4
Friday, April 1, 1933
Daily Nebraskan
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In an attempt to get more military aid
for El Salvador's government, the Reagan
administration announced last week that it
wants negotiations between the El Salvad
oran government and the rebels that are
fighting it in the countryside.
Since Reagan and his officials have
always maintained that the guerrillas are
simply the puppets of what Reagan calls
the "focus of evil" in the world - the
Soviet Union this new move seems
unusual; but a second look shows it to
be just another maneuver in the same old
shell game.
Reagan calls for talks between the go
vernment and the rebels because it is
politically necessary to call for negotiat
ions, not because he will cause them to
take place, or even necessarily wants them
to.
To get enough members of Congress to
agree to another SI 10 million in military
aid to El Salvador, in addition to the S26
million already appropriated this year,
Reagan must show in some way that he
wants El Salvadoran abuses to stop. This
new call for peace negotiations will
probably end up as nothing more than a
rubber stamp report every six months that
the government uses in "pursuing" or
"attempting" a negotiation.
At present, the LI Salvadoran govern
ment already has one such requirement to
meet every six months - a certification
that El Salvador is trying to improve its
human rights record. And the administrat
ion has continued to certify this human
rights "progress," despite the government's
dismal record. About 100 people are killed
every week by the National Guard or by
government-supported right wing death
squads. Over 35,000 Salvadoran non
combatants have been shot in the last
three years.
The administration may not get the
$110 million it has asked lor. Some Con
gresspersons don't like all that money
(nearly a billion dollars over the years)
going down the drain; others don't like
supporting a murderous government. "The
similarities between El Salvador and Viet
nam are terrifying," said California re
presentative Don Edwards.
The similarities are terrifying and
strong: an oppressive regime justifies
its indiscriminate killings by reference
to the domino theory and the communist
menance; the American government gets
in deeper and deeper.
In order to justify continued U.S.
aid - to squeeze it out of Congress, in
effect - the administration has to keep
two conflicting impressions in front of
the public and in front of Congress: the
dual images of the El Salvadoran govern
ment on its knees, and charging forward
in combat. U.N. ambassador Jeanne Kirk
patrick recently went to El Salvador and
came back with a fairly grim report on
conditions there, which became added
fuel for the government's request for
further aid. Officials have to make it
look like El Salvador's government des
perately needs aid to stay in power, then
prevent the impression that the war is a
losing cause.
The only way the guerrilla war will
end is through bringing the guerrilla armies
into the political process; and the only
way that can happen is through unob-
P
strutted land reform and genuine protect
ion of human rights. A periodic assurance
that things aren't as bad as they used to be
is not enough.
It may be unlikely that a democratic
government could exist in El Salvador
with the support of either the present
regime or the guerrilla armies. But it's
more and more clear that U.S. involve
ment in another country's conflict -especially
on the side of an oppressive
government - leads nowhere but to
another Vietnam.
Eric Peterson
f 1
x'1 III I ... A
II -r n .Ull ""SB
ack electorate's strength real, growin
Anyone who anoints himself leader of an organization
called People United to Save Humanity thinks spaciously,
and Jesse Jackson, lounder of PUSH, is thinking of enter
ins the Democratic presidential primaries.
He probably would get only a small sliver of even the
black vote. Being frivolous with the franchise is a luxury
of the comfortable. Besides, Jackson's complaint against
the Democratic Party is, to say no more, unconvincing. It
is that the party holds blacks "in contempt." Actually, it
arraniie-
ri
-fr--r 1 i iilMimiiialii
George
Will
has promised much to blacks, it has kept its promises and,
given the parlous state of the republic's budget, there is
not much more, aside from "affirmative action," it can
promise at the moment.
A Jackson candidacy would be unserious. But the un
mapped strength of the black electorate is serious and, for
Republicans, ominous.
Winning re-election in 1982 as Pennsylvania's governor,
Richard Thornburgh got 20 percent of the black vote,
about double what most Republican candidates got,
nationwide. But in 1978 he got more than 50 percent.
True, in 1978 he was helped by the Democratic Party's
entanglement with Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia's polarizing
mayor. But in 1982 Thornburgh was endorsed by many
state and national black leaders (including Jesse Jackson),
yet could not counter the bitter, galvanizing hostility
blacks feel for Reagan's policies and for Reagan personal
ly. This bitterness may be the most underestimated force
in U.S. politics today. Reagan is becoming the fourth
factor in transforming the black electorate into a formid
able anti-Republican sword.
A paper prepared by the Joint Center for Political
Studies, a black research organization, notes that three
events turned blacks into the Democratic Party's most
cohesive block. One was the relief provided by the New
Deal. Another was Harry Truman's civil rights legislation
and the 1948 civil rights plank that provoked Strom Thur
mond's Dixiecrat candidacy. The third was the Republi
can's nomination in 1964 of a candidate, Barry Gold
water, opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Today, the paper says, "not only are the black poor
dependent on government transfer programs; the black
middle class is also heavily reliant on the public sector for
employment opportunities and contracting
ments. This limits the extent to which the GOP c.
appeal to blacks even if it invigorates the private sector.
In 1956 Adlai Stevenson got only 61 percent of the
black vote, and four years later John F. Kennedy got only
68 percent. But since the civil-rights revolution the Demo
crats' share (according to Gallup) has been: 1968 - 85
percent, 1972 - 87 percent, 1976 - 85 percent, 1980 -86
percent.
True, Jimmy Carter got all but 14 percent of the black
vote and lost all but six states. But momentous consequ
ences can flow from changes at the margin in democracy.
Of the 17 million blacks of voting age, only 10 million are
registered and only 7 million voted in 1982. If 11 million
voted, that would mean at least 3.5 million more Demo
cratic votes.
In 1969 there were 1,160 black elected officials. Last
year there were 5,160. But that is just one percent of all
elective offices. Aside from two Mississippians elected dur
ing Reconstruction, Ed Brooke (R-Mass.) is the only black
to serve in the Senate (1969-79). Only 52 blacks have
served in the House, about half during Reconstruction;
most - 21 - of the blacks elected in this century are now
in Congress.
Only 14 congressional districts (three in Chicago) have
black majorities. But blacks comprise at least 20 percent
of the population in 86 districts which may be decisive in
the Democratic primaries. Only 26 are northern urban
districts. The other 60 are in the South.
Fifty-three percent of all blacks live in the South. But
in four of the five states with the most electoral votes
(California, New York, Texas, Illinois - a total of 136
electoral votes, more than half of the 270 needed to win),
there are more than one million black voters. Twenty
eight of the nation's largest cities have more than 100,000
blacks. Thirty cities with more than 30,000 residents have
black mayors. In 24 of the 25 largest school systems, a
majority of the students are black or other racial minorit
ies. No candidate since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 has
won the presidency without carrying at least three of
these six northern industrial states: Illinois, Michigan,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania. In these
states there are approximately 5.5 million blacks of voting
age - a lot of them hitherto unregistered.
Republicans who are not dismayed by these numbers
do not understand the political potential of the black
vote, or the social failure represented by the fact that 1 1
percent of the electorate is essentially inaccessible to one
party.
(c) 1983, The Washington Post Company
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