The U.S. Senate Class of 1972; 2
- Transcript
No it is the responsibility of the man in the Senate or the House to do to me good marriage good. The real cause of the problem that exists right now Republican coming out of the half man which is beginning to make that a real tight area. The United States Senate class of 1970 was. This year 11 the freshman five Republicans five Democrats and one
conservative joined the ranks of the 100 and America's upper house of the legislative branch of government here for the national educational radio network with a profile of one of these new United States senators. Is your host Bill Baroni. Tennessee has given William Emerson Brock the third. Better known as Bill Brock to the 1971 freshman group of United States senators Bill Brock is no stranger on Capitol Hill since 1962 he served the 3rd Congressional District of Tennessee in the House of Representatives. I'm moving to the upper house. Senator Boxer says let's go to the next and you know the Senate think having been in the house from the interstate a specialist and paramedic concerned with economic policy and with in terms of my work absent of the Congress with problems campus centers tonight in the Senate you have to be more of a generalist you know
can you not know committees you're not going to be interested. So you're under pressure may spread more thinly and you're in the news and there's a greater good. Then you turn for any number of things. I think the fact that you don't have to actively conduct a political campaign every two years as if you are a better prospect of planning your time and of what lies in your time for a greater factor that you can take certain primary issues that you have a personal interest in and concentrate on and do a more thorough job of research where and how does a new member of the senatorial club fit into the debate with the monumental issues you'll be living with for at least the next six years running a lot of again and we have so many problems facing us in this country the immediate problems of course are related to in international terms to be in the Middle East he said a minute
or more I think we can expect that to continue to wind down. I would hope that we can expedite the process and a great deal depends on factors over which this country has no control and consequently it's. What better group to project what's going to actually happen I think the prospects are pretty good that it will be concluding at combat responsibility in Vietnam by late spring and from then on it's a matter of simply trying to withdraw our remaining service at a much as fast as we can domestically. We have a continuing problem of inflation and recession at the same time I think it was that I have seen indicate a turn for the better. 971 should be a pretty good where now we we have I think excellent prospect of a much more employment and
some hope on the not as strong as I would like her. Slowing down this surge and ever increasing prices. A lot's going to depend on the actions of the Congress we're going to be faced with a very Sasebo deficit and this current fiscal year and all around you and next year we cannot allow that deficit to get to such a magnitude that it just generates the problems all over again so that we have right much more inflation we we've got to try to balance our economic package here in the Congress and the House and the Senate so that what we do did not do damage to the nation's economy the economy itself is in pretty good shape and looks like it's going to be a lot better. But who knows if you know whether or not we can sustain the momentum that seems to have developed last go to to 60 days where we I think most I was going to turn the corner in economic terms over the long term I think.
You have end this decade. A number of problems that we've got to start dealing with now. If we're going to really suffer over problems without you know wouldn't come out of the blue and I'd be things that come to mind are in the area of the cities and the problems that city and county and state governments face are inadequate commands and they simply are not going to the point where local governments are or name the state a bankruptcy they can't afford to provide services that their community and their constituents need and then they want to reach the limit of taxation that they can let you know and there are people in their local area so one of the things I think we've got to do is to design or a federal structure so as to make it easier for local and state governments to be more responsive to the needs of their people. To do a better job of
providing mass credit for example in major but medical marriage such as Washington New York Chicago and the like. But also I got to do a far better job of developing more adequate housing for low and middle income families they simply don't have an opportunity don't own their own home today and that's got to be a major element of our legislative program. I think it's going to be quite a fight. On medical services the proposed their medical insurance program to prevent it or support for medical services of our kind and for our people whether or not this nation can afford it this time really doesn't seem to bother most people though. The debate goes on regardless of the element of cost and of course you have the overriding problem which is both short and long term which bases are less liberal and conservative Republican and Democrat alike amid the problems of the
environment. We simply must do a better job on both. Cleaning up their inner world Michel it waged in a manner that would have any economic abetter to this country but more important is within the basic objective of having a livable planet for our children. In 1969 shortly after the shooting and deaths again in Jackson State Bill Brock led a group of 20 to congressmen and I volunteered to or a 50 American campuses. He and the other legislators met with over a thousand students teachers administrators and other concerned adults. They went not to lecture but to listen and they came away with what he termed a new insight into student outlooks rock among others jointly sent President Nixon a lengthy report on their findings with many suggestions on the handling of the campus student problem. Senator Brock is still very much involved in this issue. I think when you talk about problems with
