By MARK GRUENBERG
SOMETIME in the next few days, the 1980 Illinois Senate race should begin to take some definite shape when the incumbent, Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson III, reaches a decision about his political future.
Stevenson's dilemma is well-known by now: he is unsure whether serving in a Congress that resolutely refuses to face the nation's problems, under a president who disappoints him, especially since he's a Democrat, is worth the aggravation. He freely admits he has no encompassing alternative plan to such leader-lessness, but he promises to outline such alternatives after he announces a decision on the Senate race.
Part of the leadership vacuum, Stevenson feels, is loose party ties. Such loosening leaves both politicians and the public floating like individual atoms, unable to look beyond the present even in the Senate. "Party ties are fractured now. One party is beholden to big business; the other is tied to big labor. Within the Senate, one group is in a mad race going backwards to the 1950's, while another takes a fast charge to the 1960's. Nobody thinks about what type of nation we want, and where we should be going, in the 1980's."
The result, he says, is that short-range problems and tensions are magnified out of all proportion to their worth, while long-range issues and problems are ignored. Two examples are the right-to-life movement, on the one hand, and the possibility of a world financial crisis, on the other.
Stevenson notes that last November, "We came within a few hours of a complete worldwide financial collapse," which he says would have had consequences similar to those of the Great Depression. "The monetary system collapsed, but why aren't we taking the lead in creating a new one?"
One reason the nation did not realize the seriousness of the situation, according to Stevenson, was that the administration did not realize it either, thanks to the President. To Stevenson, Carter's role or lack of it in this case is a symptom of his wider performance. "I'm a Democrat in my bones, and I prefer to work within the party. We waited all these years for a Democratic president, but nothing has changed." Stevenson, whose voting record makes him one of Carter's stronger supporters on Capitol Hill, says the man has no program or sense of where he is going. Carter heading the 1980 ticket is a prospect Stevenson does not relish, but Stevenson makes it clear that an ideological liberal would not please him either.
Stevenson also points out that large issues such as the state of world finances have an immediate impact on Illinois. "One quarter of our jobs depend on exports and trade," he said. If the world financial markets collapse, Illinois would be badly hurt. The president is supposed to provide leadership on such long-range issues, he said. Stevenson claims the last Democrat to try to do so was his father, the late Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson II, who established a Democratic "think tank" in the 1950's. "Look what happened: he'd be appalled now." Instead of using a campaign to discuss issues, "you tramp through 34 [presidential primary states, tambourine in hand," to get attention.
It is the "tambourine problem" of campaigning all over the nation and catering to special interest groups that has led him to muse on the supposedly "eccentric" possibility of leading a third-party bid for his own seat or the presidency. Though Stevenson says he doesn't relish the prospect, a third-party effort would focus media and voter attention on future structural problems.
Is it "eccentric," he asks, to both strengthen national defense and cut costs? Why stick with outmoded tank warfare strategy when our technology can neutralize the tanks? Is it eccentric to investigate "why the number of small technology companies is down to zero?" The nation is hurt when "there are no new ideas in politics or industry."
Though Stevenson has not developed a unified alternative program, glimmers of it do come through. Aside from reviving "Yankee ingenuity," he would push strongly for technological research and development, even in space. He also believes that "we have to shift into the management of increasing our industrial production" and world trade competitiveness rather than retreating into protectionism. Stevenson would also undertake a radical change in farm policy to help curb inflation by both cutting costs and improving our balance of trade. He says, "I would discontinue inflationary price supports and rely on target prices to repay production costs. Grow the food to feed the people."
Stevenson would also totally shift the nation's transportation system towards "more efficient modes, such as rail," and away from highways and autos and therefore away from dependence on oil, which would also help the nation to balance its trade with other countries. He would also review the costs and benefits of all transit regulations and revise them in an effort to cut costs.
Finally, Stevenson says our economic policy to combat problems "must face up to the implications of world interdependence. Our global weakness is the main cause of unemployment and inflation." More dialogue between nations is essential, according to Stevenson. To him, these ideas and issues cry out for an advocate a third party if needed. If he runs for president, he has said, he is not necessarily running to win, but to raise these issues: "Where else can these ideas come from?"
April 1979/Illinois Issues/34
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