The Liberal Line

e Liberal Line… A ’s talk this week about what the Liberal line might do in future. And let’s start out — as sound method in political theory requires us to do — with the empirical facts, which are as follows: —Dwight Eisenhower, though re- cognizably a Liberal, is not the Liberal propaganda machine’s favorite kind of – Liberal; ——from the machine’s point of view Eisenhower as candidate and FEisen- hower as President are two very dif- ferent things: it values him as can- didate because his candidacy means another Liberal-versus-Liberal elec- tion, with the Liberals winning either way; it values him as President — over against, say Adlai Stevenson — only as a pis aller; —the machine would therefore like, other things being equal, for the Dem- ocratic candidate to nose Eisenhower out in November (for one thing, it really believes there’s a right-wing old guard that a Republican President has to listen to; and it expects Eisen- hower only to string along with the Liberal revolution, not to lead or has- ten it)> —the machine’s preference for the Democratic candidate over FEisen- hower would be notably reduced if Eisenhower were to drop Nixon in fa- vor of, say, Herter; but it seems on the point of giving up on this one; —for the moment, the machine qua machine is doing little or nothing about this preference: it prints, with ‘nice impartiality, photographs of the President making healthy, and at- tempts by Mr. Stevenson to turn the President’s heart condition into poli- tical capital. Only such of its mouth- pieces as the New Republic (that is, those on which it depends to stake out positions left-of-the-line, against the day when they may be needed) have publicly rediscovered the distinc- tion between White and wrong, and insisted that a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for a part-time President; —the machine has everything to gain from laying off the New Repub- lic’s pace until it knows for sure the

NatTIoNAL REVIEW WILLMOORE KENDALL names of the Republican candidate for Vice President and

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Willmoore Kendall

e Liberal Line… A ’s talk this week about what the Liberal line might do in future. And let’s start out — as sound method in political theory requires us to do — with the empirical facts, which are as follows: —Dwight Eisenhower, though re- cognizably a Liberal, is not the Liberal propaganda machine’s favorite kind of – Liberal; ——from the machine’s point of view Eisenhower as candidate and FEisen- hower as President are two very dif- ferent things: it values him as can- didate because his candidacy means another Liberal-versus-Liberal elec- tion, with the Liberals winning either way; it values him as President — over against, say Adlai Stevenson — only as a pis aller; —the machine would therefore like, other things being equal, for the Dem- ocratic candidate to nose Eisenhower out in November (for one thing, it really believes there’s a right-wing old guard that a Republican President has to listen to; and it expects Eisen- hower only to string along with the Liberal revolution, not to lead or has- ten it)> —the machine’s preference for the Democratic candidate over FEisen- hower would be notably reduced if Eisenhower were to drop Nixon in fa- vor of, say, Herter; but it seems on the point of giving up on this one; —for the moment, the machine qua machine is doing little or nothing about this preference: it prints, with ‘nice impartiality, photographs of the President making healthy, and at- tempts by Mr. Stevenson to turn the President’s heart condition into poli- tical capital. Only such of its mouth- pieces as the New Republic (that is, those on which it depends to stake out positions left-of-the-line, against the day when they may be needed) have publicly rediscovered the distinc- tion between White and wrong, and insisted that a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for a part-time President; —the machine has everything to gain from laying off the New Repub- lic’s pace until it knows for sure the

NatTIoNAL REVIEW WILLMOORE KENDALL names of the Republican candidate for Vice President and