Dear Diary,
Drove down to Pine Bluff, Ark.-old stomping grounds-to talk to Political Animals Club there.
Told `em I was more interested in hearing what they had to say than in giving speech. No problem. This bunch gabbiest in town next to round table at Sno-White Grill at Fifth & Georgia. Saw lot of old friends and critics. In Pine Bluff, they`re the same folks. Congratulated all on success of Pine Bluff in Preakness. Said I planned to watch Belmont for first time in years.
Told `em I didn`t really know what I was doing talking to crowd of political buffs. Mainly because I never had been able to work up interest in campaign techniques, polls, assorted gimmickry. Told `em my major interest in election season was to see which politicians could emerge with dignity intact. If any did. An election is chiefly a conspiracy to get candidates to exchange self-control and civility for power, pelf, prestige and other rewards that prove chiefly offal.
Told `em this had been weird primary season in Arkansas. Interest slow in building, at least from indications in Little Rock, where yard signs late in blooming. Pine Bluff, farther south, full of `em. Maybe it`s the longer growing season. Told `em Bill Clinton`s presidential campaign may have drained interest away from local and state races.
Told `em greatest interest appears in those new districts drawn to give black candidates the advantage white ones traditionally had in Arkansas. Novelty of democracy seems to attract participation. Hope enthusiasm lasts, both here and in Eastern Europe.
Afraid discovery that democracy is only means and not end, process and not guarantee, will prove disillusioning here and over there. Democracy best system but only system-no substitute for character, education, self-discipline, reason . . . what classical republics called Virtue. Sounded antiquated even to myself in age of computerized polls, sound bites, consultants, James Carville, media pack, assorted other irritants.
Told `em there was lots of anger out there this year. Also disgust. But not despair. Congress almost as unpopular as lawyers, who surpassed even inky wretches of press in public`s non-esteem some time back. