An Honest Man

POLITICAL ILLUSIONS--the blue smoke and mirrors that have accompanied Reaganomics, for instance--are maintained only by hope. It's the same sort of hope that benefits salesmen of snake oil and patent medicine; people ache so badly for relief that they suspend cynicism and mistrust.

But now the illusions surrounding supply-side theory have been thoroughly shattered, both for David Stockman, convert-turned-cynic in a few short months, and, we hope, for the American people. Stockman, the "point man" for the President's budget- and tax-slashing program, describes in chilling terms in the current Atlantic Monthly just whom the plan benefits--the "hogs" of American big business were "really feeding" on a diet of special tax breaks. At the same time, the measly reductions in personal income taxes were serving as a convenient Trojan Horse to calm the American people while the richest raked in the cash.

The Trojan Horse metaphor is apt. This is an administration engaged in a far-reaching war against the great mass of the American people in an effort to aid the wealthy. So far, bamboozelement--the extraordinary ability of our president to get millions of Americans to send telegrams, for instance--has enticed the mass to fight against its own interests. Now they must turn to face Reagan and the battle must be joined. Stockman's candor, like one loose thread in a beautiful sweater, provides the perfect opportunity for unraveling the deceit and sophistry that have characterized the administration's program.

Democratic party leaders in the House and Senate should be doing more than chortling over the loose tongue of their former colleague. They should be preparing a series of budget resolutions that demand massive decreases in support for the Defense Department, and that repeal the enormous tax giveaways to big business and the nation's economic elite. And at every turn, they should be reminding the American people--who must go to the polls again in less than a year--just how wrong they were to place their trust in Ronald Reagan.

The American public has seen through other administration policies--the mail to the White House ran ten-to-one against involvement in EI Salvador, for instance, once the illusion of worldwide Communist conspiracy was shattered by the reality of tyrannical rule. Reaganomics should now meet the same chilly reception; a willing suspension of disbelief is profitable only in theaters.