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July 28, 1996
Reflections of a Radical Moderate: By Elliot Richardson
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
f Bob Dole read and accepted the approach to government in "Reflections of a Radical Moderate," he might be able to win the election. Elliot Richardson, famed for his impeccable integrity in top positions in the Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations, here presents a reasoned explanation why he is a liberal Republican. Mr. Richardson, now 76, insists that he is "radical" in his advocacy of moderation. He concedes that his position may seem obvious but suggests that it may also be profound. And he is right. His approach fosters rationality amid the bellicose rhetoric in the political order.
He is eloquent in explaining his important work as the head of the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. He is equally eloquent in outliningwhat the United Nations should be doing in the next century. The reserved and always dignified Mr. Richardson, once Attorney General and Secretary of Defense, does not share his thoughts on the Saturday Night Massacre or the Watergate tragedy. But he does express a few strong opinions.
He thinks Ross Perot is a "demagogue," President Clinton is a "compulsive politician," and the House of Representatives in 1995 "had the aroma of an old-time medicine show." He is categorical in stating that nothing in the Contract With America was "conservative in the true sense of the word." The Contract, moreover, "retreated from long-established standards of fairness and compassion." He asks bitingly: "Since when has it been conservative for Americans to turn their backs on the poor?" The man who will always be remembered for resigning as Attorney General rather than carry out President Richard Nixon's order to fire Archibald Cox as special prosecutor rebukes his party by stating that he is "disturbed . . . by the degree to which the new Republican leadership consciously sought to capitalize on the meanest of the electorate's fears and resentments." He also states that "Gingrich's approach to the use of power cannot work over the long run."
Mr. Richardson, who clerked for Justice Felix Frankfurter and served as an elected Attorney General of Massachusetts, ponders throughout this thoughtful volume on the role of law. He is radically moderate in his rejection of excessive legislation but also writes that there are "serious problems crying out for government action." He also asserts with pride that "politics is still the most difficult of the arts and the noblest of the professions." Some readers will be disappointed that Mr. Richardson, detached almost to a fault, tells us almost nothing about his personal reactions or emotions. He does not complain that party leaders abandoned him in a Republican primary in 1984 for an open seat from Massachusetts in the United States Senate; a right-wing Republican, using his own abundant money, defeated Mr. Richardson and went on inevitably to lose to the Democrats.
The chapter pleading for a new American foreign policy reflects the vision of a man who was the longtime president of the United Nations Association. He criticizes Henry Kissinger's exaltation of hegemony, self-defense and national pride and writes in favor of a "compassion" and a "new humanitarianism." He argues persuasively for the fullest use of the peacekeeping capabilities of the United Nations.
It is refreshing to read of Mr. Richardson's commitment to civil rights, his deep concern for the environment and his unabashed internationalism. He is in the tradition of Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits and Christian A. Herter. If a new generation of voters accepted the approach he proffers, they could transform the Republican Party and the nation.
Robert F. Drinan, S.J., a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts from 1971 to 1981, is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
