The Demo-Hawk at Home

One of the most important questions asked in Washington these days is whether the Democrats on the Hill, some of whom have been behaving in conspicuously hawkish ways of late, really might be swinging toward the center on foreign policy. Les Aspin, one of the most influential House Democrats on defense matters, recently switched his position on the MX to one of reluctant support and has been urging more centrist stances on his colleagues. Even Stephen Solarz has come out for supporting Afghan and Cambodian anti-Communist guerrillas. Are such stances mere political poses, or the result of genuine enlightenment?

At a recent debate sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Christopher Matthews, a scandalously candid former Carter speechwriter who now serves as Tip O’Neill’s top aide, unwittingly provided an answer: Try as individual left Democrats might to alter their rhetoric or even vote right occasionally, the rank and file of the left wing of the Democratic Party still does not have the instincts it would need to be usefully anti-Soviet.

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Benjamin Hart

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One of the most important questions asked in Washington these days is whether the Democrats on the Hill, some of whom have been behaving in conspicuously hawkish ways of late, really might be swinging toward the center on foreign policy. Les Aspin, one of the most influential House Democrats on defense matters, recently switched his position on the MX to one of reluctant support and has been urging more centrist stances on his colleagues. Even Stephen Solarz has come out for supporting Afghan and Cambodian anti-Communist guerrillas. Are such stances mere political poses, or the result of genuine enlightenment?

At a recent debate sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Christopher Matthews, a scandalously candid former Carter speechwriter who now serves as Tip O’Neill’s top aide, unwittingly provided an answer: Try as individual left Democrats might to alter their rhetoric or even vote right occasionally, the rank and file of the left wing of the Democratic Party still does not have the instincts it would need to be usefully anti-Soviet.