European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes Sill i a .4� 1. A a. �?os.1-David s. Broder on a Moscow a whatever happens in the final Days of the 28th soviet communist party Congress Mikhail s. Gorbachev is on an accelerating Toboggan ride to political irrelevance. Its entirely possible even Likely that communism will follow him out the door in the soviet Union. I say that not on the basis of any deep analysis of political trends although there is plenty of evidence pointing to the eclipse of the current soviet president and the system that sustains him. I am relying instead on a much More tested proposition. Call it the Johnny Carson Law of politics once you become a National joke your authority is finished. Gorbachev has become a joke. His nickname a newly critical official at the Institute for  affairs says is a bal Tun a which roughly translates As  in another office in the Kremlin bureaucracy i was told this Story Gorbachev and vigor i Gachev his great rival in the politburo buy some rabbits in the country and i Gachev takes them Back to his garage to raise. A few Days later he Calls Gorbachev. A the rabbits Are starting to die a he says. Gorbachev tells him to draw a Square in White Chalk on the garage Wall a few Days pass and the rabbits still continue dying. A draw a Triangle in Green on top of the Square a Gorbachev says. No Luck. A put a Circle in red around the  the deaths continue. A make a big x in Blue through the whole  a it is too late a says i Gachev. A they arc  a what a shame a Gorbachev replies. A i have so Many More ideas to  As for the communist party Vitaly Korotich editor of Ogo Nyok a leading dissident publication passes on a Story he heard from the magazines Driver. A fat general arrives at the station just As his train is leaving and starts puffing Down the tracks in Pursuit. He secs Gorbachev on the platform of the last car and shouts at him a Stop the train Quot and Gorbachev says Here Korotich made his voice very Small a train Stop one  Quot a that Quot he said with a huge laugh a is the famous communist party  the impression is All but Universal Jim Fain from government offices to Street Comer interviews that this 28th party Congress Marks the passage of Power away from Gorbachev and away from the party he leads. The utter and Complete failure of the Domestic Economy a a fact of daily life far overshadowing the gains of perestroika and the reduction of tensions with the West a has doomed them both. Gorbachev will remain As president. He could hold on As party chairman if he is willing to accommodate the status quo minded conservatives. But real Power is moving elsewhere to the increasingly Independent republics led by Boris Yeltsin a russian federation to the Independent anti communist City governments in Moscow Leningrad and their slightly less venturesome cousins in other major cities such As Kiev and to the fledgling non communist Market oriented parties. Even inside communist party Headquarters there is a degree of realism about the Way the tide is moving. A senior party official named Igor Malas Chenko told me a we have succeeded almost too Well in removing ideology from the country. And when All other a isms disappear the one people turn to most easily is  r he professed to find some Comfort in the situation. A thank god we have Yeltsin a form of mild nationalism in Russia. Other kinds could cause much More  and he argued that greater autonomy for the republics a some form of Loose confederation a could actually Speed the necessary economic reforms. A it is impossible to Reform from the Center a he said. A the new design will be drafted largely in the republics. The rules of the game Are changing. Its not going to be the old centralized  others outside government think that assessment barely scratches the surface of the change that is coming. They see an accelerating crisis of legitimacy for the Gorbachev regime even if he emerges this week As both head of state and head of party. On july 21, leaders of All of the fledgling Liberal pro Market pro democracy parties will meet in Moscow to see if they can rationalize and reduce the number of alternatives they present to the voters in future elections. They also will press their demand that the communist party yield its monopoly on state financed offices printing and communications equipment. In the autumn some speculate there May be major political strikes entered on the slogan that the supreme soviet the National legislature and the body that elected Gorbachev As president should be re elected in multiparty Competition. Should that happen nationalists and reformers would almost certainly prevail in the three largest republics the russian federation the Ukraine and byelorussian. And that in turn would leave Gorbachev truly a figurehead president for the balance of his term. Washington Post writers group liberals must fight for rights personal decisions trapped Between Between onrushing science and the Reagan supreme court the nation is at War with itself Over w Hen to intervene in the personal lives of its citizen s. Abortion forced feeding of the comatose dying parental discretion in medical treatment of children rationing of body organs for transplant suicide machines for the hopelessly ill a All have prompted court Battles in this most litigious of societies. Historically liberals distrusted government whereas tories used it to perpetuate property rights and As a super Nanny to ensure the lower classes behaved. That All got skewed in the new Deal and great society when liberals began to employ government to redress injustices inflicted by what Franklin d. Roosevelt called a malefactors of great  my father said any two institutions that fought each other Long enough would Trade sides. A preacher he cited theological examples but his Maxim works in it politics. In both world wars republicans were the isolationists. That All switched during Vietnam. Democrats started out fighting tariffs. Now republicans Are the free traders. Until reaganomics democrats were the deficit spenders. And so it goes. On personal liberties liberals have held fast however just As the gop has Clung to the notion that governments role is to ensure the Rich Freedom to get Richer. Deregulation emasculation of the income tax and president Bush a loophole for capital gains Are examples. Similarly conservatives still insist that government Monitor private behaviour Down to the bedroom level. Censorship and drug testing of urine for instance. If morality can to be legislated they sigh at least jail those whose behaviour is unseemly. Until the supreme court began overturning Roe v. Wade which made abortion a personal Choice liberals did no to put up much of a fight. The great society a grasp had exceeded its reach. In the backlash the word a Liberal Quot became an epithet. Only a few of us still Wear the Label. Most Are cowed by the reactionary tide that swept into the White House with Ronald Reagan who promised to rid us of government bungling. Few seemed to notice he meant Only those aspects having to do with wealth and property. On the person Al Side he and his disciples saw government As a Blue nosed big brother who could order our lives More morally than we could manage on our own. The Paradox is flagrant. Of course the state has to move in at crisis Points. Crime and drugs Are serious problems. One persons right of privacy ends where the next ones begins. But the principle of least government As Best still applies. The state is even More inept at try ing to manage personal behaviour than in regulating Commerce. With its compulsive meddling in citizens personal affairs the political right courts a reaction similar to the convulsion that swamped liberals. The abortion Issue already is changing altitudes. Look for an outcry soon for the French drug that makes surgery unnecessary. So far anti abortionists have cowed its maker from offering it in . Markets but the tide is turning. There san absurd contradiction in freeing up wealth while tightening the screws on individual rights. Liberals could do themselves and the nation a favor by renewing their commitment to human Liberty and launching a movement to deregulate private lives. Cox nows service