Editx)rials

Election 1966: resentment and unreality

When an individual fails l<i ;ict in :i crisis, the cir-cumstances thenisi'lvfs will blinrlly rL-solvu theproblem—and often not to the liking of that indi-vidual. This is a thought to keep in mind for theelection. For it must be obvious to any thinkingcitizen that today's times are not ordinary times,and this will not be an ordinary election.

Disunity, frustration, suspicion and fear per-meate the nation. It seems as if an air of unrealityis settling over us all. For, very clearly, thingsare not what they had seemed two years ago.Then, a widespread concern over the possibilityof an escalated Vietnam war had helped to de-feat the Republican candidate and to elect Presi-dent Johnson. Two years ago, the civil-rightsmovement had seemed to be making a historicbreakthrough,—with broad popular support. Sud-denly, insanely, outbreaks of racial violencebegan increasing In city after city, North andSouth. A possibility that had been regarded beforeas only a baleful threat—the "white backlash" —has churned dangerously into the very center ofalmost every campaign.

Comp(junding all these deeper emotional reac-tions are the bitter disagreements over the Admin-istration's spending programs. Basid&lly, the con-flict is over the priorities being given to guns overdomestic needs—the spending for the escalating warin Vietnam in the face of the ever-more-insistentdemands of the Great Society. The cost of living isup, the stock market is down, and everybody isunhappy over either one or both of these trends.

All of these problems will, to some degree, affectthe outcome of Tuesday's election. If RonaldReagan wrests the California governorship fromPat Brown, it would be because the conservativemovement put him across. The conservativestrength would almost certainly be reflecting somepart nf the backlash, and such a victory would putthe fiiriner actor in an excellent jyjsition to lead theconservatives as a presidential candidate in 1968.

If the segregationists and the conservatives alldo well in the election, there is a very good possi-bility that Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabamawill present himself as a third-party presidentialcandidate in 1968. Wallace entered three presiden-tial-primary contests in 1964, and won 43 percentof the votes in Maryland, 34 percent in Wisconsin,and 30 percent in Indiana. If backlash sentimentshould run away with itself in the North, a mereplurality of the popular vote in a sufficient numberof states tnight win him a majority in the ElectoralCollege. It is conceivable that George Wallacecould become President.

S<_)mewhere on the hustings today, dozensof pres-idential aspirantb are in full cry. The issues—local,national, international—pose decisive turningpoints on every side, and the public will decidewhich way the country will tum. But we know, ofcourse, that there is no such thing a "the public."There are only individuals. In a democracy the in-dividual citizens are supreme m their collective actsin the voting booths. The problems of our time areserious enough to demand action by all voters.

Reaction in Georgia

Everj' action has an equal and opposite reaction,and this is as true of politics as it is of physics. Thereaction hit Georgia a few weeks ago, when thedeafening snap of a white backlash producedLester G. Maddox as the Democratic nominee forgovernor of Georgia, Mr. Maddox ran againstEllis G. Arnall, a distinguished moderate, and wona stunning victory in a runoff primary. Sometimebefore this, Mr. Maddox ran an agreeable and in-expensive chicken restaurant in Atlanta, where hegot his political start by handing out ax handles towhite customers to discourage black ones. What-ever one thinks of this sort of political activity, itis not adequate training for the highest office inthe state. And it probably wouldn't have been forMaddox, except for an unexpected development inAtlanta—a series of violent, senseless riots.

Stokely Carmichael. head of S.N,C.C. and anoisy prop<jnent of black power, was a conspicuousfigure in these riots. They fractured a cirefullyconstructed peace that had been painfully builtover the years by local citizens of both colors,and may have dealt a fearsome blf)w to the Geor-

gia Democratic Party, white reason and blackpower all at once. They may even have providedGeorgia with its first Republican governor since1871. This would be the G.O.P. nominee, HowardH. iBo) Callaway, a highly presentable young manwith limited political experience, an attractivewife and the backing of a powerful and wealthyfamily. White reaction to the riots was to rejectthe moderate \-iew, thus leaving the voters a choicebetween an upstart young Republican and a dead-end segregationist. This confounds the Demo-cratic leadership (who will hold their noses andvote for Maddox); horrifies the Negroes; shattersthe libenils; and pleases a broad scattering of Re-publican> and the extreme segregationists—whoonly a I'ew months ago seemed safely bypassed.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said of the Maddoxvictory, "It is indicative of a deep and corrodingcancer In Georgia's body politic." If so, the can-cer had been under control. And while Dr. Kingdid not say so, it seems likelj' that the irritantwhich triggered the cancer was the man whoprofesses to want to cure it—Stokely Cannichael.

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