Your Thought on J. W. Fulbright

[erpowers]

What do DU members think about J.W. Fulbright? As with any person Fulbright has some good ideas, but he also had some bad ideas. For instance, Fulbright was a strong opponent of the House Un Americn Committee; however, Fulbright was also an opponent of racial intergration. So what do DUers think about him?

I read about Fulbright at Wikipedia and there was three listed quotes which I thought were pretty good quotes. All of the quotes seem to be relevent for today even thought they were published in 1966.

"Throughout our history two strands have coexisted uneasily; a dominant strand of democratic humanism and a lesser but durable strand of intolerant Puritanism. There has been a tendency through the years for reason and moderation to prevail as long as things are going tolerably well or as long as our problems seem clear and finite and manageable. But... when some event or leader of opinion has aroused the people to a state of high emotion, our puritan spirit has tended to break through, leading us to look at the world through the distorting prism of a harsh and angry moralism."

"Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations — to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work."

"Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations. As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations. Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations. When we violate the law ourselves, whatever short-term advantage may be gained, we are obviously encouraging others to violate the law; we thus encourage disorder and instability and thereby do incalculable damage to our own long-term interests."

I have mixed feeling about Fulbright. On the one hand he was against intregration. On the other hand he did have some pretty good ideas.

[Buck Laser]

1. Senator Fulbright

I lived in Arkansas from 1963-1966, and I had an extended correspondence with Senator Fulbright regarding the Civil Rights Act. I was working as a Methodist campus minister, and I wrote Fulbright shortly after the Kennedy assassination to urge him to support the Civil Rights Act as a memorial to Kennedy. The first response I got was a pro forma letter stating his unalterable opposition to extending civil rights laws. I was persistent, and wrote him again, this time getting a staff-written letter going into a bit more detail as to why he wouldn't support new legislation. I wrote him again, urging his reconsideration: This time, I got a letter, possibly actually written by him, in which he said he felt an obligation to his constituents over a period of many years, because he'd pledged never to support civil rights laws. He said his own feelings might be different, but he felt obliged to keep his promises.

Now, after more than 40 years of thought about it, I think I respect his decision more than I did in 1964, when the correspondence ended. Anyone in politics MUST work for a diverse constituency. Sometimes, in order to continue the work he values most, he may have to compromise other equally important principles. The older I get, the less judgmental I become toward people who fail to hew rigidly to an ideological line.

Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt did some pretty shoddy things in the name of winning their wars, yet most judge them today to be among the truly great presidents. I don't expect ANY president to walk on the water, nor do I condemn him when he compromises. Stupidity is another matter altogether.