Democrats Leave Capital

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31835, 13 November 1968, Page 17

Democrats Leave Capital

(From FRANK OLIVER, N.Z P.A

special correspondent)

WASHINGTON.

This is a sad city as Democrats of all kinds, after running things for eight years say their farewells to the city and to each other as they make way for their political rivals who are arriving in the hope and expectation that they too will have eight years to run the country. Whether th Grand Old Party will get those eight years depends a great deal on the path Mr Nixon lays out for himself end his Administration. He will arrive to take over in January as a minority victor with no clear mandate from the electorate and forced to work for two years at least with a Democraticcontrolled Congress. John F. Kennedy scored a similarly narrow victory eight years ago and, although Congressional majorities were of his own party, shaped .i> course cautiously because he did not feel he had an outright mandate.

Mr Nixon has changed a good deal during this eventful year. When he sought the nomination early in the year, starting with a campaign in the snow in New Hampshire, he was a definite “hawk.” Through the election campaign, he eased towards a rather “dovish” position as it became clear the country as a whole wanted the Vietnam war over with.

He also espoused strongly conservative views where a variety of domestic issues were concerned He created •he imnression that he would ’only the axe to most if not •>ll of the volume of legislation that was to create the

Great Society. Now, as one writer says, his many promises and pledges may return to haunt him. The text of Mr Nixon’s victory statements was reconciliation. It was obvious this had to be the tey„ for his party needs unifying as well as the country. His conservative statements and pledges in the early days of the campaign pleased his conservative supporters and now the nation wants to see how conservative his Cabinet will be and how conservative his policy. A close confidant of the new President has told those near him, says a reliable source, that this is probably the last election to be decided by the “un-young, un-black and the un-poor” and that to keep from being a strictly one-term President. Mr Nixon must reach out his hand toward the Left. The maker of these statements is said to be busy helping Mr Nixon to form his new Administration.

Although the country as a whole did veer to the Right in this election, it proves not to have been a sharp turn. The liberal coalition in the Senate looks as if it has survived the Republican gains in that Chamber. The House has a working Democratic majority but there also the liberal bloc seems almost as well off as before. Only next vear will it be seen whether the coalition of Renublican conservatives and Southern Democratic conservatives is formidable.

No pattern seems to have been established. In the contests for the House some moderate to liberal Democrats won seats ousting some Renublicans. In other races the reverse hannened. Senator William Fulbright the greatest “dove” in the Senate, was re-elected, in Oregon, Mr Wayne Morse, another prominent “dove.” seems to have 'ost. In California, a liberal Democrat defeated an arch-

conservative backed by Mr Nixon and Governor Reagan, to gain a seat previously in Republican hands.

All in ail it looks the kind of Congress with which Mr Humphrey could have worked happily but Mr Nixon may face problems in dealing with such a legislature—unless of course he makes that move towards the Left his adviser has suggested. His other problems concern the considerable areas of voters who opposed him at the polls. As far as can be discovered he got a very small percentage of the Negro vote, very few votes from the poor, almost none from the young intellectuals such as college students and professors who were behind McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. And in the end he and George Wallace got far less support from organised labour than expected during the middle period of the campaign. During the campaign Mr Nixon promised a “housecleaning” in the State Department and others in the Justice and Agriculture Departments; These, of course, he can carry out if he still feels so disposed in January. He is also pledged to establish clear-cut military superiority over the Russians, reestablish a dialogue with De Gaulle, get the British into the European Economic Community, open a dialogue with Peking, step up the economic squeeze on Cuba, give 18-year-olds the vote, replace the draft by a volunteer army, reform the Federal tax structure and repeal Mr Johnson’s 10 per cent Federal surtax “as soon as possible.” He also promised to reduce “excessive” Federal regulation of businesses and he promised to kill the job corps, a part of the Great Society programme. He has also promised economy but on the other hand wants to make greater expenditures for arms, in social security benefits, higher wel-

fare benefits, tax credits for college tuition and Federal aid to private schools. James Reston suggests that to redeem his promises the new President will need the diplomacy of a Tallyrand and the financial wizardry of both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. The Vietnam war is no longer a divisive issue as Mr Nixon has moved steadily nearer to the position of those who earlier criticised his stand on that problem. He now wants to end the war honourably by negotiation. It seems highly probable that his changed stand on the war gave many votes to Mr Humphrey and brought about the close race for the popular vote. Mr Humphrey’s moves away from the Johnson stand on the war also gave him votes from some who felt they could not vote for him as a Johnson stand-in and some who were going to give “protest” votes to Mr Nixon.

Mr Nixon’s election, it is believed, may slow down the Paris talks as everyone adopts a wait-and-see attitude, but in any event it seems certain the new President will follow the lines laid down by the bombing halt. His refusal to go to either Saigon or Paris unless asked to by Mr Johnson is being hailed as statesmanlike. One certainty, as far as politics can be certain, is that suggestions of recent years that the Electoral College should be thrown out of the window and the President elected by popular vote will now be taken up in Congress more forcibly, probably with White House approval. Mr Nixon when it seemed the election would go to the House, urged that the man with the most popular votes be selected. Had he won in the Electoral College and lost in the popular stakes, which almost happened, his position would have been slightly uncomfortable to say the least