college campuses are the problems of youth in general because you really connect that to the problems that exist in college have their roots in high school or in grammar school in this country. I think when I see a problem and they want to turn to the kind of response I personally naturally answer in this particular case as a matter of fact you know they can't. Proposals that have been made for laws here I think would create far greater problems and we have today. You cannot pass restrictive or repressive legislation here in Washington. And I directed at the campus without generating great new pressures new problems. I think you run the risk of alienating the great bulk of our young people who are by and large and they haven't motivated sincere and decent people they believe in this country they want to work within the system to solve its problems and I think we've seen out in the last word since
September 11. I could change on campus in the sense that the great majority of people have turned away from violence and are now expelling on their own. From their own midst those of their number who are a very small group in a very vocal group a group that gets a lot of attention but those who would violate the rights of their fellow man simply to achieve some very temporary objective and I think that it is the responsibility of the man in the Senate or the House to to to me very much aware that the root cause of the problem that exists not only on campus but throughout the society arise when you hitting on people talking about their their frustration with the system or the fact that the ones in America that are not doing so out what they're really saying is that. They don't have a voice. That and the system is when I say the system
is responsive what they mean is it is not responsive to them because it's obviously responsive to some elements of our society. But we've got to do is to try to restore the traditional concept of government in this country in which government is designed to serve our people black white or red owed rich and poor alike just because they're citizens and they deserve a voice. And I think it's incumbent upon the person in my situation or in any political office to not just set up without an ivory tower in Washington and try to pass a law of the salvation of all mankind which is sort of them. Papa has a way of approaching the thing anyway. But to get out and to get on campus talk with young people but more important to listen to him. They have some very good ideas and they have a an approach to
the problems that in many instances is far more credence in the things we're doing I think the fact that they're young and they're idealistic and they're not always right sometimes frightens people and you know people over 30 who say well I don't even want to get around to it. We we we must maintain the knowledge that comes with age. But we must also maintain the excitement that comes with it and the ability to to see a problem in some sense of perspective. The combination of us working with them I think can really do wonders for this kind. All of Hunter's been a secretary working for Bill Brock ever since he set out on his political road of public service. She explains that when Bill Brock gets involved in an issue or a problem he goes all the way. Recently Senator Baucus sunk his teeth into the problems surrounding the Americans being held prisoner in North Vietnam. What year. I personally have been working very hard on this
issue and the congressman has been able to be instrumental in helping to get a confession to American people within the campaign. We were able that they were able to get it to the Congress can't. Force Major Washington to the fact that he went later to that. He was he stopped in the middle of a gate you know because he thought that was more important. I don't know that you can take any single act. I can't think of one that moon result in better treatment for
American prisoners of war in North Vietnam or I think it was something like that would result in their early release both of which are central objectives of myself and misadministration I think but we have been trying to do what I've been trying to do American cities with prisoners of war over the past year or so has been to draw comic attention to their plight as much as anything else because I think one of the reasons the communists have so badly mistreated our men is that they have sorely underestimated the. The commitment that the people of this country have to to goes man. I think people in. Country are absolutely disgusted with the way they've been treated with the fight that they have not been allowed to communicate with their families that they have been allowed. We've seen that by the International Red Cross. These are things that any human being should be willing to do for another in such circumstances and I think perhaps the most
important thing we can do. Given the nature of this problem is to demonstrate a national commitment and to to humane treatment for American prisoners of war and to their early release that means that they have become number one on the bargaining table in Paris it means that we as a nation have to explain anything so very forcefully to the communist world. You're in a better situation than Bill Brock was born in Chattanooga Tennessee on the 23rd of November 1930. He has two younger brothers on New Year's Day in 1957 he married Muffat Hadley the rocks now have four children. Bill Brock's education culminated in the award of a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce from Washington and Lee University of one thousand fifty three. His military service was with the Navy between 1953 and 56 He's now a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. After filling his active military service Bill Brock went to work for the Brock Candy Company which is family owns in 1962 he ran for
