Itt-Ott, 1974 (7. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1974 / 4. szám
But after the elections -- as so often in the past — the interest and support ebbed, and appointments stayed below the ethnic expectations. There are even subtle signs here and there that some Republican .leaders are not too happy about the way the ethnics are trying to assert themselves within the Party. We should perhaps remind ourselves of the WASP legacy of the G.O.P. While the Republicans have at least established and kept alive albeit on crumbs — the Heritage Groups, the Democratic Convention in Miami literally disowned the ethnics, simply leaving them out of the quota-distribution. Their national minorities division is dormant and at present they have only a consultant on ethnic affairs in the Party Caucus. Because of the Party's continual shift to the left, an increasing number of ethnics is abandoning the Democratic fold. All in all, the many millions of American ethnics cannot but find themselves in a political no-man's land that is regarded by both parties as seasonal hunting grounds, where they let loose their bush-beaters for votes around election time. Until now they have been -- with few exceptions -- hardly more than bit players on the political scene of America. In the past, the reason for this may ha.ve been a shortage of intellectual elements among them. But the waves of post World War II immigration brought strong intellectual reinforcements to our shore so that today thousands of ethnic professors teach at our universities and tens of thousands of highly educated ethnics have found employment in various intellectual professions, including the foreign language press. Their presence has contributed to the spreading awakening of American ethnics. What we a.re now looking for is a viable way out of the political no-man's'land, for an answer to the question. Quo Vadis, Ethnic America? The first lesson of the past is that we must not tie our fortunes to the seesawing luck of any party. The founding of a. separate party, on the other ha;nd, would not be realistic. The most logical solution would be the formation of an independent Ethnic Union to represent the common interests of non-Anglo-Saxon American ethnics and to make their united weight felt culturally as well as politically in American society. Sheer numbers indicate our potentials there are about 35 million Americans of "foreign stock," of whom about 22 million can be considered "hard-core" ethnics. Of this number, close to 15 million are of Central or East-European origin. The idea of such joining of forces is not new. In the ,1930s in Chicago, the Czech Anthony Cermak proposed a pan-ethnic organization, but with his assassination his hopes remained unrealized. In 1956, concrete action was taken by 23 ethnic group leaders who, in Washington, did organize a National Confederation of American Ethnic Groups which, however, became functionally defunct because of a lack of effective preparation. Still, it is worthwhile to quote some excerpts from their declarations After years of trying separately and reaping only indifference or unkept promises, it has become crystal clear, at last, that the only way the nationality groups can achieve recognition and acquire enough weight and prestige to be listened to in Washington ... is to unite in a confede28
