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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 25, 1985
PAGE 13
of attaining these two principles--to the level of the United States--meets
his stern disapproval. Cultural, historical (and, of course even biblical
--such as the birthright promises} reasons for lack of equality are dis
missed as irrelevant.
To those in South Africa who protested that many blacks in their country
lived better than poorer American blacks in the ghettos, Kennedy had a pat
answer: at least the latter had the right to vote. The Communist nations
and other totalitarian societies are not judged in the same light, nor re
ceive from the liberal the same condemnation since they do not claim to be
democratic. Many liberals furthermore defend the policy of urging greater,
rather than lesser cooperation with the Soviet Union, out of concern for
overall world peace and the fear that a nuclear World War III could erupt
from a breakdown in communications.
In his January 16 column, Buchanan again and rather heatedly struck out at
the liberal mindset, concluding, ominously, what would happen to the U.S.
and the West in general, should Mr. Kennedy and others like him attain
political power:
Observing Sen. Ted Kennedy in South Africa last week, adopting
his patented posture of heroic defiance--this time against apart
heid--one realizes how little the man has grown in 25 years••••
Kennedy endlessly reenacts the same old morality play. In it,
the senator comes on stage as Young Lochinvar, hurls his verbal
thunderbolts at the forces of reaction, demands strict adherence
to some grand abstraction, and exits to thunderous applause. To
witness this boring exercise, repeated year in and year out, with
only the backdrop changing, is to realize how irrelevant liberal
ism--of which the senator is today's finest expression--has be-
come ••••
Apartheid is not the worst situation facing Africans today. Not
remotely. If it were, they wouldn't be pouring into South Africa
from such "liberated" zones as Mozambique. Nor is the condition
of dissidents there as perilous as in most of the rest of Africa.
Just last week, in Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, once the toast of the
United Nations, had his limousine machine-gunned by the followers
of his wartime comrade-in-ar"ms, now Prime Minister Robert
Mugabe••••
Indeed, the plight of women in traditional Moslem societies comes
closer to our definition of slavery than the condition of the
black workers of Soweto. Yet, no responsible legislator demands
--as the senator demands of South Africa--that Saudi Arabia de
clare emancipation and equality for Arab women, or face economic
sanctions.
Why? Because the West needs Gulf oil. Because the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia is a de facto ally•••• Because the beneficiaries of
such mindless Utopianism would be Arab radicals of the Khadafy
stripe.... [ Why can't the eritics see the same thing regarding
southern Africa, which has been called the "Persian Gulf of
minerals"?]