Dear Mr. Stoloff: December 5, 1968
My first reaction to your request to “use short quotes from” my editorial is “No!” By using a few short quotes from Winston Churchill, I can show that Churchill considered Adolf Hitler one of the greatest men in the world. He certainly said, repeatedly, that Hitler was one of the greatest menaces of the world; I need to only leave out the “ace” part to make my point.
I can, equally, show that Hitler was kind, good, benevolent and a wise philosopher. It might take me quite a while to find the necessary words and phrases in the screechings, but anybody want to bet it couldn’t be done?
I’ve had sufficient experience with statements abstracted from context to say, “show me first your wares!” before giving consent.
As for that November editorial the election: they drew 95% angry howls, and about 5% agreement. Reasons: the guy whose toes you don’t step on doesn’t thank you for not doing so; it’s the guy who’s feelings you hurt that starts howling. I actually heard from outraged fanatics; those included, incidentally, a few Racist-Segregationist pro-Wallace fanatics who damned me for saying I didn’t like their hero.
The election came out almost exactly the way I had hoped it would; both parties were forced to do some deep and solid soul-searching during many long hours while the issues hung in doubt. And they’ve been – and will continue to be – busy studying the results since.
Nixon won, as I predicted – but with a distinct indication that he didn’t have any all out “mandate from the people.”
The Democrats lost – with distinct indications that if they had been willing to drop their exactly-in-the-middle-of-the-road line, and accepted a more liberal position with someone with someone like McCarthy, they might have won.
What concerned me was the need for getting the two parties pried apart; it makes no difference whether one goes right, or the other one goes left – just so they aren’t offering one and only one approach to the world!
Sincerely,
John W Campbell
editor
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