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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Jan. 13, 1965
Political Parties
Are There Differences?
LAST WEEK Michigan Rep. Gerald R. Ford ousted six-year veteran Charles A. Halleck of Indiana as House Republican leader. Ford's election was hailed by observers as another step in rebuilding the "image" of the GOP from that of a conservative to a moderate party.
The party "image" is an old, old concept to which the glitter and gold of the Madison Avenue PR man and the TV cameras and the microphones of the news media have been added.
It is not surprising that a present-day voter becomes confused by the various pitches for a "Great Society" or a "Conservative Crusade" and wonders just what each party offers beneath the glittering oratory and the flawless mask created by the PR man.
INTO HIS SLOGAN-SHATTERED MIND pop such questions as: "Do any real differences exist between the two parties?" "If so, what are these differences?" "Or are they the same, as some critics of the political system and some candidates charge, offering no real choice, but merely an echo of each other's policies and candidates?"
A closer analysis finds that, beneath the image, real and important differences do exist. There is a perceptible difference in ideologies and there are differences in party makeup and support.
Broadly speaking, the Republican philosophy is that of "little" government, while the Democrats are advocates of "big" government. Republicans are, generally, those people who have no wish to see the federal government dominate or increase its activities in the regulation of the lives and welfare of the nation's citizens.
DEMOCRATS, on the other hand, believe a strong, active federal government is necessary since it is the only one, in their opinion, that is capable of meeting and solving the complex problems facing an ever-growing and more complex society.
One finds that largely due to this broad, but nevertheless real, difference regarding the role of Washington, different kinds of support are gathered together by the two parties when the time comes to cast ballots.
Though it is extremely difficult to draw any concise, clear distinctions, the following general differences between the parties can be discovered. The distinctions are based chiefly on social, economic and geographical lines.
1) THE REPUBLICANS are the party of the older middle-class sectors of our population. By and large this includes the large industrialists as well as the nation's small shopkeepers and many of the professional people, mainly lawyers and doctors.
In contrast, the Democrits have a much broader sociological base than do their rivals. One can find both the very rich and the very poor, and in between those two extremes, a huge section of people who are neither.
The labor class, which is frequently in the opposite camp from the business interests, finds their needs best served by the Democratic party.
The great sector of the new middle classes in America, mostly employed in service industries rather than production or management, finds the greatest appeal in the Democratic party largely because of the proliferation of welfare services and the regulation of the economy that sprang to life first under the Democratic administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as an answer to the Great Depression.
2) GEOGRAPHICALLY, the heavily populated North and East are strongholds of the Democrats while the Republicans find most of their support in the Midwest and West. The South, despite some defections, is still Democratic, as is much of the West.
People on the farms and people in the small cities and towns are found somewhat more frequently in the ranks of the GOP, though in recent years there has been a trend on the part of the farm population to look to the federal government for price supports for the ailing farm economy.
Suburbia, since the war, has been Democratic, but a recent trend, partially a product of upward social mobility, shows the GOP gaining support in that area.
In contrast the Democrats are heavily urban The city-dweller and the suburbanite are the strength of the party, largely because the cities are the homes of those employed in the production and service sectors of our economy.
3) GENERAL ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS differences exist between the parties. Republicans are drawn mostly from the ranks of white Protestants, mostly northern European in ancestry.
The Democratic party early became the refuge for the new immigrants who were open to vast political exploitation because of their status as second-class citizens and their grinding poverty.
Historically, then, the ethnic groups—Irish, Italian, Poles, Swedes, Slovaks, and Hungarians—have remained loyal to the Democratic party, oftentimes in spite of a later rise in social and economic standing that was the product of Democratic administrations. Such rises have tended to produce a more conservative outlook, but have not changed party loyalty to a great extent.
The Negroes, emancipated by the Republicans, and for a number of decades supporters of that party, have joined the ranks of the Democratic party during the last 25 years. This again is due to the role the Democrats have played in securing civil rights and social-welfare legislation that have been the beginning steps toward making the Negro and other oppressed groups such as the Indians and the Mexicans, first-class citizens.
THOUGH MANY PROTESTANTS are found in both parties, the Democrats have provided a haven for Jews, Catholics and many of the religious minorities.
