Stomping to a tune of Righteousness

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 10

Stomping to a tune of Righteousness

By

MIKE ROYKO,

“Chicago Sun-Times” . Detroit There were more than a few moist, eyes in the Convention hall when true-blue Pat Boone ' got things rolling with the pledge of allegiance. ; Then lips trembled and goose bumps rippled when good ol’ boy Glen Campbell and cutey-pie Tanya Tucker sang their countrystyle version of the National Anthem. These ~ are 'patriotic folks, the’ Reagan Conservatives.’ They almost beat you on the head with their flags and starspangled clothing. And it’s that old-time John Wayne patriotism, theV kind that says we should be . strong and stomp our enemies, beat them to the draw, . drop them in their tracks if they mess around. - That’s why, I find it curious that these two-f?s-ted Conservatives often adopt ; as symbols .people who are rather timid warriors when they have - a

chance to do some patriotic stomping. Take the above men- • tioned Pat Boone, if you can stand him. Boone endeared himself to the Hawkish . Conservatives in ' the 1960 s when he put out a record called, “Wish You were here, Buddy.” - The song was about a ”. Gl, slogging it out in Vietnam, and it sneered at those in the. peace movement, v’ the conscientious objectors, the Jong hairs, and almost anyone, else who thought the war . was wrong: The lyrics ended with a hint of a threat that the Gl would “look up” some of the peaceniks when he got back. This, was the same. Pat Boone who slid safely past the Korean War because he got married and had kids, and once said that he would be a “partial conscientious objector” if he. were ever drafted. He said, Yep, he’d be willing to serve as a medic, but, nope, he wouldn’t want io shoot anyone. But Boone’s views

changed, as sometimes happens, when he was no longer of draft age.- Then he could sneer at others who. didn’t want to shoot someone.

So the Republican Convention began with the pledge of allegiance . from a declared non-combatant. Don’t all those cowboy hats mean’anything.

. Then there is Reagan himself, the super-hero of the Conservatives who have taken over the Republic Party. Ever since. he’s been in politics, Reagan has talked tough. During the Vietnam War, he hawkishly suggested that we “bomb them back to the stone age.”. He had contempt for the peace movement. And he’s still big 'on flexing ■ our muscles at the rest of the world. The Republican platform is the militaryindustrial complex’s dream document.

This is the same Ronald Reagan who virtually sat out World War II although he was sound of limb and young enough

(about 30 when it began) ’ to have jumped into his: own fox hole, '■=. „') ; j Oh,- he was in the army,: air right.’ .His‘. campaignbiographies make a point of mentioning his. World War' IL military; service- as a commissioned officer. But he spent the warmaking training films on. the West Coast .and .week- ■ ending .with, i-.’hfs ..pretty movie-actress.. wife. The only Japanese he' saw were Hollywood gardeners. .

Some hawk. There was more physical danger involved in running a rivet gun in a shipyard. Now, it is true that they also serve,' those who make training’ films. And if the army tells you to make training’ films, a good soldier . obeys his orders.

On fhe other hand, there were men in World War II who actually rejected safe assignments and insisted on combat duty. The late Senator Paul Dbuglas of Illinois, was 50 years old when he talked his way into the Marines

and became a combat infantryman. . But Douglas (a notorious Liberal, incidentally) i ever talked as tough as the Conservative Reagan. Those who are truly, tough don’t flaunt it the way those who deal only in images do. ’ Besides patriotism, the other obvious quality of these delegates, is their concern for morality. They are not only concerned about' their own, but about everybody elscfs too. Some of them are members of Moral Majority, a Right-wing coalition of Bible thumpers who con-’ sider anyone to the Left of Reagan to be agents of the devil. One of them, when asked fc; an interview, shrieked at the reporter: “Haye you been saved?”

The Reaganites are also big on “the family.” Listening to them talk, you get the impression that they want somehow to return to a mythical •time when every family in American consisted of Judge Hardy, Mrs Hardy

and Little Andy Hardy, all living in a big white house on a tree-shaded, small-town street.

So which family man did thev pick to sing the National Anthem on world-wide television? The above mentioned Glen Campbell, aged 44, who recently shed his third wife. Singing along with him was the abovementioned Tanya Tucker, aged 21, who is now Campbell’s live-in girlfriend, as they joyously revealed in “People” magazine. Personally, I do not care if Campbell has five more wives, or if he takes up with a 16-year-old topless dancer. As long as he can pay for his own vitamin pills aifd ginseng, it’s his business.

But it strikes me as being silly for these tightlipped blue noses to be clucking about the state of morality and family life in America while showcasing the kind of people they would consider to be living, tsk, tsk, in a state of sin.

Too bad sobriety isn’t part of the Republican platform. They might have brought Dean Martin on stage to drink a toast to it.