troops running all over the world. Nornwas this the fault of Ron’s advisors (Reagannwas Reagan) or of Democrats innCongress (who consistently cut WhitenHouse spending requests). As governornof California, he was a big taxer and a bignspender too. It was Ron’s leviathan thatngave birth to Proposition 13, as PhilnCrane pointed out when he opposednReagari in the 1980 primaries.nThe hard right always saw Reagan asna neoconservative, that is, a liberal posingnas a conservative. They said he wasnowned, lock, stock, and barrel by Hollywoodnleftists; he was the beloved presidentnof a commie union; and his heronwas the dictator FDR. Reagan did nothingnas President to disprove this analysis.nThere’s a larger lesson, however. Wenhave long since passed the time whennnew D.C.-implemented policies couldnsave us. As Reagan said in 1964, we don’tnneed a distant elite running our lives.nAnd we don’t need a distant elite runningnour revolution. Everywhere, thenpeople are rising up, in blissful ignorancenof Ron and Nancy, although their releasenof Reagan’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis justnbefore the election did, as intended,nboost their charges against North amongnmainstream Republicans. But whatevernthe merits or demerits of Oliver North,nthe people who backed him have a revolutionarynagenda that goes far beyond ansenate race. It is that agenda that willndetermine the future of the right.n—Llewellyn H. Rockwell, ]r.nR.I.P. ERWIN KNOLL. I first metnErwin Knoll in a Turkish restaurant innMadison, Wisconsin, where he had beennediting the Progressive since 1979. Onenof Erwin’s younger colleagues asked menseveral times in the course of lunch whatncould possibly interest a right-wingernin such a magazine. As leftist as the Nationnin many respects, the Progressivennonetheless was the last vestige of Midwesternnpopulist-progressivism thatnstood up both to American imperialismnand corporate plutocracy. And it wasnthis strain of American revolt that interestednme. Knoll, for his part, wantednto hear about Russell Kirk, whom JohnnJudis had assured him was somethingnmore than the run-of-the-mill lackeysnof the regime who call themselves conservative.nIn this and subsec|uent meetings.nKnoll was affable, courteous, and fairminded.nWhen we debated on MiltnRosenberg’s radio show in Chicago ornwhen Erwin interviewed me for his ownnprogram in Madison, he was able tonmaintain his own position without attackingnthe character of his antagonist.nIndeed, it was hard to think of him as annantagonist at all, only a genial uncle whonhad been unable to detach himself fromna leftism that was increasingly incapablenof resisting the power of the regime.nKnoll and the Progressive became famous,nor rather infamous, for their militantnadvocacy of the rights of a free press.nWhen they published H-bomb plansnthat were in the public record—in ordernto reveal the danger of both nuclearnweapons and slipshod security—he wasndenounced by right-thinking conservativesnas a traitor, and when he publishednadvertisements for Feminists for Life andnthe American Tobacco Institute, he wasndenounced as a turncoat to his principles.nHe smiled his way through all thesenepisodes, briskly swatting specious argumentsnlike so many flies—I think ofnSydney Greenstreet in Casablanca.nErwin Knoll showed what he wasnmade of during the Gulf War, whennmost of the leftists who had protestednthe Vietnam War jumped at the chancento show themselves as safely hawkish asnthe editors of the New Republic. I wasnasked at the time, by a network televisionnnews producer, if I could name an effectivenantiwar spokesman, and my first suggestionnwas Knoll. “That’s funny,” saidnthe producer, “he told me to call you fornadvice.” One of the few consolations ofnthat dreadful conflict was the opportunitynit gave the American people to see anprincipled journalist slipping his truthsnin between the lies.nA number of our subscribers werenpuzzled by Erwin Knoll’s appearance innour October 1994 issue on journalism.nIronically, I had asked several conservativenjournalists to contribute to the issue.nSome refused; some promised and didnnot deliver; others did not answer my letter.nErwin Knoll was a professional journalistnto the last, and although we had antemporary misunderstanding over thendeadline, he came through in the end, asnhe always did.n—Thomas FlemingnUNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE has longnbeen the left-wing ideal, because ofnits egalitarian symbolism and redistributionistnresult. Those “nonpartisan”ngroups bugging people to “vote for thennncandidate of your choice” aren’t doingnliberty and property any favors. Thenwider the franchise in a collapsing socialnorder, the more property is up for grabs.nThus an ominous sidelight to then1996 election: the left is pushing fornmandated time off to vote. For fundraisingnpurposes, the Center for DemocraticnRenewal in Atlanta, Georgia, isn”investigating” whether employers innWedowee, Alabama, are overworkingnblacks to keep them from voting fornblack school board candidates. (Isn’t itnenough that egalitarian agitators eggednon vandals to burn down Wedowee’snhigh school? Now are they going to takenover its private sector?) And the Committeenfor the Study of the AmericannElectorate complains that jobs are keepingnpeople all over the country fromnvoting.nBut if someone doesn’t have the internalndrive to get to the polls before or afternwork, during lunch or coffee break, henprobably shouldn’t be voting—admittedlyna heretical thought in a massndemocracy. The truth remains: it was anterrible mistake to institute the directnelection of senators, to lower the votingnage, and to forbid filtering devices likenproperty qualifications and literacy tests.nThe voter has been systematically devaluednfor more than a century. The nextnlogical stop is to mandate voting on annational holiday, the Devil’s version ofnthe Holy Day of Obligation.n—Jeffrey TuckernOBITER DICTA: in Maryland, looknfor Chronicles at the following stores:nChuck & Dave’s Books, 7001 Carroll St.,nTakoma Park; Capital Classics, 14446nLayhill Rd., Silver Spring; Borders BooknShop, TowsOn Commons, 415 York Rd.,nTowson; B. Dalton Booksellers, 6901nSecurity Boulevard, Baltimore.nMARCH 1995/7n