One could continue drawing distinctions, but he would climb farther out on an already shaky limb, for beyond this point the distinctions become blurred to such an extent as to make differences relatively unimportant.
Sectional interests, economic and social interests, education, religious and ethnic loyalties all intertwine and work to blur the broad distinctions listed previously. Though the general statements about the nature of party philosophies and membership hold true, an observer must be conscious that their are a great many exceptions to those rules.
It is perhaps just this blurring that allows the parties to function as an amalgam of divergent interests. In a certain sense each man and his idea have a chance for acceptance in the broad forum that is a U.S. political party.
HOWEVER, THE DIFFERENCES are real and provide part of the dynamism that is American politics.
In answering the question "Do they offer a choice or an echo?" one must say that in terms of our society they offer the clearest choice available. In a complex giant like today's America the answers to a myriad of problems can be found only by a centralized bureaucratic government. It is not so much a question of which direction to travel, but rather how fast this country will travel toward some form of Social Democracy.
Clearly, the GOP favors a less rapid transition, a transition that is inevitable, perhaps, but also controllable. Caution is the Republican watchword.
THE DEMOCRATS, however, call for a more progressive movement toward something we some day may call "The Great Society."
Thus an observer discovers that there are real differences beneath the apparent sameness of the two parties after all.
Here too, the Republicans and the Democrats offer a clear choice, not of direction, but of speed.
— Rick Mabbutt
Precedent Set
Former Gov. John Anderson Jr. set precedent Monday in appointing John F. Eberhardt of Wichita to the state Board of Regents. Previously no member of the Regents had been from cities where state universities or colleges were located.
Governor Anderson said "to place a barrier upon qualified individuals living in heavily populated areas was unjust."
In breaking a long standing, but meaningless tradition the governor contributed greatly to higher education in Kansas. We agree with the governor, for it would be quite unfair for qualified citizens from Wichita, the population center of the state, not to be appointed to the state Board of Regents.
David J. Hanks
"This Is The Great Society?"
Science Soared in '64
The year 1964 has seen great developments throughout the world in science and medicine.
Scientists and doctors made enormous strides during the year in technology and in prevention and control of disease.
THE GREATEST SINGLE STORY involving science during the year is the story which has only begun—the interplanetary voyage of the spaceship Mariner 4. The huge ship, which was hurled aloft Nov. 28, 1964, from Cape Kennedy, Fla., is still on its way to the planet Mars. If all goes well, the craft will televise up to 22 photographs from a distance of about 10,000 miles from the red planet next July.
Examination of the photographs may well give scientists the answers to questions which have been asked for years about Mars. More important, however, is the fact that the $ 7 \frac{1}{2} $ -month, 325 million-mile trip marks man's first apparently successful effort to gain information about another planet by actually sending a space ship there. The implications of this trip are beyond assessment.
The nuclear explosion set off by Red China is a significant development in terms of political repercussions. From a purely scientific standpoint, however, the Chinese bomb is in a very early stage of development and cannot be considered a world-wide technological development—important though it may be politically.
RESEARCH IN THE TREATMENT of cancer, heart disease and other dread diseases has been forwarded greatly in the past year. The president's commission has shed new light on the relationship between smoking and heart disease, cancer and assorted other diseases. While the report has done little to actually affect the smoking habits of Americans, it is, nonetheless, an important look into the cause of fatal ailments. The smoking report is only one of a number of steps which were taken, during 1964, in the treatment and control of poor health.
- Marshall Caskey
BOOK REVIEWS
Unknown to most readers is this epic novel of Scandinavia, published in 1921. It's fortunate that such a work can obtain a mass audience, for it's a real classic of Norway folk life.
Bojer describes a man named Kristaver Myran, owner of a fishing boat, who goes into the perilous waters off northern Norway and with his crew battles the sea and nature.
THE LAST OF THE VIKINGS, by Johan Bojer (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
It is a picture of life in Norway and the rough fight for existence; the message similarly was handled when another Norwegian, O. E. Rolvaag, wrote the Norwegian-American classic, "Giants in the Earth."
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Jim Langford and Rick Mabbutt Co-Editorial Editors