PACE TWO
THE CLARION
Ajprii 5_
CHOICE 68" COMING TO B C!
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National Collegiate Presidential Primary
Will Be Held At The College On April 24
Success Of Choice 68 Depends On Moderates
By Jim Roy and Bob Harris
One of the more amusing side effects, depend
ing on your sense of humor, of Eugene McCarthy’s
impressive showing in the New Hampshire primary
has been the rather adulatory reaction of the nation
al press to the Senator’s corps of ene^rgetic and in
tense “ballot children”. Originally written off as
somewhat pathetic idealists, McCarthy’s student
army earned their abundant laurels by helping en
gineer the first stunning upset of the 1968 presiden
tial campaign. As a result, the well - scrubbed, re
spectable, and quietly effective “Student Volunteer”
suddenly became the darling of the press.
Youth Back in the Fold, gushed endless edi
torials, Democratic Process Works! Nihilism of the
New Left Refuted! Generation Gap Bridged! As
the New York Times stated eloquently what other
papers expressed garnishly, “Senator McCarthy has
managed to persuade great numbers of concerned
youth that it is possible to make effective protest
against existing American policies and practices by
traditional democratic means”.
This endless journalistic game of lumping all
students into one vast and grotesquely misleading
generalization thus continues. The archetypal col
legian, it now appears, is no longer the student left
ist with his picket sign and smouldering draft card.
The “average” college student right now, today, is
the “concerned” college student — the student
whose faith in democracy is slowly but surely being
reaffirmed through electoral triumph and lots of
hard, determined work.
The idealistic gleam of such a student portrait
will go far, no doubt, towards reestablishing middle
class America’s faith in its gold plated youth. But
McCarthy’s “Student Volunteers”, like the radical
agitators, are but fringe elements of the college com
munity and hardly representative of the American
student body as a whole, whose reputation for indif
ference and apathy is not without substance.
As President Adran Doran of Morehouse State
College in Kentucky stated, “These activities say
that the rest of the students are apathetic and don’t
care. They’re not. They’re satisfied with the way
things are. Why should they protest? There’s
nothing to protest about.”
CHOICE 68, the National Collegiate Presiden
tial Primary, is functioning with a somewhat more
spirited preconception in mind — that, in fact, stud
ent moderates do care and do want their opinions
registered in a responsible, effective manner.
The election itself will determine w’hether
CHOICE 68’s image of the “average” student is ac
curate. For in order to attain national visibility,
CHOICE 68 must attract at least two million voters on
April 24. Such a goal will be attained only if enough
moderates choose to exert themselves to the minor
degree of casting their votes.
CHOICE 68 will fail if they do not. The lib
eral and conservative activists may hoard the head
lines, but the long silent student moderates have the
numbers — and it is only by the raw power of size
that a skefptical public and an overly antagonistic
Congress will pay attention to the reality of stud
ent power.
It’s one thing, of course, to boycott an election
through principle and it’s quite another to miss one
through ignorance or apathy. If the moderates do
fail to participate, especially in this, the most chal
lenging of election years, then they will indeed have
earned the taunt of Henry IV, “Go hang yourself,
brave Grillon; we fought at Arques and you were
not there.”
THE STUDENT PJGHT AND CHOICE 68
By Jim Roy and Bob Harris
If anyone makes a killing through CHOICE 68,
the National Collegiate Presidential Primary, it
could be the campus conservatives. Although ca
ricatured endlessly as dedicated young fascists with
the mirage of exterminating insidious communism
and related socialist end products, the fact remains
that as a semi-professional political machine in the
narrow, conventional sense of the word, the student
right is unequaled.
This professionalism has developed, paradoxi
cally enough, as a result of the incredible publicity
that student leftists have received from the national
press. Their large and usually garish demonstra
tions have rudely thrust the less flamboyant conser-
yaties far into the background — where, in the left
ist scenario, they vegetate in deserved obscurity.
