Election Post-Mortems
Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) were not the only ones smiling after the election results. You can add the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to that list.
Irrespective of domestic politics, the big winner on election night was the Soviet Union. The new Senate will now be far more disposed to interfere in the conduct of foreign affairs, to block Reagan Administration policies in Central America, and to press for superficially attractive but damaging agreements on strategic arms.
Perhaps the Democrats will take a more responsible position on national security issues than their rhetoric would indicate. Regrettably, no such hope can be held out in the case of Cranston; his views are too well known, and almost led to his defeat by a relative newcomer to politics.
Let us hope the rest of the Senate will respond more sensibly when confronted with the realities of Marxist repression in Nicaragua and the continued Soviet drive for military and nuclear dominance.
RICHARD P. SYBERT
Los Angeles
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