European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 7, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                William Safire he l for tuesday december 7, 1993 Root to the russian legislative election and constitutional referendum is nearing the finish line. The reason the race is getting so Little notice in the United states is that americans Don t know who or what to Root for. We will remedy that today Boris n. Yeltsin s name is not on the ballot ii run again president when he feels like it but his prestige is on the line behind the draft Constitution. When Alexander Hamilton another advocate of executive Power faced the need to sell our Constitution to the people he and James Madison and John Jay wrote a series of newspaper essays later called the federalist papers even so ratification was withheld until a Bill of rights was added. But Yeltsin could t be bothered Quot dts that educational participatory process. He put his cat in the sack Constitution on the ballot certain that at least half the electorate would vote and that a majority of that half would buy his notion of a super powerful president. Now. He realizes its in trouble. Its not just the old commies fighting Reform but something called a voter apathy a a As if voters who Don t like signing Blank constitutions must be apathetic. As a result Yeltsin s supporters Are Rushing out 20 million copies of the 100-Page document predicting chaos if it is not accepted and threatening to ban any candidate for parliament who dares to criticize it. Democratic debate forget it. They count on the russian habit of voting  let s hold our rooting decision on that. Referendum in abeyance As we Survey the Field of parties 1. The Yeltsin establishment goes by the name of a a russian a Choice a the bloc headed by the economic reformer Yegor t. Gaidar. His Shock therapy was needed but he is seen by Many russians As the Man who made them poor. Finance minister Nikolai Fedorov and the excellent foreign minister Andrei v. Kozarev Are on this list along with Yeltsin s Carville Gennadi Bur Bulis if they capture a third of the seats commentary 1 the stars and stripes Page 15 in Power m framers of the Constitution that a a big win for Yeltsin. 2. The democratic opposition is the Way Jeffrey Gayner of the heritage foundations Moscow office describes this alignment in his Handy Dandy who a who in the russian elections Grigory Zavlinsky the �?o500-Days economist ignored by former soviet president Mikhail s. Gorbachev,.is a fearless critic of Yeltsin s authoritarianism and will oppose him for president some Day but looks like a card carrying intellectual. His bloc is Allied to the reformers in St. Petersburg led by mayor Anatoly Sobchak. The demos Are shooting for a fourth of the seats. 3. Civic Union the name adopted by the apparatchiks and Industrial managers to replace the discredited communist Label. Alexander v. Rutski was their hero until his Putsch came to shove Arkady Volsky who started As a speech writer for the  by a Yuri a Andropov soldiers on with the self styled a pragmatists Quot aligned with the less anti Yeltsin russian democratic party headed by Nikolai Travkin along with environmentalist and youth parties. 4. The old guard which frequently surrenders but never Dies. A vigorous Gennadi Zyuganov has reorganized the communist party of the russian federation his Loyal but Small cadre has a Deal with Mikhail la Shin of the agrarian party to fight privatization and the collect sized Farmers have a lot of votes. In the cities Vladimir a Mirinovsky of the in Liberal undemocratic party is the fascist candidate who picks up support promising free Vodka of time to go and vote Gol suite. Bill Clinton is rooting for a a a yes vote on the Constitution and the election of delegates from the Yeltsin group russians Choice. So arc most . Establishment rians who thrilled to Gorbachev and derided Yeltsin a few years ago. If i were russian id reject the old commies but still split my vote a a not to the mys Teiry Constitution and then vote for a pro Yeltsin legislative candidate. Or a a yes to the Constitution and then choose a candidate from the democratic opposition to encourage Zavlinsky and restrain Yeltsin. Its a Gamble. If both the Constitution and russians Choice lose we re All in the soup. But checks and balances Are the essence of democracy lets Root for what we stand for. C Tho now York Elmo fools Rush in and Back where Angels fear to drive. You see them coming several blocks Back. Your rear View Mirror reveals cars driven with a nervous jerking lunging spastic intensity clinging to the bumpers of the cars ahead weaving across lanes Rushing toward the next red Light. Toward and often right through. The spreading lawlessness of Drivers in Washington and not Only Here is More than a nuisance although it is that traffic moves More slowly because prudent Drivers hesitate to enter an intersection even after the Light has turned Green so frequently Are red lights disregarded. And manic Drivers As fools usually do have a comic dimension even the most aggressive driving can Cut about 10 minutes from a 10-mile commute. Have they thought of leaving Home 10 minutes earlier or Are 10 minutes More Abed really Worth risking life limb and Drivers License. Actually Lawless commuters face decreasing asks of arrest because police Are increasingly preoccupied with the slow motion not that is life in the inner City. Thus do the Lawless from Suburbia Benefit from the lawlessness of the Urban criminal class. But let us not be judgmental. Instead let us be advanced thinkers who study the increasingly shall we say interesting driving habits As evidence of americans increasing a diversity and As a flowering of new  let us begin Anthropol Mically even if this new lawlessness is just fallen humanity misbehaving again Why now and Why this Way what has happened to other ways of venting pent up aggressiveness such As fighting redcoats Clearing forests or watching football. Lunatic driving in the evening May express although i doubt it a an intense longing for Hearth and Home. But aggressiveness in the morning is mystifying George will to what work Are they Rushing headlong in Washington often to government jobs which in Many cases Means they Are Rushing to the sluggish River of paper that someday will result in some decision to which american society will be magnificently impervious. Perhaps the numbing everyday Ness of Many people s work in the private sector too explains the rip roaring behaviour behind the wheel going to and from. Recently Joseph Epstein the essayist and professor of English at Northwestern University in Illinois put to me a Sla tingly simple question a do you know anyone who makes anything?1 Epstein had recently met a Man who makes pyjamas. Epstein was struck by the realization that it is rare for him to encounter anyone whose Days Are filled with making things a things you can heft hold up to the Light take to the Cash Register take Home put to practical use. Around Campus most of the people Epstein sees make seminars and lectures a True the occasional article and Book too but its somehow not the same not As real As pyjamas. In Washington we make hearings Laws litigation lunch appointments and journalism. All of it is of course terrifically important but perhaps the evanescence of it produces demented Drivers. Just a thought. Driving probably will become even Wilder now that Christmas in . Wodehouse swords has us by the Throat. Holidays and homicide go together like eggnog and Nutmeg so a tis the season to study the wildness in the streets. I have not noticed a Are we still allowed to notice a what nowadays arc called a gender  men and women Are equally represented among the demented Drivers which probably is heartening evidence of the emancipation of women. Bows arc disproportionately driven by red Light runners but i make no judgments. New York times headline dec 2, 1993 a impatient Driver shoots Motorist for moving too slowly in  the shooter was driving a Bow no judgments so i will not dwell on the possibility that Lawless driving by commuters from Suburbia is of a piece with that inner City behaviour commonly called a crime in the  let others wonder whether Lawless Bow Drivers like Young predators in Nike High tops represent the bail Marian belief that they have a right to do what they like to do and whether those Drivers and those predators Are All creating themselves in the Way the writer Margaret Halsey meant when she said that a identity is not found the Way pharaohs daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Identity is built. It is built every Day and every minute throughout the  however Here is a minimally judgmental thought. Years ago when Washington a redskins were owned by Edward Bennett Williams they had an unreliable kicker who Williams said a had put the excitement Back into the Point after  in a Well functioning society some things Are supposed to be Dull. Driving through an intersection for example. Ltd the Washington Post