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AMERICA
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to recognize the hollowness of "The Great Society." But "The New
Frontier" was not that dissimilar.
4. Of course not. As some Negroes begin to move beyond civil rights
into the need for radical changes in education, housing and employment
policies, the fundamentally racist character of the majority of the white
adult population is unmistakably revealed. In September, 1966, Senator
Eastland observed: "The sentiment of the entire country now stands
with the Southern people." There wasn't much hyperbole in his satisfac–
tion. Certainly there are class elements in white resistance to "granting
equality to the American Negro," but most adult Americans are also
racist. Therefore, equality of opportunity is not going to be "granted." It
will be achieved, if it is achieved at all, by counterpower, starting with
Black Power.
5. On the assumption that Johnson will be our leader until 1972,
our foreign policies will lead us-in Asia and in Latin America-into an
increasing neo-imperialist role. The cant will be different from that of
nineteenth-century imperialists-though not all that different-but the
result will be persistent attempts to manage the political and economic
directions of the underdeveloped countries. In this conflict with na–
tionalistic imperatives-a more crucial factor than China's capacity for
expansionism-there will be more killing. And the unthinkable will be
increasingly possible. We may be able to save ourselves and much of the
rest of the world through new politics. A refusal, for one thing, to vote
for anyone who supports the Vietnam War or its equivalent-no matter
how "enlightened" the rest of his record.
If
there is to be a New Left
of any effectiveness, it will have to be based on a politics of confronta–
tion, not accommodation. I would not, for example, have voted for Paul
Douglas in 1966. As for 1968, although I do not think the concept of a
third party is viable in the long run, there ought to be a candidate for
the Presidency-perhaps Benjamin Spock-who could at least clarify
and dramatize the extent of opposition to our present foreign policies.
6. What I hope might happen is the politicalizing of dissent on the
basis of confrontation politics with basic alternatives for foreign and
domestic policies. As for what is "likely" to happen, I expect more dispirit–
ing, poorhouse welfarism at home and more messianic miiltarism abroad,
with the vast majority of our citizenry being "the good Germans" of
these decades.
7. Most of what hope I have is in the activities of young people
today. I would be more heartened-and I recognize how presumptuous it
is for someone over forty to make this point-if there were mass refusals
to cooperate with the draft in any way, whatsoever. But more and more
