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Dialogue government is put in office by a minority that misrepresents the views of most Texans. But until a larger number of voters, representative of these varied views, shows up to cast ballots on election days, the current situation will persist, regardless of how many are registered to vote, regardless of what we perceive to be a flowing liberal tide. How much longer must we wait before liberals will, at last, have their chance in . Austin? The state senate is providing encouragement these days that liberalism is on the move to some extent in Texas. The removal in this spring’s primaries of Tongue in Cheek? I am usually perceptive in these matters, but I cannot tell whether or not Bill Helmer’s tongue was in his cheek when he came out against liquor-by-the-drink in your issue of May 24. If it was not, it seems to me a curiously insular stand to find in your publication. I am a good Texan, and I have taken great pleasure in ordering beer in the finest bars from coast to coast. At the same time, I see no reason why those who insist upon drinking hard liquor in public should be required to bring their own booze in order to do so. It is like bringing your own steak to the restaurant. Brownbagging is not so much unsophisticated as inconvenient, and ought not to be preserved simply because it is a quaint 16 The Texas Observer Sens. Dorsey Hardeman, Jim Wade, and Bruce Reagan can only bode well for progressive forces in the state. The house, apparently, will remain as it has, in control of the establishment. The Smith victory may indicate a rightward trend in national politics this year. The New Republic a couple of issues ago expressed fears that such a rightward move is abroad in the nation. The ratification by Texas Democrats of Smith’s preoccupation with the crime rate and with keeping things much as they have been in Texas for years is an indication that the progressive forces nationally may be stalled for some time. G.O. old Texas custom, like stringing up rustlers. Guy Conner, 801 West 13th St., Panama City, Fla. 32401. The editor is under the impression that Mr. Helmer ‘made a serious point in a humorous way, to wit: that the adoption of the proposed liquor-by-the-drink legislation would, mainly, increase the cost of drinking in Texas.Ed. For Hubert Humphrey . . . What makes R. D. so sure [Observation, April 26] that HHH has sold his soul? Guilt by association? That smacks of the other McCarthy. In 1960 I tried to bring Hubert Humphrey here to make a speech. My heart was with Stevenson still, but we don’t get a whole bunch of good Democrats that bother to come to Kansas. The county Democratic chairman and vice chairman said they wouldn’t even give me money to notify the central committee that he was coming. They said he was so liberal that he would hurt the county ticketwhich I found curious since we haven’t had a Democrat in the county courthouse in 100 years. Now these people are calling me because he is our “conservative” candidate. I’m demaciado weary of labels. Even your Senators Kennedy and McCarthy publicly state that Humphrey is probably the most imaginative, courageous, innovating men in public life. He instigated legislation for a Peace Corps before John Kennedy even got the nomination. He was for labor and a living wage for all people a long time ago. It mucks up my psyche, too, when John Connally comes out for Humphrey. Why not let them pay? They owe the world something for the privileges they have received. I think you can go talk to a whole bunch of Negroes, from the Uncle Toms to the Stokelys, and they will remember who was on their side when it wasn’t very smart politically to be there. Humphrey’s sin is that he has tried to make the changes within the democratic process. Have you decided that the only way is to burn Chicago, and if that doesn’t work, you burn Washington and New York? I don’t believe it . . . and neither do you. Virginia Titus, 1602 W. 8th St. Terrace, Lawrence, Kans. 66044. The Politics of Joy Enough of this gloom and doom! I just can’t understand all this rantin’ and ravin’ about the “problem” of our ghettos. For if current politico predictions and the prevailing national mood accurately prophesy what will happen in our cities this summerthen all our problems are over. If the riots are devastating enough not only will it solve our population problem, but the ghettos will be gone forever. People will repopulate rural areas, thus ending the farm crisis. As for the cities, there will be no more overcrowding, no more air pollution, and no more water pollution. Millions of dollars will be saved in urban renewal funds. And if things get real bad, LBJ may be forced to transfer troops home and the holy crusade to save Vietnam from the Vietnamese would soon be over. So things aren’t all bad. As Hubert Humphrey might say, what we need is the politics Bruce Bartley, 416 Howard Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. Whitewash of the RFK Image . . . R. D.’s Observations about Bobby Kennedy’s candidacy in the April 26 Observer . . . were a surprise. The pages of the Observer would seem an unlikely place for a whitewash of the Kennedy image . . . R. D. makes a case for Kennedy’s independence. As attorney general did RFK voice independent concern over his brother’s commitment in Vietnam? I don’t know. . . . Actually, Senator Kennedy’s most conspicuous independent efforts probably have been in usurping the Democratic senatorial nomination from Samuel Stratton in New York in 1964 and in rushing onto the field after Eugene McCarthy’s courageous efforts in New Hampshire had demonstrated that it might not be necessary to wait four more years. . . . Hubert Humphrey’s record of the past 20 years needs no apologist. Moreover, how much influence or control over administration policy has a vice president? . . . None. In view of Bobby Kennedy’s machinations there is no difficulty in accepting as credible the vice president’s declaration that in this campaign he will be his own man. . . . [M]y cavils are not those of Southern or big business hostility, but those of a real live Observer subscriber with all the appropriate au courant liberal credentials. . . . Jerry Covington, 2415 39th Place, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20007.