De Santiago Nadal (Lleida, 1909 – Barcelona, 1974) a Destination (May 23, 1964). Own translation. Sixty years ago, the bewildering political system of the most influential country on earth already worried journalists specializing in international relations. Ten months after this article, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson swept Republican Barry Goldwater in the November 3 election. But the reactionary wave is returning moved by a constant sea of background.
I don’t like to write the expression “reactionary”, “reactionary”, but in this case I use it because it is precisely a movement that can only be properly designated with this qualifier. (…) In the case of the United States, this is not an emerging trend within one of the major parties vying for the country’s governance. We are possibly facing a real “wave” that affects all opinion. And it is of such a “reactionary” kind that it can even take on extravagant aspects. One of them, for example, is the worrying fact that the Governor of Alabama, Wallace, has obtained copious votes in the primary elections of the Democratic Party, even in Northern States. One of Wallace’s expressions is this: “Integration will be a fact when hell freezes over.” It is necessary to point out the racial issue as the main determining reason that has led the United States to this “reissue” of what happened with Senator McCarthy in the 50s. (…) Then the communist danger was the reason for the movement. Now it is, above all, the question of the blacks. Next to it, the problem of Cuba. Both parties are in this phase. As far as the Democrats are concerned, it is very significant that Wallace – who represents the most obtuse Southern intransigence – got a lot of votes in Wisconsin. As for the Republican Party, there is one factor that hurts its liberal wing. The most prominent representative of this sector, the governor of New York, Rockefeller, suffers a noticeable loss of his personal prestige, apparently caused mainly by his marital adventures: divorce and remarriage. Another factor facilitates extremism: the wavering attitude of Cabot Lodge. If the now ambassador in Saigon decided to look for the nomination as a candidate for the Republican Party he would perhaps achieve success: this is proven by the votes that, without any intervention on his part, he has had in several “primary” elections. In this case, the Great Old Party would have a candidate, conservative, needless to say, but moderate, with a broad political vision, prudent and with obvious intelligence and international experience. But the reservation of Cabot Lodge facilitates the passage to the extremism of the senator of Arizona, Barry Goldwater, who now represents the most “reactionary” thing that exists in the United States. (…) The role President Johnson has to play is very difficult. As days pass, he sees how hard the task has been, especially on the racial issue. The strong point of President Kennedy’s domestic policy was civil rights legislation: legal equality between the two races. (…) Walter Lippman has said that the moment of the supreme power of the United States has passed. (…) Commenting on this idea of the famous American columnist, another expert in international politics told me that the United States would no longer be an empire like the Roman one but a dominant power, as Spain, France and England were. The United States has to “endure” things that are very annoying, but which, for various reasons, have no choice but to “deal” with political methods, without imposing themselves by force. Spain also had to “endure” the Dutch rebellion and grant independence to Portugal (…)
Source: www.ara.cat
