European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 28, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns William Buckley the stars and stripes thursday August 28.1986 Reagan credibility mortgaged by Grain Deal i guess said new York times Man Tom Wicker Over television the other Day no one has been More opposed o this administration than t have Hul he went on to say 10 the panel thai included George will Sam Donaldson and David Brinkley he had 10 sympathize with the action of the administration which has granted a subsidy for sent to inc soviet Union. You Sec or. Wicker explained to his benighted audience in a democracy politics has to be taken into consideration. And there Are 20 Republican senators coming up for election and re election next november who will be campaigning in the farm Stales. So what can you expect George will gave him one of his Fine no nonsense answers. What he said was thai the Reagan administration has been the most spectacularly anti soviet administration rhetorically in the last generation but that people Are simply going to Stop Laking that anti communism seriously which among other the no would have the effect of lessening or. Wicker s antagonism to the administration. Political considerations As or. Wicker stresses Are legitimate democratic considerations perhaps one Day he will write a column about the political considerations that govern the Pace of desegregation in South Africa. But he needs to remember that the Reagan administration is in critical respects distinguished from administrations that arc unguided by an animating vision. Nobody expects the president of Switzerland to be elected to Chase Down a political dream. When John Kennedy was elected he was startled when James Reston minutes after Juk had taken the oath of office asked him what he in tended to accomplish As president. The Young president was struck dumb he had run for office in order to become president la had t really occurred Elohim thai he should have a grand design in mind. And on he whole we arc belter Oft with caretakers than with visionaries but a Ereal Deal is at stake in he Mailer of our dealings with the soviet Union. Friends of or. Reagan do Well to advise him that his credibility As an anti communist Leader is heavily mortgaged by such a Deal As he recently sanctioned and that his Secretary of Commerce has been defending with the kind of arguments Hal would have got him his head Cut off in a debate with candidate Rea Carl Rowan Jan running for office on an anti communist Tickel. George will made tre chantly the in disputable Point that our leverage in negotiating with any of our allies on the matter of tender Laving care for communist enterprises is flatly expended. Or. Reagan began his office by lifting the embargo on the Sale of Grain to Moscow his Secretary of agriculture then concluded a Long term Grain Export agreement with the soviet Union and guaranteed the soviets Ihal we would never no never again interrupt our sup plies of Grain to the soviet Union presumably not even if the soviet Union launches a nuclear strike against us having done this or Reagan turned to the europeans who were using Ameri can technology to help the soviet Union build a Gas pipeline All the Way Iron gulag to Venice. The arguments he used had to do with the joint responsibility of the Western world not to Advance the soviets economic position. The europeans loftily disdained the of or. Reagan citing his repeal of the Grain embargo the Busi Ness of business is business they Laid and in due course or. Reagan had Loback Down. After what we have just now tone it would be hard to exert leverage on Monaco. The tiresome and deceptive disjunction is attempted it s not of. They Tell us to sell the soviets instruments of War but it is of to sell them other things. True you can t shoot Down an afghan with a piece of wheat. But the people who Are shooting afghans eat wheat to sustain their Energy. It is depressing Bat politics should cause the dream of galvanized res Zuncs to communism to crumble. We in spending something on the order of $10 billion a year to appease american farm ers. Rather than la continue making american wheat cheaper to buy in Mot cow than in Washington we d be better off buying it and throwing in into the Tea we can t give it away in Alia Africa or Lalin America became to do h ii to discourage local production. The ultimate solution la the obvious one Slop subsidies. Bin in Washington that s the equivalent of in ing Stop politics meanwhile the soviet Union gets fat on american us oxidized wheat. Racist housing covenants should be squashed a lot of us gave chief Justice designate William h. Rehnquist the Benefit of the doubt assuming that he did not know that � property he bought in Vermont contained a covenant bang its Sale to anyone of the hebrew later Rehnquist told the Senate judiciary committee that his lawyer informed him in writing in 1974 of the restrictive covenant but he asserted that he had forgot ten that utter from his lawyer Wun he testified during his Stormy confirmation hearings Rehnquist strains credulity and surely gives unease to some of his backers. Bui my Mission today is not to suggest that his confirmation will Rise or fall on the Issue of covenants but to talk about what these gentlemen s agreements of bigotry mean to America. Americans must understand that these covenants Are nol moot or meaningless simply because the . Supreme court has said that they Are not enforceable. The covenants arc powerful Facton in preserving apartheid like housing patterns in America. In 1970, when i bought the House my family now lives in my lawyer stunned me by informing me that the title was subject to the following covenant thai said land or any building which May be erected thereon shall never be used occupied by sold demised transferred conveyed unto or in Trust far leased or rented or Given to any person or persons of the semitic race blood or origin which racial description shall be deemed in in clude armenians jews hebrews. Persians or syrians or to negroes or any person or persons of negro blood or extraction however this agreement shall not be held to exclude partial occupancy of the premises by Domestic 1, a Black Man was buying Ibe property from jews i might have laughed off this covenant. But How could i sign such a deed my lawyer Drew up an affidavit of disclaimer in Whicha i declared the covenant personally offensive and asserted that i would remain free to sell or otherwise Transfer the property to anyone 1 would look so much better today if Justice Rehnquist had attached such a disclaimer to his deed. If he bad it would not now appear that even after Bis lawyer s letter be decide to Roll along with the bigoted tide. The in enforceability of the covenant is not an exonerating Factor. Housing discrimination is not Rife in Ameri Ca because hordes of people have gone to court to enforce covenants. We Nave Jim Crow homing because millions of americans believe in the covenants and. Voluntarily live by them. The social and economic fallout of these attitudes in staggering. If we did not have racist housing patterns we have predominantly Black and predominant or White schools in virtually every City and americans would not be Al each other s throats Over busing. The Public school would enjoy far greater Public support. Business Industry supermarkets doctors teacher would nol be fleeing Black and other minority neighbor hoods leaving millions at people jobless and dependent on government social programs. Jim Crow housing patterns Spring out of bigotry even As they create racial polarization and More bigotry. Every american of influence and prestige like Rehnquist who fails to Squash a dirty Little House covenant wherever he sees it is guaranteeing that the corrosive fallout will afflict this society year after year after year no am Toa syndic to
