A favorite expression of people in Washington, D.C. is “inside the Beltway” or “outside the Beltway.” Whether you are situated in the former or the latter is not so much geographic as attitudinal.
Inside the Beltway refers to those with a Washington, D.C. mentality. Outside the Beltway refers to the way people think and react in the rest of the country. Indeed, those attitudes are very different.
Inside the Beltway, the world is a domed and cloistered political place, bounded by the Washington Post in the morning and Dan Rather in the evening. After Dan Rather has signed off for the day, political party politics is replaced by cocktail party politics.
The people who inhabit the world inside the Beltway develop a shared set of liberal assumptions, prejudices, and predictions, usually blissfully unaware of how people feel in the rest of the country. Take, for example, the matter of arms control and the relationship of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
Inside the Beltway, people debate such arcane matters as whether the ABM Treaty of 1972 should be broadly or narrowly interpreted. Outside the Beltway, people just want to ditch the ABM Treaty altogether because, broad or narrow, it was a bad deal in 1972 and it’s a worse deal today.
The Committee on the Present Danger has just released a new nationwide, scientific poll of U.S. public attitudes toward arms control. The results are obvious to those outside the Beltway, but they may come as a revelation to those inside the Beltway.
Two-thirds (66%) of the American people believe that the Soviets are violating their arms control commitments. By 71% to 20%, the people said they do not trust Gorbachev’s statements on arms control.
When asked if they support the concept of eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, 72% reply in the affirmative. However, that support evaporates when people are confronted with the results of such a decision: 83% oppose the agreement if it leaves the Soviets with an advantage in nuclear weapons, 77% would reject such an agreement if it allows the Soviets to maintain their advantage in conventional weapons in Europe, and 83% oppose it if it cannot be verified.
Are Americans still concerned about the problem of verification? You bet; 74% say the United States should not sign an agreement if the Soviets refuse to accept U.S. verification procedures.
By more than two-to-one (60% to 29%), Americans believe that Soviet boss Gorbachev is using arms control as a means of locking in a Soviet arms advantage. It’s amazing the way our negotiators haven’t seemed to figure that out.
A majority of those who expressed an opinion (49% to 42%) believe that the United States should no longer abide by arms control treaties that the Soviets are violating. This poll result should give the green light to those who are hoping that we will withdraw from the ABM Treaty of 1972.
A majority of Americans (51% to 42%) believe that it is more important to secure Soviet compliance with existing arms control agreements than to negotiate new ones. That opinion, too, is especially relevant to the 1972 ABM Treaty which the Soviets have massively violated.
A sizeable majority (57%) believe that the Soviets are trying to take advantage of the Iran affair to get President Reagan to agree to an arms control treaty more favorable to the Soviet Union. That opinion is self-evident to those outside the Beltway, but it takes a scientific poll to explain it to those inside the Beltway.
It’s probable that the American people also believe that the U.S. media elite are trying to take advantage of the Iran affair to get President Reagan to agree to an arms control treaty more favorable to the Soviet Union. But the pollsters didn’t ask that question.
The poll showed that 60% of the people have either a great deal of trust or some trust in President Reagan’s ability to handle negotiations.
This poll for the Committee on the Present Danger was conducted by Penn + Schoen Associates, a leading, independent polling organization. Their other clients include such famous liberals as Walter Mondale, Edward Kennedy, and Mayors Edward Koch of New York City and Marion Barry of the District of Columbia. Nevertheless, don’t hold your breath waiting for the results of this poll to be reported on the TV network news programs because it runs counter to the prevailing liberal orthodoxy that the people have lost faith in Ronald Reagan.
