European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Jim Fain Little to choose Between Bush and Dukakis despite the drum fire on the nightly news palls show Moil americans Don t greatly care whether their next president is George Bush or Michael Duka Kis As usual they re right. Neither of these technocrats has a clue How to meet the storms now gathering. Dukakis is a tinker or. Bush is whoever his Campaign staff tells him to be. He s packaged and repackaged like a prime Lime detergent. Ultimately pliable on any Given Day he s whatever the polls say will sell a Man Cor any season. He s been for and against civil rights ran soming hostages reaganomics environmental Protection the War in Viet Nam abortion. Name a cause and he can embrace it pro or con. Dukakis is the opposite rigid stub born resistant to advice. His notion of vision is the multiplication tables. Whence says the election is about competence not ideology he describes himself. Bush says it s about ideology because his staff tells him that s How to tar Duka Kis As a Liberal Kook. His ideology Dujour includes hating taxes Loving the pledge of allegiance a handgun in Ever bedroom and elect routing druggies. Even his personality has undergone Campaign surgery voice lowered a Reg ister gestures Giggle muffled preppy argot translated car the Bowling league. By Grace of the Best Media guru Sand speech writers Money can buy Abracadabra Bush is presidential. Now Pecan Trust him. So far All this is working for him pretty much by default. Dukakis drones away offering nothing but grim face Monotony As a shield against a daily bar rage of artfully targeted calumny. Why do this pair of driven mediocrities want to be president neither has a real Agenda for the nation. Apparently both were programmed by their daddies. A greek immigrant doctor s son play the new world symphony. A Wall Street banker s scion pay his dues for a lifetime Anthony Lewis of privilege. The noblesse oblige thing poppy. Both should have stayed put. The Clammy Dukakis is a perfect governor of Massachusetts just what Hose Bosto Irish pols deserve. Bush is an Ideal vice president a dedicated courtier Unhan i capped by any opinions of his own. It s the optimum spot for someone who relishes Perks and finds ideas tiresome. On the strength of his hardball professional staff Bush is pulling ahead. With two uninspiring candidates Reagan Era electioneering mechanics to visuals. Lite Fly off 808 de of. Restricted press Access Thome a Day one liners and spin therapy can be Deci Sive. A Gargantuan Gaffe is always a Dan Ger with this nervous Nellie. If not. Bush should win. In an Odd Way that outcome would be just. The first crisis the new president is Likely to face was created by Reagan stax culling parly. It s fair that a Republican be the next Hoover. The world Economy probably will go into a spin once it no longer enjoys Drunken Sailor spending from the . The resultant earthquake May equal that of the 1929 depression and ensuing War. This country is far More vulnerable now than then. Going it alone is not an option living As we do in a world mar Ket dependent As we now Are on such imports As Oil strategic metals and eve some manufactured goods. Democracies Seldom plan for react after the fact. So it will be with environment and Economy. Our next real election will be not this novem Ber but in 1992. By then Well probably care deeply who wins. Con h Bush throwing mud to hide failure on real issues what Are the serious problems facing this coun try put that question to americans whatever their party or voting inclination and 1 think their answers would lend to focus on the same main Points. Economic uncertainly. Enormous debt overhang the United Stales at Home and in the world. Unending budget deficits have swollen the National debt. The Trade deficit has been financed by borrowing from abroad to the extent that we now have the largest for eign debt of any country. People May not be sophisticated about those things i am Noi but we Are right to worry about their consequences. We know that because of the debt an financial incident a Large Bank failure another Stock Market plunge is More Likely to threaten Confidence. And we know that our Reliance on foreign capital limits our Independence As a nation. Competitiveness our old Faith in the superiority of american products has been shaken. We fear that Japan and others have passed us in design and our fear we become defensive protectionist. And underneath we wonder whether and How we can re cover our compol Tive Edge. Writing last february in the new York review of books. Felix Rohatyn said that Japan and West Ger Many had pined increasing economic Power and Independence relative to the ., on the basis of surplus capital technology education and those Are the very areas in which americans Are concerned about what Lias happened to our society. Education. For family Afler family across the country this is the deepest concern. We read about japanese education and we know we Are Way behind in Scholastic achievement and discipline. But of course the concern is not just National but personal for our children. Too Many american schools Are disaster area today. In languages mathematics history achieve ment is far behind a state school in Europe. Drugs. The menace of narcotics cats at our Socie Tyas it does not thai of Japan or Germany or France or Korea. It corrupts Urban life and now the suburbs too. Our jails Are filled but drugs Are still easily available. Politicians talk about using the armed forces to patrol the Borders against drugs when cocaine isso easy to bring in that no conceivable program will Slop the Supply. The need is to reduce demand that is to make this a saner less drug dependent society and How do we do that the Environ men. This summer of sickened oceans of thinning Ozone layer and of the greenhouse effect has made us acutely aware of what we Are Dinglo our surroundings. We know that action is needed on a Large scale nationally and internationally. Those Are some of the problems on the minds of americans today. Not on that list is what George Bush has tried tomake the prime Issue of 1988 his opponent s Patriot ism. Gov Dukakis veto of an unconstitutional Bill i make teachers Lead students in the pledge of allegiance has nothing to do with the major problems Aheart the patriotism Issue is there we know because slinging mud can be effective in american campaigns. Or at least it can until people recognize the slime audits authors for what they Are. But listing the real issues makes it Clear that there is another reason for the vice president s descent into themed. Insinuations about patriotism distract Atten Tion from a record that would be hard to defend on Many of those real issues Busk served in an administration that rolled up More National debt than All the other . Govern ments combined from president Washington on so that is not a comfortable subject. The same administration turned the United states into a debtor nation. Having failed to generate Ameri can savings and capital it borrowed abroad. Education this administration Cut Back funds an tried to abolish the education department. Its last Secretary of education who said he wanted to lift our sights instead takes the mucker pose and mocks re Spect for the Constitution. Drugs this administration and Bush s own aides worked with drug runners in their Lawless efforts to Supply the nicaraguan contras. George Bush who went to private schools that did not recite the pledge of allegiance acts As if that were our educational problem while in the real world teachers struggle to keep their classrooms free of drugs. On the environment there have been eight years of pillage and obfuscation. And Here As on the other a suet the record is Barren of any sign that Bush has Ever urged the administration to face the real issues. New Vert that new Brulc the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and ire in no Wiy to be considered u representing the views of the slurs and stripes or the United states got Mienl
