Word: unpopularity
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...riding in 1985. The Federal Government has funded $300 million of the project's $310 million capital costs, thanks in large measure to the lobbying efforts of Neil Goldschmidt, former Portland mayor and Secretary of Transportation under President Carter. Despite Washington's munificence, Portland, with an unpopular mass-transit tax on employers and a noisy constituency of diehard automobile fans, has taken pains to economize: once they leave downtown, the trains will speed along an existing right-of-way parallel to the humming Banfield Freeway...
Furthermore, the incident had undoubtedly diminished the U.S. in Arab eyes. Once again the Arab world demonstrated the validity of an ancient proverb: "I and my brother against my cousin. But I, my brother and my cousin against the outsider." Syria is vastly unpopular within the Arab fold, but last week one Arab state after another condemned the U.S. raid. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, expressed his government's "deep concern," while Kuwait railed against the "flagrant aggression." Even Arafat, who has been practically driven into the sea by Syrian-supported P.L.O. rebels, issued a statement...
Assad had long been looking for ways to clip Arafat, and the opportunity arrived last May: the P.L.O. chief unwisely elevated several unpopular commanders within Fatah, the paramilitary group that he established and that still accounts for about 80% of the P.L.O.'s military strength. Palestinian fighters, outraged by Arafat's appointments and by his growing preference for negotiation over combat, rose up in revolt. Encouraged by Syria, and in some cases backed by Syrian troops and artillery, the rebels gained strength through the summer and eventually forced the loyalists out of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and into Tripoli. When...
Then things started to sour. Syrian intervention in the Lebanese civil war proved immensely unpopular at home and triggered a wave of car bombs and assassination attempts against government officials, including three attacks on Foreign Minister Khaddam. Assad faced his most serious challenge from the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic group rabidly opposed to Damascus' secular policies. In June 1979 the group gunned down more than 60 cadets, mostly Alawites, at the Aleppo military academy. The next spring, a general strike in northern Syria was stopped only after 12,000 troops killed hundreds and arrested thousands...
...editors have two valid responses. The first is that some institutions in a democratic society must be able to stand apart from the electoral process so that they can risk making unpopular decisions. Federal Appeals Court Judge Irving Kaufman of New York has likened the press to the judiciary in that respect. Said he: "Both sustain democracy, not because they are responsible to any branch of government, but precisely because, except in the most extreme cases, they are not accountable at all. Thus they are able to check the irresponsibility of those in power." The second argument is that journalists...