What I am here to do is to report on the gyrations of the struggle -- a struggle that amounts to self redefinition -- to see if we can predict its future course.

One of the obvious conclusions we can make on the basis of the last election, I suppose, is that we, the majority, were dissatisfied with Eisenhower conservatism. Though, to be sure, we gave Kennedy no very positive approval in the margin of his preferment.

This is, however, symptomatic of our national malaise. But before I try to diagnose it, I would offer other evidence. I will mention two volumes of specific comment on this malaise that appeared last year. The earlier of them was an unofficial enterprise, sponsored by Life magazine, under the title of the National purpose. The contributors to this testament were all well-known: a former Democratic candidate for President, a New Deal poet, the magazine's chief editorial writer, two newspaper columnists, head of a national broadcasting company, a popular Protestant evangelist, etc.. What I want to point out here is that all of them are ex liberals, or modified liberals, with perhaps one exception. I suppose we might classify Billy Graham as an old liberal. And I would further note that they all -- with one exception again -- sang in one key or another the same song. Its refrain was: ``Let us return to the individualistic democracy of our forefathers for our salvation.''