democratic primaries. Thus not Only in the supposedly More lib eral party but in two of the More Liberal states the tax cutters appear to have a trend running for , As with proposition 13 itself Many factors went into the making of both these upsets. In Minnesota rep. Donald Fraser who lost his bid for the democratic Farmer labor party s nomination to Hubert Humphrey s old Senate seat had made a lot of enemies Over the years and had recently infuriated sportsmen and resort interests by endorsing a plan to ban motor boats and snowmobiles from the Boundary Waters Canoe area. His support for Abor Tion rights apparently Cost him dearly. His opponent Robert Short a former treasurer of the democratic National com Mittee spent about $800,000 of his own Money to win the primary while promis ing to seek a $100 billion Cut in Federal spending and a $50 billion Federal tax Cut. He matched these extravagances Only by the vehemence of his opposition to the Motorboat snowmobile bin to legalized Abor Tion and to gun control. On top of All that he openly and successfully appealed to re publicans to Cross into the democratic Pri Mary to support him. Or. Short s is a name that will live in infamy for reasons other than the above the gods will remember him As the Man again John p. Roche mass higher education is divisive when i started College in 1940. We Stu dents comprised one percent of the Ameri can population then about 130 million. To Day this segment has enlarged on two axes it is five percent of roughly 220 Mil lion. In net terms the jump has been from 1.3 million to 11 million. Those of us who taught this enlarging constituency Bene fitted enormously from a Sellers Market i received $3,200 a year As an instructor and when in 1956 i reached top rank we Lux urinated at $9,000 by 1962 $9,000 would t attract an instructor. We took it for granted mass higher education was a Good thing Seldom wondering whether it might create divisive tensions in the society that nourished it. The explosion at Berkeley followed by a Chain reaction in other american universities generated some scepticism. Unfortunately the disorders in the american Academy were seen As protests against the Vietnam War. In fact they were part of a worldwide pattern which saw japanese Indian mexican italian German and French universities disrupted on a far More violent scale. Here the Drill was to lock the school president in his office and Issue non negotiable demands. In France and Mexico to take two extreme in stances there were Street Battles Between the enrages and the riot police in Mexico City the army hosed Down the University with machine guns leaving Over 150 dead. Note the United states was the Only nation with a Vietnam War. Obviously there was some sort of fundamental social spasm which hit modernized societies and if the War was not the cause neither was it generational. The split within the Young was if anything More ferocious than that Between Young and old. The French riot police the c.r.s., were Young but when they hit the radicalized University of Nan Terre they savaged their generational Peers. Symbolically their first act was to break the windows of every car in the University s huge parking lot. Why they Are earless working class men not the spoiled effete Peugeot driving children of the bourgeoisie this became More evident in the june 1968 Paris turmoil when the French Stu dents decided to be the Vanguard of the revolution. More symbolism As the suspicious French communist proletarians watched the rads arrived in their cars in the Banlieue Rouge the workers suburbs of Paris. They announced the revolution called on the masses to Rise and then pulled out Chain saws to build barricades. This same division within the Young was apparent in the United states with the same class overtones. One of the Memora ble events of the 1968 democratic Conven Tion never appeared on to a charge on a police line by a scruffy contingent led by a Guy screaming Long live the dictator ship of the proletariat Man said a Young Black cop As he decked this pseudo Lenin we Are the dictatorship of the pro  at Kent state too the National guard was composed of Young scared working class kids. In 1969 i wrote this up in terms of the Rise of a new caste resembling medieval clerks a group characterized by a High educational level and a conviction they were destined to write not Only their own tickets but the rest of society s As Well. Now comes Everett Ladd or. In the july August Issue of the american Enterprise Institute s Fine Magazine Public opinion with the first of two statistical analyses entitled the new lines Are drawn class and ideology in  Ladd s conclusions Are More charitable than mine perhaps because polls Are not pejorative but he argues with compelling data that the main value struggle in the United states today is Between an upper Middle class intelligentsia and a newly Middle class proletariat which rejects alternative life styles als. This very phrase is mainly an upper Middle class euphemism for deviant behaviour. I first heard the term five years ago when i asked a woman i had t seen for years about her husband. She said he had adopted an als. I made the mistake of further inquiry he is in the Slammer for 10-20 on four counts of homosexual rape. Ladd has two categories and alas my reactions put me in the less than High school education rather than postgraduate Niche. Forty two percent of the latter favor self fulfilment Over economic Security and providing for a family 60 per cent Aren t troubled by debts and 66 per cent disdain saving Money. The comparable figures for us peasants Are 17, 31 and 36 percent. Ladd s two classes have even More striking differences on social is sues to be explored on a different occasion. C King features who deprived washingtonians of the Washington senators after they had suffered and bled for years in support of a team perennially but lovable last in the american league. Anyone who would do such a thing and for Mere Money surely de serves to spend eternity listening to the snarl of 10 outboard motors at close Range in Massachusetts gov. Michael Duka Kis suffered defeat for renomination at the hands of another zealous tax Cutter. But Edward j. King the Surprise Victor also campaigned for the death penalty Manda tory prison sentences and a higher drink ing age As Well As against tax supported abortions which the governor supported. Dukakis a Man of austere personality also had to Bear the onus of having raised state taxes after having promised in 1974 that he would not do so voters did not accept the explanation that a weak National Economy and diminishing state tax reve Nues had forced his reversal of position. In neither upset therefore was proposition 13 sentiment the Only or perhaps even the major Factor nor was liberalism itself Defeated As some have suggested. Rather in each Case a Liberal candidate with severe handicaps ran into an opponent ready and willing to exploit some of the most heated passions of the times. In Massachusetts on the same Day re publicans were re nominating the Liberal sen. Edward Brooke despite his recent personal difficulties. His conservative opponent Avi Nelson was an articulate advocate of the Kemp Roth tax Cut plan Over which so Many republicans have lost their hearts this year. Democrats meanwhile were giving their senatorial nomination to rep. Paul Tsongas who says that on most National and foreign policy issues his differences with senator Brooke Are mar , it remains to be seen whether Bob Short will make it to Washington or King to the state House in Boston. Having Defeated the designated candidate of the Del with a program totally opposed to that party s Liberal tradition and at that with Republican help Short May find he has not chosen the Best route to a general election Victory. In Massachusetts Dukakis is so far withholding his endorsement of King the democratic nominee for lieutenant Gover nor Thomas p. O Neill actually raised the possibility of withdrawing from the ticket rather than running with King. Whatever pro forma Steps toward party Unity Are taken Liberal defections will be substantial in november. And the republicans will present an attractive moderate to Liberal ticket with sen. Brooke and House minority Leader Francis w. Hatch the gubernatorial nominee at its head. Nevertheless other Republican leaders Are now touring the nation whipping up or exploiting it s not quite Clear which proposition 13 tax cutting sentiment. Such single Issue enthusiasm has not been seen in the grand old party since last year when opposition to the Panama canal trea ties was hailed As the one True Way to Power. Whatever its other Virtues therefore the Republican party remains As reluctant As Ever to learn from experience. It does not seem to occur to these Evan gels of Kemp Roth and proposition 13, for example that winning National Power is not so simple. It takes More than eager and facile exploitation of momentary outbursts of Public sentiment also required Are effective organization candidates with Broad Appeal and credible stands on the numerous issues that engage american voters. And if some Issue big enough in itself to sweep a party to Power Ever did come along would t its dangers be greater than its benefits for a political party that is the Mere creature of Public opinion must also be its prisoner. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government