University of Virginia Library

Lawn Party

Stand Up For George

By David Cox

Probable Presidential candidate
George Wallace's speech here last
Friday set the tone of his imminent
campaign, and of the administration
he would head. Judging from
his words, his election would mean
quite a transformation in the country.

The campaign will be aimed towards
the "man of the street"
who he deems so wise, After all,
Cousin George the former cab
driver (and admitted "redneck")
is a politician in the fine old
Southern tradition.

He did his utmost to foster that
image as he stood before a conglomeration
of three thousand
(you're kidding me!) students,
farmers and other local citizens
gathered around the Whitten's
Auctioneering Service pick up truck
on a polo field. For like Mao
Tse-tung, he knows where potential
political power is.

There he stood, speaking in
plain, simple words, constantly
punctuating his endlessly run-on
sentences by jabbing fingers
and hands into the crisp fall air
with a passion, as if his oft-repeated
points were felt as stabs
by Lyndon Johnson and the villainous
"intellectual elite" whom
he accuses of messing up the country
so badly.

HIS PLATFORM is designed
to supplement his appeal. Again
and again he threw his punches
of criticism: The Supreme Court's
various rulings of late. The stalemate
in Vietnam. Dissenters to the
war. Big government and its perversion
of state and local rights.
Communism at home and abroad.
Foreign aid to "our enemies."
Our allies who refuse to support
us in Vietnam. The "me-tooism"
of the two major political parties.
The "destruction" of property
rights, Liberals. And especially
the "intellectual incompetents"
who "look down their noses and
tell the people how to run their
country." Surely anyone can find
a favorite peeve or two in George's
list.

AND IF he is elected, what can
we look for?

First and last, the day of the
common man will have arrived, as
it last did in 1828 with Andrew
Jackson. Out would go the "intellectual
theorists" from the holy
temples of government. "Knowledge
and wisdom are two different
things," saith George; the average
man has drawn true wisdom from
his worldly experience while the
intellectuals have been pondering
in their Vermont marble towers.

A new day would arrive in law
enforcement. No longer would
"policemen (be) tried on Monday
morning while criminals run
free over the weekend." As for
dealing with the Supreme Court,
he would follow the philosophy
of Jackson, whom Wallace quoted
as saying of his Chief Justice,
"John Marshall has made his decision;
now let him enforce it."

He would take no nonsense from
opponents of the Vietnamese war,
either. "I believe, in dissent," he
says, "but it can be carried too
far; to sin is one thing but overt
treason is another." He would grab
excessively zealous dissenters "by
their beards, take them before the
grand jury and throw them into
the penitentiary for what they are-traitors."

In this way, he would supplement
his war strategy by showing
"Hanoi, Peking and Moscow that
we will stand by our servicemen,"
and then win the war.

Our / foreign assistance policy
would see a change. He would halt
"sending our money to countries
who don't support us in Vietnam";
that would include "our so-called
allies" in this ruling.

Indeed, a basic shift in direction
of foreign policy would occur.
"I don't care whether (other countries)
love us or not, as long as
they respect us. I think they ought
to be more worried about what we
think of them than about what
they think of us." One could
readily expect a "tough" line from
President Wallace.

It goes without saying that he
would "save the Constitution, or
rather restore it." That means a
renaissance of freedom as state and
local governments are pulled from
under the overwhelming dominance
of Washington.

TWO OBSERVATIONS from
Wallace-watchers, the first from a
student: "When George Wallace
becomes President, that's when I
pack my bags and leave for Australia."

The second, from an observer in
Washington, who quoted G. K.
Chesterton: "The road can be so
very plain that we may lose the
way." We may indeed.