European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday november 16, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary William f. Buckley  to terms with Duke is. Gorbachev the problem before the House is David Duke. He came in second in the Louisiana primary ahead of the Republican who had the official support of the gop. He faces now a Runoff today with Edwin w. Edwards a former governor who suffers under Many disadvantages among them that he was once indicted for several felonious acts and people can to be quite sure that this amiable Democrat is honest. How to treat David Duke never seemed much of a problem until just now. The Way to treat him surely was As a sometime wizard of the Kun flux klan. A fellow traveler of nazism. Someone in a word who belongs in Coventry not in the statehouse in Baton Rouge. Suppose he is elected governor of Louisiana. If David Duke is still in any palpable Way a racist of the Kkt Stripe let alone the nazi Stripe then our problem becomes one of huge magnitude. We would need to admit that a majority of americans living in a democratic state with full Access to eve from comic books to encyclopedias that inform Germany Jermany nevertheless them about the events in Hitler chose to vote for a Neo nazi. One explanation is that David Duke successfully conceals his genocidal leanings. That what is so obvious evades the understanding of the the 1,106,240 voters who constitute the majority in a typical Louisiana election. There Are those who decline to think that ill of a majority in any state of the Union. Yes a majority will make mistakes often do but not on the order of casting a vote for a Neo nazi. Perforce we need to explore other alternatives. And while we Are at it we need to ask How it is that we can come to terms with for instance the current leadership of the soviet Union. Gorbachev studied Law when Stalin was still alive and Yeltsin was a member of the politburo. In the last three years of the War in Afghanistan the red army under Gorbachev a leadership killed 700,000 to 800,000 civilians. There were 18 million members of the communist party As recently As a couple of years ago and no thread passing Only from crypt anti communist to crypt anti anti communist is so nimble As to permit us or for that matter russian liberals from having to Deal with Many of these people in the years ahead. Yes. We will be dealing a and partying with and sharing the Burden with a people who were stalinist communists. How do we live with this problem does t Gorbachev deserve at least one reverse face lift a final possibility is that just As we like to think Gorbachev has truly renounced the evil doctrines he was so recently associated with so has David Duke. Gorbachev tells us in his Book that although he is no longer a communist he is still a socialist. That is a very important step in the right direction even if it does no to take him As far As we would like to see him go. David Duke says he is no longer a Klansman but he does believe that White people also have rights and that Sta 5 a t-w5 Tim is a curse and that Jude Christian values should be taught in the schools. I would not vote for David Duke if i were a resident of Louisiana. But then i probably would t have voted Tor Hugo Black for the supreme court when it was revealed that he had been a member of the Kun flux klan. I would however Force myself to wonder whether i was being vindictive and How far i would get with my Static prejudices if i lived and worked in Russia. C us Refsal Pross Syndicate David Brode populist Choice in Louisiana not a bargain in Louisiana the legacy of Huey p. Long hangs Over everything a including today a gubernatorial election Between former gov. Edwin w. Edwards and state rep. David Duke. And so does the sour stench of populism the anti establishment movement that has gained fresh and undeserved prestige in the current climate of Public disillusionment. It was Long the governor and senator who dominated the state for More than a decade before his assassination in 1935, who More than anyone else established the populist tradition in Louisiana politics a which both Edwards and Duke claim As their own. T. Harry Williams in his Superb biography of Long noted that Winn Parish the Long family a Home a became the Center of populist strength in the state and furnished most of the party a  the populist party of the 1890s, to which Williams was referring was a Rural protest against the Banks the railroads and other economic Power centers which then controlled so Many state Legislatures governors and senators. In its modern form which is so recklessly celebrated by both pundits and politicians from the left and right populism has become a protest against institutions of All kinds a including both political parties a which assert traditions or standards uncomfortable for Scal Awag politicians such As Edwards and Duke. Long was a populist a but not a racist. When the Man who was then Leader of the Kun flux klan threatened to come to Louisiana to Campaign against him in 1934, Long denounced him in language that cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper. But Duke the former grand wizard of the knights of the Kun flux klan and inveterate racist and anti semite is far from the first self styled populist to exploit anger against minorities. That too is a part of the populist tradition that its current Day cheerleaders choose to ignore. Even when it avoided descent into racism populism was often a rogue political philosophy easy for demagogues to exploit for self aggrandizing Power grabs. Much As they proclaimed their attachment to the common Man populist politicians frequently gave their friends License for plundering the Public Treasury. So it was in Long Scase. A extortion bribery speculation thievery Are not rare in the annals of politics a wrote . Key jr., the authority on Southern politics a but in the scale variety and thoroughness of its operations the Long gang established after the death of the Kingfish. A record unparalleled in our  and so it is with Edwards who was twice acquitted of Federal extortion charges and who saw two of his top aides go to jail in bribery and extortion cases. He was thoroughly despised and Dis trusted by the civic and business establishment figures of the state a until the threat of having a Man like Duke whose history reeks of Praise for the nazis and contempt for racial and religious minorities drove them into Edwards arms. So now the two faces of populism oppose each other in the Louisiana race a one almost nakedly racist and the other almost equally contemptuous of fiscal  ironic then that populism has become a in the eyes of both the political left and the political right a the favorite cure for everything that ails this country and its government. I he name is applied indiscriminately to anyone who upsets an a establishment candidate a whether it be Harris Wofford an intellectual Democrat and former Philadelphia main line College president elected senator or Kirk lord ice an anti welfare and anti affirmative action Republican businessman elected governor in Mississippi. By defining it so loosely the Neo populists of the left and right can claim populism is the wave sweeping the country. That a a considerable exaggeration but it serves the purposes of those who like their historical predecessors Sec populism As a tool to a legitimize the dominant institutions of american society including the two party system. Edwards when he was governor Back in the 1970s, persuaded the constitutional convention to adopt the populist ploy of abolishing party nominations for state and Federal offices in favor of an All candidate primary and Runoff election system where everyone supposedly could compete on equal terms. Some privately saw it As a Clever Way to keep republicans out of the november runoffs which it failed to do. Instead its real effect was to keep leadership Quot elites in either party from discouraging or Dis barring candidates they thought would disgrace their party. The effects of that kind of populist anti party politics can be seen in Louisiana today. The incumbent governor Harvard educated but self proclaimed populist buddy Roemer opportunistically switched from the democratic to the Republican party last March breaking one set of alliances too late to build new ones. When his orphaned candidacy finished third the democrats found themselves with a Playboy Gambler three term relic As their candidate and the republicans found themselves with Duke a a my everyone from George Bush Down has had to repudiate. No a establishment elite Quot Republican or democratic would have left Louisiana facing this Choice. But in a time of populist Chic this is what Vou get. L  Post Wnters group