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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 9, 1984
PAGE 7
Because they now maintain that they lost only by accident, the
left-liberals will insist that the Democrats do it once more
their way, and with feeling•... It is plausible to suggest that
the left will prevail once again in party rule-making com
missions•••. It may triumph in legislative battles....
What is implausible is to suggest that the left will� win a
national election with its current viewpoint. That
is
too bad,
for it robs the rest of the Republic of the services of the
national Democratic Party, which was once a great political
engine for sensible progress in America. If the activists of the
left succeed in shaping the image of the party again, the voters
will merely shrug and say, "Mug him again."
One of the most succinct points was made by George F. Will, who is now a
political affairs analyst for ABC. He passed along a comment made by the
father of a young man he was acquainted with. Said the older gentleman:
"The Democratic Party made me a middle-class American.
The Republican
Party will keep me that way."
With overwhelming public confidence, the President embarks upon a new four
years .in office. But he has
his enemies
too, and some of them, outside the
country at least, are bitterly hostile to him. Here is a chilling dispatch
from Beirut, Lebanon that moved across our UPI wire on November 5:
The group that claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings of
U.S. facilities in Lebanon has threatened the life of President
Reagan and warned the Lebanese cabinet against holding talks with
Israel on a troop pullout.
"ill g
be known, you Reagan, that if
��unable to prevent your re-election, �� for certain
prevent you from continuing your second term .!!! office," a
spokesman for the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad, or Holy War, said.
The threat sounds extreme--but then consider the narrow brush with death
that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had recently. One cannot even dis
miss the likelihood of a medium range
missile
attack. After all, we are
entering the age, writes William Safire, of "superterrorism." He analyzed
this in his October 15, 1984 NEW YORK TIMES column entitled "Bolt From the
Blue":
Eighteen months ago, in the informal talks after a nuclear arms
control session, a Russian negotiator said casually to one of his
American counterparts, "What if Qaddafi got the Bomb?" In re
sponse, the American merely winced--such a prospect is one that
all of us hate to face--but he duly noted the Russian's concern
about the possession of a nuclear device by a terrorist state.
Today, the successful escalation of terror tactics against the
U.s., by fanatics in the Middle East, is the most serious
campaign issue raised by the Democratic candidate against Mr.
Reagan. At the same time, the close call endured by Margaret
Thatcher and her Cabinet at the hands of I.R.A. bombers has
driven home to Europeans the rising threat of terrorism.
Project this threat ahead five or ten years. After we figure out
a way to stop trucks and hand-delivered bombs, we must expect the