Actually, this guise of conservative anonymity
is deceiving, for the vitality of the student right
rests in its dedication to the democratic process. Stud
ent power for conservatives does not entail the left
ist course of direct and militant social intervention
regardless of law and order. It involves instead pow
er gained and administered through accepted formu
las and established structures — student government,
for instance, and national student organizations such
a? the Young Americans for Freedom.
So while the leftists picket, agitate, and alien
ate, the student conservatives try to pack the polls
and churn out the vote. It’s a simple, direct process,
almost mechanical in fact. But that, after all, is how
elections are won — and campus conservatives are
out to win CHOICE 68.
Their chances of doing so are not as minimal
as some liberals would like to believe. For the poli
tics of the right today are more politics of charisma
than any other political wing* on the American
scene. In ’64 it was Barry Coldwater who hypno
tically swayed campus conservatives, and this year
the prophet’s mantle rests on the shoulders of Ron
ald Reagan. Any sizable student mobilization be
hind Reagan will do the liberal cause severe dam
age, and most campus conservatives know it. A glance
at the CHOICE 68 ballot would tend to justify op-
tim^ism. Those liberals dissatisfied with Lyndon
Johnson s performance as Chief Executive have sev
eral extremely attractive candidates from which to
choose. Predictably enough, the liberal vote for
president will probably be extensively fragmented
with no over riding numerical superiority being en
joyed by any single individual.
Conservatives, however, can rally in convinving-
!y heavy number around Reagan. True some ev
tremists will back Wallace, and more moderate coJ-
®^^Pl^ort Nixon. But the bulk will
vote for Reagan. The result could be a smwising-
rock” victory, one that would
rock tne leftists more than an3rthing else.
If the liberals and moderates go their usual
stumbling ways and fail to mobilize, then the con
servatives will do handsomely in CHOICE 68 for
s: sfCo
By Steve Hugging
On April 24, Brevard College
students wil ,be iglven an oppor.
timity to express their vote for
their choice for President.
Time Magazine is conduotiM
a nation - wide collegiate Presi
dential primary caled Choice
68. For college students only
ithe primary will give Time
a raither good ddea of how
America’s youth feel aibout the
1968 election.
Beginning ftMs week, The
Clarion wiU run news releases
pertaining to the upcoming pri
mary, and will hopefully pre
sent personal profiles of the
leading candidates.
However, the success of the
national primary depends on
you! This is your chance to ex
press your opinion not only as
to whom you would like to see
in the White House, but also
how you feel aibouit the Vietnam
war and urban problems. (See
sample bailot Mow).
Iff you wish to campaign for
your favorite candidate, feel
free to do so. Those tstudents
favoring Nixon may contact
Don Cloninger or Bob Baggett
for further information. We
need a camipaign manager for
(MoCanthy, 'SO don’t hesitaite to
volunteer.
The iballot itself will be in the
form for an IBM card, wihidh the
voter will mark with a stylus.
The cards wil then be shipped
to N. Y. for processing ait the
Time - Life primary headquart
ers.
Choice 68 is only three weeks
away.
SGA News
The proposal for allowing fe
male students to wear shorts
and slacks to meals during
exams has been approved by
the Residence Council. Having
gone thrmigh all channels, the
proposal states:
1. Bermuda shorts or slaeta
may be worn at all meals during
exams.
2. The attire should be ap"
propriate, no ragged shorts, ov
eralls etc.
3. Usual dress will be expect
ed for the Sunday noon meal.
The next S.G.A. movie to be
sihown on April 20, will be a
“Paitcih of Blue.”
S.G.A. nominaittons for
ent government officers for ®
1968 - 1969 sohod year are ®
follows: President - Jimmy "
drop; Vice - President - Terry
Wait; Secretary - Treasi^^r
Teresa Lax; and Social CMir-
men - Jackie Tyler and
Wendelin.