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1
In
the 1968 California Democratic Primary, I was able to vote for Senator Eugene McCarthy,
whose campaign in New Hampshire had led to Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to run
for re-election, because of the quagmire in VietNam. I should have read McCarthy's 1964 book, A
Liberal Answer to the Conservative Challenge, back then in 1968, but I have
been glad to read it recently. It is surprisingly relevant in 2015, when
liberals might think an "answer to the conservative challenge"
is as much needed as it ever was.
Many
of McCarthy’s statements about the “challenge” from conservatives and about the
1964-68 state of affairs turn out to be relevant to conservatives’ values,
initiatives, and actions of today. Many statements about his own
time, in other words, could be made with equal force in our own time.
This
is true, I think, for two reasons: (a) the fact that Gene McCarthy's statements
in 1964 were so very perceptive in their own time, and (b) the fact that the
tension between liberal principles and perceptions and conservative principles
and perceptions is an enduring – if not permanent – feature of American
culture.
2
McCarthy’s
“Answer to the Conservative Challenge” is divided into several parts:
Introduction:
The Banner Yet Waves
I.
The Scales of Economic Justice
II. Of Payrolls and Property, and
III.
The Responsibilities of Responsible Government.
Along
the way, throughout his 1964 book, McCarthy mentions several universal
principles:
"The idea of 'survival of the
fittest' does not apply to human society... ." [p. 35]
"Technical
processes, which includes business and economic processes, must be directed to
human ends." [p. 35]
“It has been argued that once the
federal government moves to meet a particular problem, complete federal control
or operation inevitably follows. The overwhelming weight of evidence in
our national history is against this assertion.” [p. 65]
“When we see
the misery and hopelessness in which too many of our people now live, economic
theories should not divert us from the simple, positive response that justice
demands. Evasion of their just claim for help is faulty democracy as well
as bad economics.”
[p. 45]
"To
oversimplify and to misapply slogans is to do a disservice to the whole
decision-making process in a democracy." [pp. 28-29]
“Basic to the operation of the legislative
branch of the government is … rule by majority vote. Frustrating the
majority by prolonged debate was in no way sustained or supported at the
Constitutional Convention...” [p. 89]
3
McCarthy contrasts Liberals and Conservatives generally:
“Liberals
have been accused of being materialists - conservatives of believing in
economic determinism; liberals of lacking faith - conservatives of having no
trust in human reason; liberals of perpetuating and sharpening the class struggle
- conservatives of advocating unlimited competition, the survival of the
fittest as the dynamic of life and progress in society.” [p. 8]
"In political campaigns it is
customary for liberals to charge that government has not done enough for the economy,
and for conservatives to charge that the government is attempting to do too
much." [p. 32]
“The basic ideas or concepts [in the
American founding documents] are self-determination, equality, liberty, and the
positive role of government. Of these basic concepts the only one subject
to serious debate is the last – that of the role of government. It is on
this point that liberals and conservatives in the United States come closest to
ideological or doctrinaire – as well as practical – disagreement.” [p. 10]
4
McCarthy
addresses a few topics in some detail, contrasting for example liberals’ views to
conservatives’ positions on Economic and Fiscal Policy:
“…The federal
government should stand ready with emergency public works programs to help meet
the very special problems of recession or unusual temporary disturbances in the
economic life of the country.” [p. 47]
"There are three widely and
strongly held conservative ideas which bear importantly on [the discussion of
economic and fiscal policy]: One,
that a balanced budget is an ultimate good; two,
that absolute control of inflation is not only an economic good but also a
moral good; and three, that
government expenditures by their very nature are wasteful and
noneconomic." [p.19]
"A balanced budget may be good or
it may be bad." [p. 20]
"Is a balanced or an unbalanced
budget good or bad? The answer must be that neither is economically or
morally good or bad in itself, but that each budget must be judged in relation
to the whole pattern of facts and forces." [p.28]
"...Liberals are not in any absolute or moral sense in favor of unbalanced
budgets... [or] inflation - galloping or creeping – and...liberals do not
believe that governmental expenditures are never wasteful." [p.20]
"In the years between 1953 and
1960 - the Eisenhower administration - the budget was unbalanced in five out of
eight years, and the national debt increased by roughly $20 billion." [p.
21] Note: In all eight Reagan years, the federal deficits were
high.
"Deficit financing and the
extension of credit are vital to the American economy. Credit is one of
the instruments which have contributed greatly to the growth of Western
civilization and certainly to the growth of the United States." [p. 21]
5
McCarthy
reveals consistent differences between liberal ideas and conservatives’ stands
on Taxes:
“The principles of sound taxation have
not changed since they were stated by Adam Smith in 1776. A sound tax
system, he said, should raise enough revenue; it should be just; it should be
easy to administer; and it should stimulate growth.” [p. 13]
“The progressive income tax is a
special target of the conservatives. Some even advocate the repeal of the
16th Amendment.” [ p. 13]
"…Many [of the rich] benefit from
special dividend credits and deductions now provided in the law. Many
have changed their investments so as to be able to take advantage of the
capital gains provisions of the law.” [p.14]
“Although there is a continuing debate even among liberals as to whether the [tax]
rates themselves are proper or defensible, it is generally accepted by liberals
that tax rates should reflect in some degree the taxpayer’s ability to pay;
that is, the rate should be higher for those in high income brackets. The
top rate in the federal income tax scale has been, for many years, 91 percent.” [p.14] (emphasis added) Note: This one
statement is not at all true today, when the rich and super-rich pay less than
25% in federal income taxes. In the
1950s and 60s, when the rich paid such high percentages in federal tax, the
economy was booming, the era coming to be known as The Great Prosperity. And of course, the economy is not booming
today.
