Rusher Gives Views On Country's Future In Speech to HYRC

The Young Republicans unearthed their founder and first president last night, and the 18 of 337 members who bothered to attend the meeting heard him cover topics ranging from the Presidential election to the future of the world.

During an hour-and-a-half talk that held his audience spell-bound, William A. Rusher, Publisher of the National Review, concentrated on two main topics: the "psychic difficulties of the West," and the mistakes that cost Nixon the Presidency.

Rusher claimed the West lacks a "will to survive." He said there is "a sense of guilt" in contemporary society, adding that national misgivings might lead to the eventual disintegration of the West. "Somebody is going to get kicked in the teeth, and soon," he concluded.

Specifically, Rusher cited the loss of United States prestige abroad, and the discrepancy between American and Russian scientific accomplishments.

Nixon Could Have Won

Analyzing the election, Rusher said he thought Nixon could have won, "and won big." He attributed the Republican's loss to the throwing away of two "real advantages" in the areas of foreign and domestic policy. Nixon should have emphasized the "you-never-had-it-so-good" theory, following up this assertion with a warning that Kennedy's election might be bad for the country's prosperity.

The Republicans should have "scared the liver" out of the public, Rusher noted. Instead, Nixon conceded that Kennedy's election would have no ill effects, and lost ground in the subsequent battle to see who could promise the American people the more golden future.

On forign policy, Rusher claimed that the vice-President should have made more use of the "image" of Republican politicians dealing out hard-handed justice to other countries' diplomats.

Rusher asserted, however, that Nixon is still the number one man in the Republican Party and stands a good chance of getting the nomination four years from now. He added that Senator Barry Gold-water, not Nelson Rockefeller, is the number two man.