European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 03, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Flora Lewis envy East or West it s society s unsolved in Moscow , an inter National observer made a comparison. Americans want to keep up with the Joneses even if it Means a frenetic rat race. Russians worry about keeping the Jon skis at our level Why should they get ahead concern about unjustifiable inequality and excessive  As a trilateral commission report noted is a major source of resistance to Mikhail Gorba Chev s reforms from the general Popula Tion. But economic revival has to Start somewhere. If the venturesome arc held Back for the slowest nothing will move. The chinese Call it the red Eye Dis  envy. Along with fears of inflation it holds a social threat that led Beij ing to decide to slow Down on the bumpy Road to a largely Market Economy. Gorbachev has lectured his compatriots against  a grass roots obstacle to releasing the energies needed to make re forms work. But the painful fact is that the idea of Cali arianism is about All that is left of the Early vision in communist societies. It is hard to give it up when there is nothing else on the shelf. The failure of communism to produce for its people and its denial of democracy Are now widely recognized. There is reason to exult in the West. The pudding has been proved. Still Gorbachev s talk about recognizing the East West need for common Security goes on to predict an eventual Competition Between the systems for popular support. This in t Nikita Khrushchev s peaceful  it goes much further and does t pre sume to Tell the West that we will Bury you with soviet achievements. But it should t be dismissed As Idle nonsense while we gloat about our Suc Cess. I am convinced that the Only Way communist societies have a Chance to catch up is by gradual transformation so profound that they would no longer acc Ogniz themselves As communists. That does t mean they arc bound to copy All our failings and never Stop Chas ing the Joneses. What will we have done in the mean time the decisive question won t be what marginal help the West provides the soviets and their allies to emerge from their distress. It will be How Socie ties compare in decency and Justice if they succeed in their aspirations. Jim Fain try1 the tension Between yearning for Equality and social Justice on one Side and for individual Advance even greed on the other is an ancient human prob Lem. It has t been resolved. Certainly communism has shown that denying individual rights forcing submission to an abstract idea of Colucc Vic welfare is a formula for disaster. But the Western system has failed Socope adequately with outstanding needs. Crime corruption the shame of homeless Ness the drug plague the existence of an underclass Are problems too rampant in the . To permit complacency about the society race if the arms race and the consumer goods race Are Ever left behind. There arc blatant signs of what Marx called alienation rejection of society by people who feel they can win no stake in it some pains of the capitalist system seem to be inevitable concomitants of a Market Economy flexible enough to grow adapt and produce efficiently. Communist states have begun to accept at least in theory that a certain degree of unemployment bankruptcy uneven distribution of material rewards to assure incentives is necessary to make the Market hum. How much they Don t know. But the Long term bet Gorbachev and marxist reformers Are trying to make now is that they can find a much lower level than prevails in the . That will prove compatible with p asperity and satisfaction of the majority. This is the future Challenge from Moscow to America. The recipe for Utopia was an ugly Del usion. Soviet enthusiasts for Gorbachev Point out that Stalin used the egalitarian definition of social Justice As a tool to amass absolute Power. People were encouraged to denounce neighbors who managed to be a bit better off and this provided a basis for cruel re pression putting everybody Down. Human envy was exploited to the utmost. America s task ahead is to show that our system can prevent a similar exploitation of greed that it does t automatically produce masses of human rejects along with its glittering material output. In this sense Domestic and foreign affairs arc As intimately linked in the . As Gorbachev says they arc in his plans for the russians. Capitalist democracy won the cold War round. It will take a different kind of commitment to win the next texan leading democrats9 search for identify Jim Hightower Texas Peppery agriculture commissioner has elected himself a Pathfinder in the democratic party s fumbling search for identity. A self styled populist on the Shah Liberal Edge Hightower turned Down a shot at Phil Gramm s Senate scat in favor of an Effort to Weld Texas progressives yep. There arc some into a political Trail drive. He wants to harness the poll driven to technology of the 1990s to the  populism of the 1890s. He Hopes to mobilize a grass roots move ment of citizen and consumer groups environmentalists labor Small Farmers and the like. In Washington recently for an organic farming hoc Down at the height of the alar Apple scare like most successful politicians Hightower tends to be Luck the half pint commissioner in the id gallon hat was a Magnet for the National press. He s a natural at that combining a Sharp mind with a Knack for the topical outrageous and funny. He is under attack in Texas by agribusiness and chemical companies with such enemies who needs friends because his organic Bent led him to offer Europe hormone free beef when major producers were stonewalling its Boycott. They re pushing to make his office appointive rather than elective giving him another Apple Pic hold the alar Issue. Whether he can pull off his idea of energizing the multitudes who no longer even bother to vote is yet to be seen. Not for the first time he is headed 180 de Grees from the conventional Wisdom. He also has adopted an unlikely role Model the late Ray Bliss one of my All time favorite political engineers. Bliss in vented modern i tech campaigning. He was the first to use Issue polling Back in the great depression paying his College student interviewers with lips on How to bet. Many credit John Kennedy s Irish mafia with the streamlining of politics but Bliss was Light years ahead. He confounded them in 1960 by carrying Ohio where Kennedy campaigned hardest for the in popular Nixon. As gop National chairman he rebuilt the Goldwater debacle of 1964 into the Nixon Victory of 1968. Both personally and politically High lower is his Mirror image. Bliss was inarticulate a Hardshell conservative and a technician who left ideology strictly to the candidates. Hith Tower is glib so Liberal he campaigned for Jesse Jackson in the 1988 Texas primary and in politics to Advance his beliefs. Cynics who argue he opted out of the Senate race because he feared defeat sell him Short. He had Noth ing to lose by running and gaining stature plus name recognition. He is sincere about this Odd new crusade. Most pundits and Many democratic leaders now either write the party out of presidential politics or argue it must turn sharply to the right to be competitive. Hightower is racing Pel mall in the opposite direction. He May turn out to be Correct. Aside from defense and crime which ought to be a democratic Issue no"5 Snow  american share the party s views on major questions. The prob Lem is no democratic presidential candidate recently has either used those views Well or energized the mid dle class who can dominate elections. That s where Hightower is trying to move in a state that will make a fascinating Laboratory for his ideas. If he fails As always hell be fun. If he succeeds he could rearrange the architecture of his party. Cox Newt Svica the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on his Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stats and stripes or the United states government