Congress and one serving in the U.S. House of Representatives until 1971 in 1970 Bill Brock was picked by administration political strategists as one of the best bets to knock off one of their staunchest critics. Tennessee's wily Silver Fox Senator Albert Gore. When Gore was first elected to Congress a Bill Brock was waiting for his eighth birthday a couple of weeks later I was 1938 in 1970 the Tennessee senatorial battle was considered a draw right down to Election Day. It was one of the toughest political battles of the year and the August 6th primary. Gore narrowly won the Democratic nomination over a conservative opponent making his first stab at public office. Brock won easily over country musician and former Cowboy Movie star Tex Ritter for the Republican nomination. Go our home Vice President Agnew called the southern regional chairman of the eastern liberal establishment described himself as the number one target of the next administration in the 1070 campaign. Gore called Brock Mr. No no warning out a series of
congressional votes on bills including pollution Medicare education housing and Appalachian aid which the majority of the Tennessee congressional delegation had voted yes while Brocket voted no. Brock defended himself by saying that his vote had been cast in an effort to redirect federal programs. This in line with his philosophy that the federal government should aid but not dominate local government. Gore's appeal was liberal with a populist plug Brock's was a long traditional Southern conservative lines making a special appeal for the 34 percent of the electorate that voted for George Wallace in 1968 on November 2nd. Conservatism won out in Tennessee and sent Bill Brock across Capitol Hill to the Senate write the letter name. You know we're kind of coming out of the past now which is beginning to make back every opportunity. Therefore movement now we have a
governor out of a Republican representative. He did a lot of thinking about what he felt like that we should leave the country back to be active. No place for young. The fact that example for Nixon and shocked at Republican Party. I didn't really think about it and it was great and we just did what we could do in the
Republican Party in the south really had its inception in 1952 and has never and we had very modest gains in 19 in the 1930s in 1962 when I was in I could win with several other new faces. We began in a in the metropolitan areas of the South. We still have yet to really make major gains in the more rural areas because of the difficulty of communication and the changing political habit of a lifetime and several lifetimes for that matter and I think we saw something of a planet this year. We made some gains but we also had the defeat of some very attractive candidates who to George Bush in Texas though claim in Florida. But. It may have slowed I rate of growth but I don't think that the rate of growth is down. I think you're going to continue to see Republican and grow
throughout the entire area south is going to as it had in the past and gains in political terms are going to come primarily from Metropolitan and suburban areas and they're going to come in stronger terms in the so-called border states such as Maroun Tennessee and Kentucky North Carolina Virginia and Florida and the process is much slower in the so-called Deep South and has been in my area for example but there really is no reversal there. It cannot be reversed. The basic pattern of Republican growth is that it will continue to. Well I think over the next decade or so and I think probably will then 10 to 15 years he will see the Republican Party in the majority in the Senate it's going to be really good for the nation and it's going to be very good for the South. We
desperately need a two party system down there and vote for competition. Competition helps everybody just the fact that office holders have to do a good job because they know they're going to be challenged in the next election. But more important now the Republican Party in the South has a I think a unique opportunity. But as we meet by providing a different candidate leadership can get this out of the way from you. Racial overtones away from the old black vs. white and start putting it in terms of how do you really build a total area for black and white. I like he build a community or provide opportunity for all young people to have meaningful employment and good education good things that they were about and proud he can do that frankly. The Democratic Party cannot and I think that by
changing the psychology if you will of the political system of the Republican Party could make a major contribution to not only its own region in the south but too to the notion because we must get this this racial current but behind it is we who are everybody you know to accept the fact that this nation is going to demand equality for all of its citizens and opportunity and to the extent that we can really begin to move ahead on a surface a quick comparison illustrate some apparent likenesses between Republicans in the south and Northern Democrats that Senator Brock disagrees and points out the differences in the south while they feel very strongly I think the need for a crime a team in social terms in human terms. That was pretty bad here too. I think you might describe as economic conservatism we are and
we are very traditional Republicans in economic terms and most political terms are we. We simply cannot. Though I don't believe allowing the putting down of any human being no matter what the reason is you can't continue to downgrade an individual just because he happens to have a certain color of skin or belong to a particular group that you dislike. So maybe in human terms we are. We're less conservative. We're far less as a matter of fact conservatives and their democratic contemporaries from the south. But in economic terms most of us would accept the most basic Republican that you find in the Midwestern and any other part of the country that have the
