way they handle words like “liberal,”n”compassion,” “decency” and “justice.”nThe Nation piously believes that immoralitynis programmed into capitalism;nthat Soviet Russia is an honorable adversarynwho never lies to us, while we alwaysnlie to her; that the CIA stinks becausenit defends a rotten order (whichnhappens to be our order); that nuclearnenergy is demonic when it serves ourneconomy, while the nuclear efforts ofnthe communist countries remain unbespoken.nCountless words have been devotednto the murderousness of diversenLatin American juntas. We failed to noticenany unequivocal condemnation ofnleft-wing terrorism in Italy, Germanynor Argentina.nThe journal is very picky, too, whennit comes to governments. If a democraticnmajority votes liberals and leftists intonoffice anywhere in the world. The Nationnfinds nothing wrong with government’snbigness, autocracy, even tyranny:nsuch a government, by the journalist’snfiat, serves some moral purpose. However,nwherever a government is in thenhands of right-of-center moderates ornconservatives, even if they were dulynelected by a democratic majority, thatngovernment should be crippled, sabotaged,nundermined a tout prix, usingnwhatever help is available from America’snworst foes.nHere is a small potpourri of ThenNation’s more salient opinions on a varietynof subjects.nOn American conservatism:n. . . conservative thought and practicenis shot through with antihumanistnideas and beliefs . . . According to thenconservatives, the market systemnshould be left to work its will, unchecked,nas it did in the United Statesnup until the 1930’s . . . favoring thenrich, expanding unemployment andndepending upon military force to lieepnorder. (Emphasis added)n—Mr. Marcus G. Raskin, cofoundernof the Institute for Policy Studiesnand a member of The Nation’sneditorial boardnOn J. Edgar Hoover:nHoover, on the other hand, was a naturalnfascist, a fascist by intellectualnchemistry and temperament and instinctnand gut passion. His recordnclearly says that he was an ideologicalnpervert. His faith was in the powers ofndarkness.n—Mr. Robert Sherrill, The Nation’snWhite House correspondentnOn American politics:nPolitics are confused and corrupted,nhowever, not just because of the culturalnand social heterogeneity of ournnation, or its moral failings. They arenin disrepair, perhaps fatal disrepair,nbecause of the demoralization of ournpolitical community by forces derivednfrom the market.n— Professor Norman BirnbaumnThe Nation’s editorial boardnOn Seven Days, a recently defunct,nopenly procommunist, pro-Soviet andnpro-Cuban magazine whose list of subscribersnhas been transferred to ThenNation:nThe Nation, America’s oldest weeklynjournal, is best suited to carry onnSeven Days’ ambitious mission,n-from an editorialnOn the sponsors of PBS-TV series:nBut it is precisely this benign publicnview of foundations that has madenthem increasingly attractive ‘neutral’nsponsors for controversial public televisionnshows. Corporations and institutionsnwhose images are tarnishednnow seek such ‘neutral’ intermediariesnto convey their views.n—John S. Friedman in an article financednby the Fund for InvestigativenJournalismnOn The Nation’s more notorious contributors:nVictor Marchetti’s first report fromninside the CIA appeared in ThennnNation.n’The Safe Car You Can’t Buy’—writtennfor The Nation in 1956 whennNader was still a Harvard law student.nMore than two years before the over-,nthrow of Batista’s regime, Castro explainednto Nation readers ‘What thenCuban Revolutionaries Want.’n—from The Nation’s promotionalnleafletnOn communism in the United States:nHistorians are still debating the originsnof the cold war, but the idea thatnCommunism or the Communist Partynpresented an internal threat duringnthose years was a hoax. Carey McWilliams,neditor of this journal from 1955nto 1975, was among the first to label itnas such.n—from an editorialnAddendum: A letter to the editor,nmourning the passing away of Mr. CareynMc Williams in 1980, defines his politicalnposition:nHe, better than anyone, lived up tonthat fine slogan of the French PopularnFront of 1934: No enemies to the leftnof us.n—Harold J. SalemsonnOn a certain Louis Wolf, publisher ofnCovert Action Information Bulletin, anpublication which targets CIA operativesnabroad for assassination by internationalnterrorists:nWhen a man is as universally beleaguerednas the editor of Covert Action,nit seems to us worth defending hisncivil liberties without going throughnthe ritual of condemning activitiesnwhose genesis is, in any event, morencomplicated than Morris Abram’snletter would suggest.n— from an editorial reply in then”Letters” section, signed: The Editorsn(of The Nation)nOn America:nTo the degree that America is divided.n^m^^m^mmam^^nJanuary/February 1981n