6
On the government’s role in Commerce,
McCarthy shows key differences between Liberals and Conservatives:
"Leon Keyserling [Council of
Economic Advisers, 1945-1953]... insists that reasoned judgment be applied to
the economy and the business community and to its problems; and that to leave
these problems to nature or to the operation of economic laws (which, with some
oversimplifications, is called the conservative approach) is to declare for the
irrational." [p. 35]
"...Some of the early and simple
rules of competition, which work well when there are many small producers
competing in a free and open market, do not work as effectively when great
concentration of economic power is involved. We must acknowledge that
with an increase in power there must be corresponding increase in responsible
control." [p. 36]
"...
American business is primarily motivated by search for profit and individual or
corporate advancement, and cannot be expected to respond to all of the demands
of a social or economic nature... . Government, on the other hand, has primary
responsibility for the common good and, therefore, must assert itself when
private interests seriously threaten or interfere with the efforts to achieve
it." [p. 30]
"Regulatory powers serve a number
of purposes: They may protect the public, insure a free competitive
economy, or promote business activity." [p. 30]
"Almost without exception, federal
intervention in the economic life of nation has followed abuse of privilege, or
neglect or failure on the part of extra-governmental institutions or
individuals to meet the needs of the country." [p. 31]
"'Get the government out of
business" is a popular conservative political slogan. ...[And yet]
the federal government has been actively involved in the business and economic
life of the country since the beginning of our nation's existence."
[pp. 29-30]
7
Likewise,
Liberals and Conservatives, McCarthy writes, differ on the topic of Helping
the Poor and Unemployed:
“We have been challenged to work out
devices and procedures under which every person can have a claim and a share of
that which is produced.” [p. 55]
“…The federal
government should stand ready with emergency public works programs to help meet
the very special problems of recession or unusual temporary disturbances in the
economic life of the country.” [p. 47]
“…There is no doubt that poverty is still a
fact of life in the United States.” [p. 37]
“Under such
conditions does government have any obligation? The conservative position
generally is that it does not; the liberal position is that it does have a
responsibility.” [p.
38]
“When we see
the misery and hopelessness in which too many of our people now live, economic
theories should not divert us from the simple, positive response that justice
demands. Evasion of their just claim for help is faulty democracy as well
as bad economics.”
[p. 45]
“Unemployment is in many ways the most
difficult if not the central problem of our free economy and our free society.”
[p. 42]
“What is the conservative answer? …
that there always must be workers changing jobs, industries declining as others
rise, and a ready labor supply available for new products or extra shifts…[or]
that current unemployment is temporary…[or] that the problem is local [and] it
should be left to industry or to the states.” [p. 45]
“The liberal position emphasizes
federal responsibility.” [p. 45]
“Work is an activity which for most…is
an expression of the human person.” [p. 50]
“In a liberal view, ‘the right to work’
is too closely related to basic human rights to be used as a mere slogan
against unionization.” [p. 48]
“In the middle of the 19th
century, John Stuart Mill, writing as a philosopher of liberal economics, said
that there cannot be a more ‘legitimate object of the legislator’s care than
the interests of those who are sacrificed to the gain of their fellow citizens
and prosperity – those displaced by changing methods of production.’” [p. 52]
8
Health
Care
and Education in 1964, as in our own time, were topics on which Liberals
and Conservatives took different positions:
“…[The legislators’] decision may be to
establish or maintain national programs of security; to improve the social
security program so as to make it more effective, to have a national program of
health insurance, to have a more satisfactory unemployment compensation program
based upon national standards.” [p. 54]
“There are those who argue that private
insurance, together with state aid for the indigent sick, is adequate.
The obvious answer is that, for many, this has not been the case.”[p. 66]
“The state as an institution concerned
primarily with the temporal good of man has a right and an obligation to set up
standards for education, and the
right to require its citizens to meet these standards insofar as it is possible
to do so. The standards, of course, must be reasonable and must leave
open great areas of freedom for the pursuit of truth and individual
fulfillment.” [p. 74]
“…For the nation, increasing the
quality and availability of education is vital to both our national security
and our domestic well-being.’ ” [p. 76]
9
McCarthy’s liberal principles, contrasted with
conservatives’ interests, are stated broadly:
“President [Franklin] Roosevelt
expressed his view…in his State of the Union Address of 1944: ‘We cannot be
content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some
fraction of our people – whether it be one-third or one fifth or one tenth – is
ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. …Necessitous men are not free
men.’” [p. 40-1]
“These have been the elements of the
liberal program and, to the extent these needs are not met, they remain as
essential parts of the liberal program.” [p. 42]
In
our own time, conservatives seek to “starve” government in order to
prohibit what they see as the liberal inclination to use government as a
fundamental tool for pursuing social justice – quality public education,
accessible health care, individual civil rights, protection of the average
American, and security for the poor and the aging – issues which, my goodness,
are the very problems we are trying to deal with in 2015.
Eugene
McCarthy's observations way back in 1964 seem true, wise, even prescient.
We can only hope that "the banner yet waves" today.
***
