ustxtxb_obs_1976_08_06_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Thoughts on Jimmy Carter Austin When he chose Sen. Walter Mondale to run with him, Jimmy Carter obviously sent a message to the nation’s progressives: “Trust me.” Describing his own views as completely compatible with those of one of the half-dozen most liberal senators we have, Carter may have been declaring his own inner political identity as a fearless progressive. Or, casing the political landscape, with Eugene McCarthy threatening from the left as an independent, he may have recognized that selecting John Glenn or Henry Jackson would have been stupid and chose, at this juncture, to get in tight with the left of his own party. Both interpretations could be correct. In any case, the ticket of “Grits and Fritz” is to the last eight years of Nixon and Ford as sunshine is to murk. So far, however, Carter or his organization has sent to progressives in Texas a quite different message by making Calvin Guest, the discredited state Democratic chairman, co-director with Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong of the Carter campaign in Texas. At the June state Democratic convention, Guest once again proved himself unfit to preside over Texas Democrats. He smiles and all but bows personally, but give him a gavel and he becomes a dictator. In Houston, the resolutions committee, democratically ‘constituted of one delegate from each of the state’s senatorial districts, worked four hours and produced resolutions ‘supporting a quota system for minorities, appointment of blacks to all state boards, break-up of the major oil commies, diverting highway funds to other public uses, gay rights, sanctions against Rhodesia, and other policy positions. It matters for nothing that one agree or disagree with this or that. It matters for everything that Guest again, as he has before, aborted the democratic process. He gaveled the convention closed before permitting action on the report of the resolutions committee. His excuse this time was that the committee “never submitted a list of resolutions,” as if the chairperson of a convention does not have an affirmative duty to seek, receive, and present the resolutions committee’s report before slamming the convention closed. Naturally, a strong movement has got going to replace Guest at the September convention. One can see why Gov. Dolph Briscoe is taking the position that he would be perfectly happy if conventions were abolished. Boss rule in party politics would never have to run face-to-face into the party’s elected delegates, vested with representative capacity by citizens in the precinct and county conventions. Briscoe’s chairman would be Observations spared the habitual embarrassment of having to invent comical cover, stories for arrogant abuses of power. Inclined at this stage to give Carter and Mondale every benefit of the doubt, we advise Carter to stay away from the Sep tember convention in Texas and to stay out of the fight over Guest. Carter’s coming in heavy-handedly telling the convention he wants Guest retained as chairman can do nothing but hurt the Carter-Mondale ticket. I thought Carter’s acceptance speech in New York very good. I liked’ his saying that, campaigning 19 months for the presidency, he had matured; I liked his saying he’d been talking a lot about love, but love has to be aggressively translated into simple justice. He is firmly for national health insurance. Even more portentous for the nation’s long-run political shape, he is for universal voter registration. Sunday after the convention he preached NEW ORLEANS ON $8 A YEAR. The Weekly Courier, 1232 Decatur, 70116. BOOKS PRINTED from manuscript. Biography Press, Rt. 1-745, Aransas Pass, Texas 78336. JOIN THE ACLU. Membership $15. Texas Civil Liberties Union, 600 West 7th, Austin, Texas 78701. WANTED. Political campaign buttons and memorabilia. National or state. George Meyer, 2204 Matthews Dr., Austin 78703, or phone 478-2848. BE A BOOKIE! Booming location, growing sales, happy customers. Owner must relocate. Me: sales figures. You: buyer capability evidence. Johnston. The Magic Doorway BookBOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address: BOOKPLATES, P.O. Box 28-1, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. PLAYING THE RECORDER IS EASY. Free catalog, best recorders, recorder music. Beginner’s Pearwood Soprano Book, $11.95. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin. GUITAR PICKERS. Buy your guitar strings from us and save 20%. Mail orders accepted. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin. Sunday school class in Plains, Ga., and said, “Love in isolation doesn’t mean anything. But if it is applied to other people, to change their lives for the better through what I described as simple justice compassion, redressing of grievances, inequality, recognizing that the poor are the ones who suffer the most. . . .” He seems to be saying politics should be Christian love, and even religious skeptics, sophisticated commentators, and jaded agnostic militants must see that this is right. The people, in whom Carter expresses so much faith, seem to know it’s right, and when Carter chose Mondale he seemed to be saying, “I’m not just talking love.” On race, Carter’s opportunistic obeisances to George Wallace duly noted, Carter was nevertheless the only white man in Plains who refused to join the White Citizens’ Council, and he voted to admit blacks to his church. Robert Coles, writing in The New Republic, June 26, 1976, noted that Carter “earned the trust and confidence of men like Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Sr., and on the white Bide, Charles Morgan, for years an American Civil Liber August 6, 1976 9 JOIN COMMON CAUSE. Only one person can make democracy work again … YOU. $15 \($7 Lavaca, Austin, Texas 78701. BOOK-HUNTING? No obligation search, for rare or out-of-print books. Ruth and John Mc173, Austin, Texas 78703. THE NEW YORK TIMES Sunday edition delivered to your home in. the Dallas area. Call 2395325 for rates and information. NEED SOMETHING from Germany? Jim & Hanni International, 1600 Northwood, Austin 78703. 474-2582. INTERESTED IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE RE-FORM? Join the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in Texas. Write NCCD, 3409 Executive Center Drive, No. 212, Austin, Texas 78731. BRYAN, TEXAS, NOV. 6. Sixth annual Art Mart. All media. Original work only. Fee $30 plus artwork donation. No commission. Closing date Sept. 1. Contact: Ann Piraino, 1520 Henry, Bryan, Texas 77801. HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY to Trish Smith love, Jim. CLASSIFIED