PERSPECTIVEnsn• T •n^’VU.^ t”-^^’–‘ : ‘/ *Mn>I* ^.-^ fe -f^’iAo^ “-“^” • ^- / inn* t • ^**6r-.’^ •” ^^;sf •*»«nnft*’nPeace is busting out all over, and along with the prospectnof peace comes the debate over how to spend thenso-called “peace dividend,” supposing there is such andividend. The administration doesn’t think there is, andnSecretary of Defense Cheney has warned against spendingnthe money saved on defense until it is in the bank. Somencommentators have estimated that the savings could amountnto more than $200 billion by 1995, and the Democrats arenalready devising schemes to buy more constituencies bynspending more on domestic programs. The administration,non the other hand, has argued that whatever pittance isnrealized should be applied to the deficit in the short run and,nin the long run, to the national debt.nAll things considered, the Democrats have been surprisinglynquiet on the subject. A few years ago they would havenbeen holding hearings and summoning the President’s mennto account, but these days all we hear are gentle “spendmore”nbromides from unrepentant leftists like Senator PaulnSimon of Illinois. Robert Zelnick, himself a graduate fromnNortheastern People’s Radio to ABC, is disappointed andnquite correctly suggests that “along with five out of the pastnsix Presidential elections. Democrats have lost their politicalnnerve.”nBut if leftists are bewildered by recent events in Europe,nconservatives are equally disorganized. To understand why.n12/CHRONICLESn. _”Vi . !t J un- S^ •* *n:vn””>*:;^> • >»v.nBe Angry at the Sunnby Thomas Flemingnnnit is necessary to realize how much both sides have investedninto the Cold War. It is no exaggeration to say that much ofnpostwar American conservatism has been little more thannMcCarthyism writ large, since many conservative groupsnhave occupied themselves primarily in opposing the spreadnof communism abroad and the increase of socialism atnhome. At the same time, the left has devoted itself tonopposing anticommunism, by favoring the sovietization ofnthe United States and by working for a foreign policy ofnsubmission and disarmament.nWhatever the reality of the situation in the U.S.S.R., thenCold War is over for the time being, and both conservativesnand leftists find themselves at loose ends as rebels without ancause. For some groups, this means bankruptcy, and not ofnthe merely moral variety. Conservative fund-raiser BrucenEberle told the ‘bie’w York Times that “there’s much lessninterest” in anticommunism as an issue, and many anticommunistnorganizations are already feeling the crunch. But thenpeace and disarmament groups aren’t doing any better.nNuclear Times is out of business and membership isnplummeting at SANE/Freeze. As former arms negotiatornPaul Warnke observed, decommunization has done to thenpeace movement “what the Salk vaccine did for the Marchnof Dimes.”nThe collapse of communism, anticommunism, and anti-n