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That mainstream, in Javits' view, weaves between the Scylla of the right, with "those who ignore international realities and look back with nostalgia to the economic jungle of the 19th century," and to the left, the Charybdis of "increasing control over the nation's economic and social life." He feels it is the responsibility of Republican liberals to chart a mid-channel course, thus offering the voter a choice "between a Democratic Party which instinctively leans on the Government to solve any problem, and a Republican Party which instinctively seeks ways to bring the resources of the business community into collaboration with the powers of the Government in a mixed economy."
A Matter of Priorities. The G.O.P., says Javits, must quit being embarrassed over its ties with business. "There is nothing wicked about being the 'party of business,' " he wrote in Order of Battie: A Republican's Call to Reason, a book he is now updating for distribution to some 20,000 key politicians and editors as a kind of campaign manifesto. "And if 'business' is understood as being something infinitely more than a collection of managers, including also investors, workers, consumers and farmers —all of whom draw sustenance from the function of business—there is nothing narrow-minded about it. 'Business,' properly understood, is so central to every aspect of our civilization that Republicans should proudly announce that they are indeed 'the party of business.' "
His quarrel with the Republican right wing is a matter of priorities as well as ideals. Javits is convinced that the conservatives' fealty to states' rights "all too often means in practice denouncing the Federal Government for trying to do too much—while in effect sustaining the right of the states to do nothing at all." Yet, he argues, "there is much to be done that, in the terms of Lincoln's principle of government, the people cannot do for themselves and that a people's government must lead in undertaking."
Javits is a compulsive leader and ini tiator. Last week, breaking a longstanding rule of neutrality in primary contests, he sent a telegram of support to moderate Republican William J. Casey in his contest for New York's Nassau County congressional nomination against Goldwaterite Steven B. Derounian. "I can't even vote for Casey," said the Senator. "But when Goldwater said Casey was a phoney, I felt I had to make a statement."
His statement is a pretty fair summation of what he believes is at stake in his own bid for national office. "The issue involved is of critical importance," he said, "for the struggle within the Republican Party is between a type of conservatism which can disable the party from being really national and a progressive viewpoint which can make the party eligible for a national mandate."