ustxtxb_obs_1987_03_06_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

of rules and regulations and very rigidly defined jobs, you . .. run it on the basis of shared values. Where the management gives people a lot of freedom in how they do their jobs, but at the same time, places very strong emphasis on getting people throughout the organization to share its overall goals and competitiveness. IBM and the marine corps provide good examples. Everyone in the institution is constantly taking initiative, as opposed to just doing a job.” Lind claims his model has nothing to do with profit. He insists it rewards “ethical behavior,” while the “bureaucratic model rewards what we would call unethical behavior careerism, stabbing your neighbor in the back.” “Cultural conservatives argue that economic growth is important and they generally favor policies to spur growth, such as those advocated by supply-side economists,” Weyrich wrote last May in the Washington Post. “But they are not reverse Marxists; they do not believe that society is economically determined. If the culture is not sound, a free market of itself will lead only to conspicuous consumption, greed focused on wealth gained through speculation rather than production, and narrow politics based on short term self-interest.” “If the cultural conservatives can appeal with their ideas to the constituency of the religious right and the New Right and can then reach out to constituents such as blacks and bluecollar workers who share their views, the changes in the political landscape could be dramatic and come quickly,” Weyrich wrote. “This is especially true because of the potential receptiveness of young voters, who are the victims of the breakdown of the family, the loss of quality public education, and crisis such as AIDS and drugs brought on by the abandonment of traditional values.” An inkling of where cultural conservatism could lead to can be found in the prolife movement. There the emphasis has gradually shifted from confronting abortion doctors and picketing clinics to creating an alternative system of clinics to encourage childbirth. The prolife movement is attempting to organize family support groups to help a mother during her child’s infancy and provide a wider adoption network. The agenda of cultural conservatism is far from being realized. But given the speed with which conservative ideas have penetrated mainstream politics, Lind and Weyrich’s social theories may be marketable to an even wider audience than the coalition has tapped already. The success of Gramm-Rudman is one indication of how far conservative ideas have come. And while Helms is still revered as the conservative coalition’s man of principle, Phil Gramm is the new man of the hour. “Conservatives really like Gramm,” Viguerie says. “He’s tough. He’s a fighter and we need fighters.” Gramm, of course, is a former Democrat. The activists of the conservative coalition think of themselves as participants in a revolutionary movement that reaches beyond political parties. As the presidential campaign nears, conservative leaders in Washington despair over the Republicans. “I think the Republican Party is largely impotent right now,” Viguerie says. “It is disorganized, without leadership. We’re now in the post-Reagan era, where conservatives will be conducting themselves as the opposition. ” POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE The “C” Word 1/ The University of Texas student paper The Daily Texan recently found an interesting case of comic strip censorship. Berke Breathed’s Bloom County strip that ran February 18 contained a panel that touched on a newspaperman’s nervousness about AIDS and public health. His copy read: The Dallas Morning News ran the strip with the above text deleted, leaving a wordless panel. Drug-Free News 1/ There was a bit of a stir around the Austin American-Statesman when employees got a notice from publisher Roger Kintzel about the company’s plan to “initiate a program to provide a drugfree workplace.” The newspaper has editorialized against drug-testing policies. Editor Arnold Rosenfeld says the program is a corporate-wide policy that comes from Cox Newspapers, which owns the Austin paper. He described it not as a drug-testing program but as the company’s decision to “assert their right” to use a drug test in extreme cases. “It isn’t random, it isn’t pre employment, it isn’t thorough-going .,” he says, but may be used “if anyone is staggering around the building” or has an obvious problem with drugs. Rosenfeld says the paper’s most recent editorial did not ‘ disapprove of preemployment drug-testing or use of the tests where there is reasonable cause to suspect drug use. “I think if there is reasonable cause, that’s reasonable.” he says. Sugar-Coated News V The iconoclastic Washington journalist Sarah McClendon reports in her February 18 newsletter that Speaker of the House Jim Wright has had some harsh words for President Reagan, but that the Washington press corps has gone easy on the President. Wright spoke after he and other Congressional leaders met with Reagan at the White House. According to McClendon’s account, Wright said. “He insisted that the Clean Water bill would cost $20 billion this year and when we told him it would only cost $2.5 billion and would spend additional money over a nine-year period, he said, ‘I don’t believe it. They told me differently.’ Wright continued, “The President says that increases in spending for -defense do not add to the deficit and he also says that tax cuts that help the rich do not lessen the revenue in the Treasury. . .” Wright said he did not think the problem was the President’s age. “I think he has been this way all along. He brought some of these concepts with him when he came to the White House. McClendon wrote, “Largely the public did not hear about the Wright charges. The reporters who heard this were too afraid or unwilling to give the statements the attention that such alarming reports deserve in the news columns of the daily papers. Some of the news media telephoned their main offices to tell them but were told by senior editors not to write the story. This kind of sugar-coating or voluntary censorship is often handed President Reagan, which may account for the fact that the nation as a whole is largely ignorant of how Reagan carries or fails to carry out the duties of his office.” i/ Early presidential preferences among Texas congressmen, according to the Dallas Morning News Washington bureau: Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas, favors Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers; and Reps. Ron Coleman, D-El Paso, Albert Bustamante, D-San Antonio, and Marvin Leath, D-Waco, are aligning with Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15