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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, November 14, 1980
Page 26
that he lost the Democratic primaries and the nomination this year does
not discredit him in the party. Indeed, his losing campaign may have
vindicated him for Kennedy represented the liberal conscience fighting
against Jimmy Carter, the opportunist and the usurper. It was Kennedy,
not Carter, who controlled the Democratic National Convention this year
in New York, and his rousing speech reaffirmed the traditional liberal
Democratic orthodoxy--and instantly made Kennedy the heir apparent to
party leadership. The Democratic officeholders who supported the 'open
convention' movement last summer were fearful of electoral castrophe
with
Jimmy
Carter at the head of the Democratic Party
ticket.
Their
worst fears were borne out on November 4.
"Of course it is far from clear that Kennedy would have been a stronger
candidate than Carter at the head of the Democratic ticket this year.
Kennedy's liabilities were amply demonstrated during the long primary
campaign. But Kennedy nevertheless won legitimacy in the party, even as
Reagan did in his party, when he narrowly lost the nomination to an
incumbent president four years ago. By carrying his fight to the bitter
end, Kennedy established himself as a man of deep principle and commitment.
And then by campaigning for Carter this fall, he bolstered his reputation
as a good partisan."
Mr. Reagan, similar to Mrs. Thatcher in Great Britain, has every intention
of getting his nation, as he says, "back to work again." And like Mrs.
Thatcher he will be judged primarily upon his performance with the economy.
Will he be able to cut inflation, for example, without paying a heavy
price in unemployment--an issue the "full employment" philosophy Democrats
would certainly capitalize on?
Might we see by the next election in 1984 a swing to the left in the U.S.
and the U.K.--and a corresponding swing to the right in West Germany?
Curiously, the Germans seem to follow, by several years, trends in the
United States. Bonn is still in the hands of a left-of-center socialist
government. A swing to the right, which took place in Britain in 1978 and
in the U.S. in 1980, has yet to take place in Bonn.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau