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PARTI SAN REVI EW
good," since it is precisely because they are so well off that they
identify their interests with those of the Republicans, they still have
no reason to hate the Democratic party. They do not think of the
Democrats as the "ins" and themselves as the "outs."
It
is the
people who hold the powers-that-be responsible for their own sense
of non-participation that one has to fear, and it is to this segment of
the Republican party that McCarthy makes his appeal.
If
there had
been another Democratic victory, would we not perhaps have seen
the organization of this sentiment of hate into a real fascist nucleus?
I cannot believe that McCarthy is glad Stevenson was defeated. The
Republican landslide clips his wings.
One of the amusements of this election is the loud complaints
one hears because the Democratic machine failed to deliver the vote.
This sounds strange from the lips of some of the same people
who not so long ago were criticizing Roosevelt for his refusal to
dissociate himself from the Hague machine and the Prendergast
machine. We can't have things
both
ways, both the way of idealism
and the way of practical politics. But the historical fact is, of course,
that the party machine no longer exists as it once did-nor can it,
when there is no longer the patronage to dispense. The Christmas
basket and the bag of coal were already replaced by relief early in
FDR's time but a war economy, or even the economy of cold war,
replacing relief with jobs, spells the end of the old-time methods of
vote-getting. There is much talk ,about the Democratic party having
to reconstitute itself: this will require a radical revision of political
method in the light of the radical social, economic and cultural
changes in American life. ...
November 12
The cleaning woman who has been working for us this fall
has been visibly sickening: still quite young, she obviously lacks the
energy for even our mild job. A couple of weeks ago I discover
what is wrong : she has been menstruating heavily the larger part
of every month and with severe cramps. Has she consulted a doctor,
I inquire. No, she answers, she is not one for doctors and hospitals.
Nevertheless last Wednesday she phones to report that she has just
come from seeing the doctor-she has been given a shot of penicillin
