Outdoing Tradition

THE LIBERALS are starting to stage their comeback. Virtually unnoticed by the press, 1100 avowed liberal Democrats gathered in Washington two weekends ago to blast the policies of President Reagan and deny the allegations that liberalism has died. The occasion was the national convention of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), where the largest crowd since 1974 had gathered to celebrate the "Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Tradition." In speech after speech, liberal congressmen, prominent academics and labor leaders attacked Reagan and reaffirmed their belief in the values and the coalition of Roosevelt.

"Our liberal legacy is challenged now as never before. We will not allow one minority group now in power to take away all those precious things that Roosevelt brought us 50 years ago," Father Robert F. Drinan, the ADA's president, declared in the convention's opening speech. Sol C. Chaikin, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, labeled the convention a symbolic renaissance and called for "a new prophet...to restate and renew the faith" on the one hundredth anniversary of Roosevelt's birth. And other speakers--including Parliament member Shirley Williams--joined their voices to his in calling for a reemergence of the Roosevelt coalition of labor, liberals and minorities. Last came a note of outright optimism from Leon Shull, national director of the ADA: "The liberals have been through twenty difficult years, but this present mood is very upbeat. There is a sense of a nationwide turnaround. People are beginning to see that the Reagan program won't work."

The past year has indeed been good for the ADA. It was just over twelve months ago that the Reagan landslide sounded liberalism's death toll, but since then the ADA has greatly expanded its membership and solidified ranks fractured in 1968, when it endorsed Eugene McCarthy for President to the chagrin of many labor leaders. The ADA has gained 5000 members in the past year, and a strong youth movement has erupted on many college campuses. Charlie King, national director of the ADA youth caucus, predicts a resurgence of 60s student activism; meetings of the youth caucus at the convention reflected a new emphasis on working within the political system to elect liberal candidates, rather than changing the system through protest. "There is no anti-establishment feeling," King observed. "People want to influence Congress through persuasion rather than confrontation."

THE CONVENTION had to represent a stirring success for Drinan and the ADA. People pledged time and contributed money. The crowd was boisterous. Still, when the cheers had subsided in the conference rooms of the National Education Association and all that was left were scattered pamphlets for the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and photographs of Senators Paul Tsongas and Gary Hart, one was left with a feeling of emptiness.

For celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franklin Roosevelt, the ADA failed to notice that the world of the 1980s is far different from that of the 1930s. Perhaps the oversight came because most of the leaders of the ADA got their political education in the days when liberals, labor and minorities all co-existed in the harmony of the New Deal. More fundamentally, the Democrats may have been trying to gloss over the differences that exist within the liberal segment of their party by appealing to a figure with whom even Reagan, ironically a former member of the ADA, can sympathize.

The most disturbing thing about the ADA convention, however, was its failure to suggest original answers to pressing problems. It did not even address the questions that have surfaced in recent months about the roles of labor and minority groups in society. The creativity that could have been generated from a gathering of former socialists and neo-liberals never materialized.

IMAGES are of the essence in politics. The major strike against the liberals over the past year has been the impression they convey of antiquated figures living in the past. The ADA must face the 1980s reality that to succeed, the liberals will have to shed their image of rejuvenated New Dealers.

Roosevelt's contribution to the American political tradition was his willingness to experiment and be creative in addressing the pressing problems of his day. With just such an array of problems demanding response, the time is ripe for the ADA to reaffirm its place in American politics; once again it has the manpower and the money. If the ADA is to succeed, however, it must not hide behind the mantle of Roosevelt but take it proudly, not afraid to dip into the ranks of the intellectuals and come up with new proposals, whether neo-liberal or neo-socialist.