administration backing for Bill Brock in his Senate bid was all part of President Nixon's expressed desire to have more senators that he could work more closely with and hopefully produce more legislation to his liking. Well Bill Brock sure is a close but independent relationship with the chief executive a great admirer of the president. I worked very hard for him when he was seeking the nomination. And when he was seeking re-election. I have great respect for him and I have supported him as much as I could and have their kind and I've broken with him in earnest. And there is a basic disagreement Bossi continue to do so. My own convictions dictate that I must in my constituency. That way when I'm representing Tennessee and I shall endeavor to do the best I can in that capacity I don't think you'll find many people in the Senate today that you conclude that as a
total ignorance of any war and administration no matter who is elected. He simply cannot command code right here in the middle but it will probably because these are individuals these are men who represent entire states and they know they have convictions and very deep convictions of their own and I have those and I think most of my contemporaries were in the Senate. Or do I or I will to the best of my beloved to support the administration. But there are going to be occasions when I will disagree. Senator Brock can already be termed a supporter of the re-election bid by Richard Nixon as a member of the Senate how can he assist the president what the president needs several things to enhance his re-election prospects which I think are pretty good anyway. But number one we need to conclude the war in Vietnam. Number two we need to restore economic stability and economic progress to the nation
as a whole week. Have a more difficult job there. Frankly in terms of the relationship with the Congress the president has submitted a number of extremely important and very positive in creating a wedge but a proposal such as welfare reform this is a desperate need I think Democrat and Republican alike recognize the need that we're so balled up in and back biting criticism in many instances details of the program that the program has not passed. We've got to get that sort of thing off of the impasse and into legislative form so that we can have laws that really are responsive to the needs of the American people. Having done so than the president I think we're having a fine print for him to run on in 1970 to a prep platform of economic prosperity and of real meaningful progress for all Americans.
Politics and Public Service change every man in many different ways. Secretary Olive hunt has been a good professional position to observe that change in Bill Brock. What he had matured I think of the good he was great when it came to just get created Now did you get that. I think there's a great deal of reading up on the legislation I don't want development. He didn't thank any Thanks pay back he did a compassionate man he understands that everybody just like you have your political speculation is probably the most widely played game in Washington with his election to the Senate bill Brock's name has joined the higher levels of that political rumor mill. The most often repeated story about him goes like this. Rumors abound that Vice President Agnew will either be dropped or leave the national ticket in 1972 in a search for possible replacements pungency Bill Brock as a young Southern conservative who could
add greatly to the chances of the president's re-election. Well how is this prospect set with Senator Brock's own personal ambitions. That maybe just sucked into the news breaking right about I don't really believe the vice president is has there any intention of leaving to take it I know he does need the vice presidency will be at his initiative not anybody else's I am confident at present. But money to keeping And if the vice president sees fit to to remove himself from this job it will be the choice of his own based upon his own personal reasoning. Well I don't know their country and I think that they're going to not going to return to counter I think that would be if you don't count on anything we had. I'm going to try to do a good job as a senator for the next six years and that's all I have in mind at this time. Even in training terms. Bill Brock United States senator from Tennessee. This is Bill Maher Ronnie.
Player Atlanta. The United States Senate class of 1970 OUAT was produced in Washington D.C. for the national educational radio network with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. This is the national educational radio network.
- Episode Number
- 2
- Contributing Organization
- University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/500-d795c357
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- Description
- Description
- No description available
- Date
- 1971-00-00
- Topics
- Politics and Government
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:30:00
- Credits
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- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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University of Maryland
Identifier: 71-15-2 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:30:00?
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- Citations
- Chicago: “The U.S. Senate Class of 1972; 2,” 1971-00-00, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed December 21, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-d795c357.
- MLA: “The U.S. Senate Class of 1972; 2.” 1971-00-00. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. December 21, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-d795c357>.
- APA: The U.S. Senate Class of 1972; 2. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-d795c357