European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 25, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes George will Moynihan s Book has much food for thought Washington s Alle lion Span longer than a television sound Shorter than a senator introduction at a rotary luncheon was momentarily filled by Larry speaker speaking out a Bonk that it fresh evidence or the High ratio or dignitaries Speakes once counted As one to dignity in Public life today. Fortunately another Book. Sen. Pat Moynihan s came the revolution argument in the Reagan is the anti dote for the illness of which up cakes is a symptom. The Illner is emptiness. Spcakcs1 Book is badly motivated and execrable written assembled realty but neither defect is its most detestable aspect. What makes in reek like something to be picked up with Long tongs is that it exemplifies As Well As documents the plague of counterfeit rhetoric that flourishes when passions Are synthetic. Moy Nihan s Book records a mind it play serious yet exuberant in the Arena of Large Public purposes. More " Tensive than spec pcs Viola Tion of the confidentiality owed to col leagues in governance and More Offen Sive than the fabrication of presidential quotations is hrs utter Lack of a Public purpose. His inability to write his own Book reflects an absence of anything to say about anything other thin the Intra mural intrigues among while House image Linker cars. Moynihan always has much to say and has now published some of what he has said in speeches articles newsletters to new yorkers and other outpourings from 1981 through 1986. His Book is evidence for the existence of something that like Atlantis is rumoured to have once existed but has not recently been seen a democratic mind. Regarding Reagan Les Moynihan is amusing but not amused. The 1930s have seen he says a Haemorrhaging of reality from government an inability to understand the consequences if things done or left undone. Moynihan s targets arc Reagan it intellectuals the Model is David Stockman described by someone As Flower child turned social darwinist who arc were radicals. They Are says Moynihan related to Martin Gottlieb Stueve Twe Avoca a breathes Ever because real conservatives the Way anarchists Are to liberals. Their defining sin As Moynihan sees it was the purposeful creation of deficits As a Way of throwing gravel into the gears of government. Contempt for government led he says directly to the Iran debacle in a Washington where Moynihan says toughness and ignorance Are often confused there is an amnesiac inno Cence among conservative ideologues who being impervious to experience have matched the earlier intellectual hubris of liberals. Moynihan participated in the Heady Confidence of the mid-1960s, when the refinement of models of social change combined with increasingly sophisticated statistical measurements were supposed to make possible ample social solutions. He recalls writing in 1965 on the rim of the Volcano that the professional administration of social change was becoming a vocation this was sup Posedly so because economics was at Taining the precision at in applied Sci ence and the enlarged predictive Powers of the social sciences would expand government s Powers to control change. Two decades later it is Moynihan says with indignation tinged with relish conservatives who have displaced Liber als As i Pounders of professors theories of economics while Democrat grumble about the Gap Between theory ind prac Tice in the real world. The top s immune system has failed to repel the virus of ideology. Thai is what capitalism understood As Market worship has become. Hence the conservative belief thai prob lems arise from attempts to solve them and that All problems Wilt be dissolved by an expanding Gnu. Thai last is refuted by among other things the growing underclass. Its Condi Tion is unresponsive to economic growth. This class defined by extraordinary self destructive behaviour is the principal cause of the combination of misery and madness in the Modem Moynihan now seeking his third sen ate term served in he executive Branch under four presidents. In Gerald Ford s Cabinet he was one of five former professors with Kissinger. Schlesinger Shuitz and but. He has an intellectual s zest for argument. He also is a lad Loo certain thai he is right when declaring thai Reagan s economic theorists cannot distinguish certitude from certainty. However much can be forgiven 10 someone so wonderfully terse the Cramers of the Constitution had More thought about Power than merely its limitation and epigrammatic As concerning the he says deliberate deficit there a 1 tendency for any government to live beyond its income. The Reagan administration transformed this temptation from a vice into an savor Moynihan s Book Noi because it is always right but because in is always authentic always deeply Felt and strenuously argued. It is a rarity in a town too Well supplied with the memoirs of people who never had a memorable thought. Posl writer group it s easier to Moke predictions after the event there s been a lot of Loose talk lately about the pundits and How they re always wrong. But there arc pundits and there arc pundits. Take me. It May be immodest to examine my own record As if it were news. 1 keep waiting for David Broder to do it but i think he s afraid of How i la make him look my inspiration for this column is the Chicago trib Une. It had an editorial last Winter saying that obviously no candidate lacking the name recognition of a Jusic Jackson could pos Jibby do we on super tuesday unless he had first done Well in Iowa and new Hamp Shire. In other words that Al Gore could t do Well. But Gore lied for first with Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson. The editorial appeared in the out of uate edition of the Tribune the Day a a super tuesday. This is of course the same paper that said Dewcy beats i on the other hand have never incorrectly predicted the outcome of an event after it happened. I figure As Long As the trib is around to serve As a lightning Rod for criticism of wrong journalism can engage in Public self scrutiny safely. Here goes ast june 1 wrote a column headlined Gep Hardt is the Slick one in the i could have writ ten in in february 1987, but i decided to Wail until interest in the presidential Campaign had peaked i wrote about How carefully Gephardt had pegged his Campaign pitch to Iowa and about How Long he had been campaigning in the state. Gephardt won Iowa. One paragraph in the column particularly impresses me Iowa May not be us important in 1988 As it has been in the past what if Gephardt wins Lowi Dukakis wins new Hampshire because of his geographic advantage and the great Southern primary is a three Way tic thai s exactly what happened wow. The next paragraph read in that Case Gephardt will Benefit in future Pri Maries from having put together an approach to the issues that is As Slick As they the Only flaw in that thinking was thai the three Way super tuesday tic did t include Gephardt a nig gling Point. Just in ease Broder decides to finally look into this matter and report whal 1 leave out i will admit that after the Gephardt piece my predict ability was t quilt As mixed. T wrote iwo other columns about candidates last summer. One implied that Paul Simon would silence the Laugher what s thai sound and one took Jack Kemp seriously. I never thought Bob Dole would have much Appeal with Republican voters. Then dote wan Iowa and 1 decided i was wrong and that Bush was really weak. Republicans Aren t my speciality 1 thought super tuesday had left the demo cratic Field hopelessly muddled. It turned out thai super tuesday pretty much resolved everything. Northern voters interpreted Gore s showing As jul of a favorite son and they ignored him. Michigan the first real contest after super tuesday showed Ihil the Public bad simply stopped thinking about anybody other than Jackson and Dukakis. Once that happened Dukakis was the nominee be cause Jackson is still really Little More than a. Favorite son candidate of the Black Community. It s All so obvious. 1 wrote after Illinois that Paul Simon s Victory rep resented the first Lime a primary had Ever enlarged a held. Yeah right. My biggest Success was Michigan. 1 wrote that the Story the pres. Reported a stunning demonstration of heretofore unrecognized Jackson strength and Dukakis weakness never happened Jackson voter numbered about 3 percent of those who will vote in november. Subsequent primaries have demonstrated Jack a $ continuing weakness among Whites. Only experts understand these things. Some cynics say they could match my accuracy percentage by putting a Monkey in a room with a word processor and letting him bang away but there Are monkeys and there Are Man keys. I would t be willing predict one Way or the other. Co Prtrt
