JUDGMENTS & PROPHECIES

NIXON REPRESENTS NEW-STYLE DEMAGOGUE

THE COMMONWEAL, pro-Stevenson Roman Catholic weekly:

The results of the November 2nd elections constitute, on the whole, a victory for moderation and a defeat for demagoguery. The tone of the campaign in some parts of the country was thoroughly contemptible. And for this the man chiefly responsible is the Vice President of the United States. His use of the "Red" issue against men like Senator Murray of Montana and Mr. O'Mahoney of Wyoming, his imputation of "softness toward Communism" to the entire national leadership of the Democratic Party, his cynical manipulation of the issues of peace and war for partisan advantage, his reckless playing of the security "numbers game"--in all these things Nixon propagated a dangerous tendency in our politics that could, if it goes unchallenged, destroy the foundations of decent political debate in America.

We in the U.S. have always been able to deal, in our own good way, with our more obvious demagogues, but how shall we deal with the new demagogues, who speak calumny, not in the raucous tones of a Huey Long, but in the winning accents of Jack Armstrong, the Ail-American Boy? How shall we deal with a Richard Nixon?

This [demagoguery] is the unforgivable political sin, that would make politics virtually impossible in a free society. If the hope of moderation in our national life is to survive, if a healthy working relationship between the Administration and the new Congress is to be achieved, an end to this disgusting "subversion" game must be made, once and for all. The responsibility for ending it rests squarely with President Eisenhower. For unless he checks it now, the sophisticated demagoguery of Richard Nixon may prove more disastrous for the ultimate sanity of our political life than the hit-and-miss methods of Joseph McCarthy ever threatened to be.

WEST CAN GAIN FROM ATOMIC STALEMATE

PUNDIT WALTER LIPPMANN :

Sen. Knowland [sounds] more like a man having a private nightmare than like a responsible political leader. His is the familiar nightmare of how in about five years the Soviet Union will have achieved atomic armaments so great that the free world will "become paralyzed and immobilized by the realization that the United States and the Soviet Union could act and react upon one another with overwhelming devastation." When this atomic stalemate is reached the Soviet Union will "seek to take over the peripheral nations bite by bite."

[But] the great period of Communist expansion in Europe and Asia took place while we had an atomic monopoly. China was bitten off before the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb.

Since 1949 the losses and gains have not by any means been one-sided. The Communists have advanced in Indo-China. But they have suffered a great setback of enormous strategic importance in Yugoslavia.

What is more, in Western Europe as a whole the Communist position has deteriorated. All that this shows is that the relation between atomic power and the ebb and flow of Communism is complicated and indirect. There is no ground for Sen. Knowland's prediction that an atomic stalemate means the Communist conquest of the world.

There is just as good ground for believing that an atomic stalemate, which renders general war intolerable and improbable, will give the free world a better chance in the rivalry for the allegiance of mankind. To say, as he does, that in the atomic stalemate nation after nation will be "nibbled away" is to sound as if Mr. Knowland wants to go to war as soon as possible. If that is not what he believes, then he may fairly be asked to explain more clearly just what he is talking about.

KNOWLAND'S QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED

COLUMNISTS JOSEPH AND STEWART ALSOP :

Republican Majority Leader William Knowland's now famous speech warning against the dangers of an "atomic stalemate" has been much criticized for warmongering, doom-merchandising and bad logic. But in all the criticism of Sen. Knowland's position, no really convincing answer to the questions he posed has been forthcoming. First, he senses that a deal with the Soviets may be in the making. Second, Knowland wants also to serve notice on the Communist rulers that there is a price which the United States will not pay for peace. Third, he wants to remind the American people that the price for peace can be too high. Finally, Knowland wants to initiate another great debate on American policy.

Knowland may be wrong. There may be, for example, some undisclosed reason why our position is really getting better and better, as claimed, while the Soviet Union is obtaining the means to destroy us. But no one who has talked to him can doubt that the big, lumbering Republican leader is absolutely sincere in the course he has chosen.

PUBLIC PIETY IS NOT RELIGION

A. ROY ECKHARDT, Methodist professor of religion at Lehigh University, in The Christian Century:

Piety is more and more diffusing itself among our people, particularly in ways that supplement the regular ministry of the churches. Religious books continue to lead best-seller lists. Popular song writers profitably emphasize religious themes. Radio stations pause not simply for the usual station breaks but for recommended moments of meditation. The moviemakers know that few productions can out-box-office religious extravaganzas. The new piety has successfully invaded the halls of government. Attendance at prayer breakfasts is quite the thing for politicians these days. There is doubtless sincerity of motive in much of the new piety. It hardly follows that the new piety is to be accepted uncritically. There is nothing in the Bible to support the view that religion is necessarily a good thing. On the contrary, it is suspicious of much that passes for religion. The lamentable thing about the current revival is the failure to make discriminating judgments of differing religious outlooks.

[A] new cult counsels "personal adjustment." But adjustment to what? New Testament Christianity is hardly adjusted to its environment. It makes us seriously wonder, in fact, how much the social order is worth adjusting to. The gospel urges us to nonconformity: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed." An evil aspect of peace-of-mind religion is its acceptance, by default, of the social status quo. But its greatest sin lies in using God as a means for human ends. This is blasphemous. A rhapsodic inquiry greets us from the TV screen and the radio: "Have you talked to the Man Upstairs?" In this cult religion verges on entertainment.

The nation that best fulfills its Godgiven responsibilities is not necessarily the nation that displays the most religiosity. A country possessed of the might of the United States might do better to go into its closet and pray to its Father in secret rather than standing on the street corners parading its piety before men. The temptation is just about irresistible for a powerful nation to rely on its religiosity as proof of its own virtue. Thus is threatened the possibility of sober and responsible political action.

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