Fighting for the Ethnic Vote

After listening to Mr. Ford, Polish Communist Party Chief Edward Gierek died.

How did he die? Of laughter.

That not very funny Polish joke is even less of a laughing matter for Jerry Ford. It echoes his troubles among Polish Americans and other people of Eastern European descent who make up 10% or more of the population in such pivotal states as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. A loss of a relatively few ethnic votes in those battlegrounds could cost Ford dearly, and many of these voters were surprised and offended by his celebrated gaffe in the second debate with Jimmy Carter. "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe," said the President ingenuously, adding that Poland is "independent and autonomous."

Wounded Feelings. Ford obviously did not mean what he said. But his remark wounded the feelings of many Polish Americans and others of Eastern European extraction. The postwar immigrants in particular are bitter about the oppression of Communism, and they are inclined to regard their homelands with much the same fervor that American Jews feel for Israel. While people now living in Eastern Europe have generally made their accommodation with the regimes, the immigrants--and many first-and second-generation Americans -- remain unalterably opposed to Communism and await, however forlornly, its overthrow.

Until Ford committed his slip, the ethnics had been moving into the Republican column. They are mostly Roman Catholics, who live in big cities, often hold blue-collar jobs--and are basically registered Democrats. In 1912, distrustful of George McGovern's far-out liberalism, a majority voted for Richard Nixon. More recently, they have been antagonized by Democratic positions on some key issues. Living in close-knit communities with a strong sense of family, ethnics generally take a hard line on crime, drugs, pornography and amnesty. They are increasingly uneasy with one other group in the Democratic coalition: blacks, who are competing with ethnics for declining jobs and services in the hard-pressed big cities of the Northeast and Midwest.

The ethnics are perhaps most dissatisfied with the Democratic Party for its position on abortion. While Ford supports a constitutional amendment to allow the states to outlaw abortion. Carter does not, though he personally is against abortion. Moreover, Carter is a Southern Baptist, and ethnics view that denomination suspiciously because of its anti-Catholicism in years past. Ford is also a devout Protestant (Episcopalian), but many ethnics feel more comfortable with him than with Carter because the President does not appear to make his religion so paramount.

The drift to Ford was abruptly stalled by his Polish remark. Said Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat: "There was a revulsion on the part of people, many of whom still send clothes over there and go there two weeks every summer." Added Terry Gabinski. a Democratic alderman in Chicago: "Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about Carter being proabortion. Now I hear people saying they just can't believe the President said what he did." Invited to speak at a long-scheduled Polish American Congress dinner in Chicago last week. Bishop Alfred L. Abramowicz agonized over whether to attend because Jimmy Carter was the main guest. When he finally decided to go, he told the audience, "I find myself in a great dilemma tonight. My Catholic friends of Polish descent assembled here shout, 'Come sit and dine with us!' My pro-life friends outside clamor, 'Come stand by us!' " The bishop compromised by condemning both Communism and abortion, hailing "God and country" and "liberty and life."

Wasting No Time. Ethnic voters waited impatiently for a retraction from Ford, and many thought it was too long coming. Finally a delegation of 18 American ethnic leaders visited the White House at the invitation of the President. Afterward, Aloysius (Al) Masewski, president of the Chicago-based Polish National Alliance, announced that he was satisfied. "What I wanted Ford to say was that it was a mistake."

Ford did that. "The original mistake was mine," he said. "I did not express myself clearly; I admit it." The President also promised to sign a veterans' bill, sought by Polish Americans for 30 years, that would grant medical benefits to Poles and Czechs now living in America who fought under the Allied command in World Wars I and II. Wasting no time, Ford put his signature on the bill in a Rose Garden ceremony, while cameras rolled and ethnic representatives beamed.

Later, at his press conference, he returned to the subject of Eastern Europe: "Now we concede for the time being that the Soviet Union has that military power there, but we subscribe to the hopes and aspirations of the courageous Polish people and their relations in the U.S." Had he gone far enough to win back the ethnic voters? On the surface, it appeared that he had. Campaigning in the East last week, he ran into no heckling in ethnic neighborhoods. In Yonkers, N.Y., he was cheered by crowds waving SLOVAK AMERICANS FOR FORD signs. In Union, N.J., he was greeted with signs proclaiming JA CIE KOCHAM (Polish for "I love you"). But these were largely Republican areas. Ethnics who continue to resent his statement may be less visible, though just as capable of going to the polling booth. As Masewski concedes, "There will be certain segments who will continue to blame him. There are some who don't believe in forgiving."

Shattered Faith. Among them may be many Hungarians, who are ardently antiCommunist. Laszlo Mogyorossy, head of the freedom-fighter veterans of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, believes that Ford's remark actually reflected American policy toward Eastern Europe, which he feels has been written off in the name of detente with the Soviet Union. Said he: "We should have known all along we were right. Our faith in the Republican Party is shattered." The Hungarian-American Republican National Federation met last week to reconsider its endorsement of Ford. Its leaders did not withdraw support, but they sent a sharp letter to the President demanding the dismissal of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a revision of the Helsinki agreement, in which the U.S. acknowledged the current borders in Eastern Europe.

While ethnics were genuinely indignant and apprehensive about Ford's remarks, their reaction has been self-serving to a degree. They, too, are pursuing a political strategy, and the President in a sense did them a favor. Says Masewski: "There's an old Polish saying --'There isn't anything so bad that it doesn't turn out for the good.' That is what has happened here. This has brought the attention of the American people to the struggle for a free Poland." Ford had inadvertently dramatized the cause of the ethnic groups while damaging, at least momentarily, his own election chances.

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