European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes May 1985 William Safire Reagan should beware of ranging on Takeoff London the conservative movement called Thatcher ism is about two years ahead of the conservative move ment called in the late that waving of the future from the Mother country had american righting hardliners All rubbing their hands in Anticipatory glee now it should have us cracking our Knuckles in the latest Gallup poll shows the conserva Tives Here running behind the labor party and the Loose grouping of Center Par with Margaret Thatcher needing All the support she can get from a Small internal revolt is under Way the conservative called the wets by stalwarts scornful of their tearful sentiment have formed a splinter group to bang their spoons on thatchers de manding she take the spending route to pump up the sagging the most wringing Francis Pym whom Thatcher fired As foreign min ister a few years ago for terminal Wim pish ass launched his conservative Center Forward last week with a blast at the Iron Ladys a couple of his More nervous followers promptly jumped causing him to Back off a government sources snorted that the new wet faction had ranged on to world War ii Raf Slang for to is now upper crust usage for to damage or Dent one pranks ones Rolls without turning it into a or As we would totalling you have to be an etymology is to understand British but it is Halfway through her second term and with no helpful Little Falkland War to rally voters round her Anthony Lewis who is doing the that should be a Surprise after she has whipped Down inflation and tamed the worst of the predatory unions she has led Public As a Strong Leader on foreign policy she has reinstalled National is causing the bumping and the drop in the the conservative consternation and what does this augur for Reagan ism the troublesome in thatchers it is the 13 percent rate of a employ nearly double if she cannot fix her government is an economic Flop because the problem has lasted too she is vulnerable the Deog reification of the labor has a new who is downplay ing the appeasement nuttiness that scared More David Leader of the centrist has been moving rightward less and offers a credible alternative to conservative Vot even if the Center parties cannot come a split of the vote along present Gallup lines could bring about coalition government and a Quick end to the Thatcher the exaggeration of the personal weak hauteur has been the Thatcher prob a seeming Ici Ness or at least a Lack of caring in her upswing this was Over come by an admiration for her her personal invulnerability has now become her political vulnerability the other Side of leaderships Coin is add to this the curious shortening of the support Span of the through out the free whenever solutions Are not immediately voters Are too ready to bring in a new now How do these a Guries apply to the conservative across the Ocean president reagans troublesome specific is now the still an abstract to most people but beginning to when it translates into another one that hits Home inflation or unemployment a sunup of interest rates and Stock Market decline it casts a pall Over All the Deo Grefiel opposition to Reagan comes from the dries in his own bitterly disappointed at his Cavern on defense democrats like Mario Cuomo and Gary Hart can make great gains with the because the ill advised Promise on social Security was surely the personal hitherto overcome by is his seeming to be out of the failure of the economic Summit there aint Gonna be no Reagan round of Tariff reductions and the Pitburg fumbling removed his landslide Aura he can be criticized or even ridiculed add the Speede Dup pendulum swing and you have the Reagan revolution in trouble two years into its second just As thatchers revolution is compari sons Are odious Thatcher ism May make a comeback republicans would be foolish to think that ranging on Takeoff is a purely British c 1985 new York times Syndicate Vietnam it of vhf till its while House seeks of undo Progress in civil rights Alabama never had Black state trooper in Federal judge Frank Johnson ordered an end to what he called the blatant and continuous he told the state to hire equal numbers of Blacks and Whites until Blacks were roughly a Quarter of the White officers continued to discourage Blacks in training and using what the court called frustrating or de laying by 1983 Only four Blacks had been promoted to none to higher the court ordered a Tempo Rary on Forone promotion the Justice department was an Active party in the Case for pushing for an end to racism in the Alabama but the Reagan administrations Justice depart ment is now on the other it is fighting the latest court order on arguing that the numerical system of promotions is unlawful and unfair to Whites no matter what Blacks suffered in the the departments briefs do not mention the Bla Tant and continuous history of discriminate Alabama Case is an example of a policy that takes the Reagan administration to its ideological extreme the policy of undoing All past civil rights judgments that include affirmative action his tory must be the legacy of in Equality must be the realities faced by Blacks seeking to enter forbidden quarters must be a is abstract All is in the View of the present Justice de no member of a minority group May get special consideration in employ ment under a court order unless he or she was personally a victim of discrimination can prove of course it is very hard to find such victims an unfortunate As one Brief put try applying that abstraction to the reality of the Alabama state for decades everything in Alabama was and the troopers enforced the what Black would have dreamt of applying for a troopers Job so How could any Black later show that he had been personally excluded from the Force on racial grounds the Only Way to change the situation was the Way Johnson chose to make a specific beginning in hiring and when the old racist attitudes Hung the Only workable answer was a similar affirmative action plan for in their Zeal to undo the civil rights gains of the the Reagan lawyers Are Tram pling on principles that Are important to True one is respect for local control and another is respect for settled agreements and William Bradford assistant attorney general for civil has asked 51 state and local governments to undo affirmative action plans for hiring in to fire and other most of from Indianapolis to do not want to and resent the they have Learned that it is a Good thing to have minority policemen and for exam and the know that it takes special efforts to get Reynolds is even trying to upset consent decrees that were negotiated and approved under his in August the City of agreed to a six year affirmative action plan pressed on it by the Justice the terms of the decree obligated All parties to defend it in the if but Reynolds has now switched As the Birmingham Post Herald put he opposes giving Blacks and women even briefly the same Edge that White males enjoyed to a much greater degree for Many to justify his Rey nolds relies on a 1984 supreme court decision that an affirmative action plan must yield to a Bona fide seniority system that newly hired minorities must be Laid off appellate courts around the country have held that the decision does not apply outside the seniority the question of what the supreme court meant will be answered in but Rey nolds is not Content to he is a Man with a with a messianic Zeal to save the country from the civil rights As an everyone can agree that decisions on employment in this coun try should be but after 200 years of slavery and 100 of it is grotesque to insist that there cannot be a transitional time of race conscious reme Dies for that unequal the remedies Are in the interest of for otherwise they will live in a divided society where Many Blacks have not made it onto the first rung of the economic c 1985 new York times Syndicate