the two-partv s stem has been to shatter this, but he hasn’t explained why it is a should seek higher ideals, like freedom,rnthat partition. Part’ leadership makes good thing. Every schoolboy knows that justice, and the common good. If itrnpolitics is the art of compromise; if true. this possible bv silencing opponents ofrnthe social democratic muddlernMr. Weissberg appears to recognize world. An older tradition said politicrntakes third parties to remind us of that,rnWashington is the cultural center of the more political power to them.rnCULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnT H E NOVEMBER ELECTIONSrnwere hailed as a great GOP victory longrnbefore the votes were cast, much lessrncounted. For Mr. Clinton, the Republicans’rn’ictory came as a shock. The econom’rnseems in good shape, employmentrnfigures are up, and even the Haitian fiascornturned out better than could havernbeen expected. So what is the problem?rnAnd this is what none of Mr. Clinton’srnfriends will tell him: the problem is you,rnMr. President, you and that wife of yoursrnand that set of Cabinet secretaries yournpromised would look like America butrnturned out to ha’e been created by ToddrnBrowning.rnBetween now and 1996, the Presidentrnhas onlv one option, if he wishes to seekrnreelection. First, he has to shake up hisrnCabinet and get rid of, at the very least,rnthe more flagrant lesbians, the Don Juanrnbeing blackmailed by a former mistress,rnand the dwarf—Janet Reno is no SnowrnWhite and Robert Reich, for all his academicrnpretensions, is no Doc, unless yourncount honorarv degrees. Second, and Irnthink the President will have alreadyrnreached this conclusion by himself, thernFirst Ladv has to be sent on an extendedrn”good will” tour to check out the conditionrnof tropical rain forests in Africa andrnAsia—South America may be too close.rnFinalK’, the President has to pull the plugrnon his own television coverage. Thisrnmeans no press conferences, no townrnmeetings, no appearances on America’srnMost Wanted. Let him be filmed once arnmonth, preferably in black and white,rnwith a mountain of paper work on hisrndesk, saving, ‘ Tm sorr’ fellows, but RossrnPerot was right. The United States is nornchicken franchise; it’s a big country, andrnr e got work to do.”rnMr. Clinton is probably smart enoughrnto figure out some of this, but he and hisrnparty are the captives of special interestsrnthat will not allow them to learn fromrntheir mistakes. The same is true of thernGOP. What was at issue in the election?rnFirst there is the matter of the famousrn”Contract with America.” Most Americansrndo not actually know what the contract’srnprovisions are, but they do believernthat it has something to do withrncutting expenditures, reducing therndeficit, and decreasing the federal government’srnpower to work mischief. Otherrnmore interesting provisions include arnS^OO per child tax credit, a strengtheningrnof parents’ rights, and a restoration ofrnnational security by taking Americanrntroops out from under U.N. command.rnSome of the terms of the contract arernnaie; others are stupid, but what mattersrnis the underlying attitude: a restorationrnof American sovereignty in foreignrnaffairs and within the country a recoveryrnof the little sovereignties of home, community,rnand state. But even more importantrnthan this fundamental shift inrnemphasis is the odd idea that partiesrnshould keep their promises.rnApart from Bill Clinton and the RepublicanrnContract, the biggest issue wasrnimmigration. Lawton Chiles stole thernelection from Jeb Bush by portrayingrnhimself as tough on immigration, andrnapparent!)’ 80 percent of Florida ‘otersrnfor whom immigration is important ‘otedrnfor Chiles, hi California, GovernorrnPete Wilson—whom the experts hadrncounted out long ago—tied his entirerncampaign to Proposition 187. hi an actrnof incredible arrogance, Jack Kemp andrnWilliam Bennett went all the way tornCalifornia to campaign against the go-rnernor’s campaign, and when both Wilsonrnand Prop. 187 won handily, Kemprnand Bennett were given their first taste ofrnwhat life in the real United States is allrnabout. Their reckless behavior was notrnonly nasty, which is no news to their admirers,rnbut stupid and politicalh’ naive.rnScore it Chronicles 2, Ncocons 0. As Irnpredicted a year ago, if Governor Wilsonrncould be reelected on immigration reform,rnhe would be positioned for a tr atrnthe White House.rnThe immigration issue is just one partrnof a populist agenda. Some of the diversernelements are: conservative Christiansrnworried about abortion and honiosexualit)’rn(Bennett and his former assistantrnBill Kristol were also dead wrong onrnthese issues), the Second Amendment,rnand the Tenth Amendment rebellionrnsimmering in the West, primarily overrnfederal resource policies and unfundedrnmandates. As Human Events pointedrnout, GOP candidates in Montana andrnWyoming pledged “to fight Bruce Babbitt’srnrestrictive land-use policies.”rnThe Republicans do have a grand opportunity,rnand if they are willing to listenrnto Pete Wilson and Pat Buchanan andrngive up on their dream of an “EmpowerrnAmerica” rainbow coalition, then theyrnhave a chance of establishing somethingrnlike a new regime, which is what thernDemocrats did in the 30’s and 40’s underrnRoosevelt and Truman and again inrnthe 60’s under Kennedy and Johnson.rnBut if they are deluded into thinkingrnthat the American people have fallen inrnlove with the party of multinational businessrn—the party that is gung-ho forrnGATT and the cultural enrichment pro-rnided b}’ Third World immigrants—rnthen they are in for as sober a disillusioningrnas Mr. Clinton received inrnNovember.rn—Thomas FlemingrnT H E BALKANS WAR seemed to berncoming to an end in mid-December asrnwe went to press. Trying to sort throughrnthe lies, misinformation, and distortionsrnfor the fragments of truth in the internationalrnpress requires the patiencernof an archeologist and the imaginationrnof a poet, but some things seem faidyrncertain. For several months the UnitedrnStates had been stepping up its assistancernto the Bosnian Mushnis. Accordingrnto reports in the European press,rnAmerican military and CIA advisorsrnwere coordinating liaison between Muslimsrnand Croats and training the Muslimsrnin tactics and weaponry; tliev hadrnFEBRUARY 1995/5rnrnrn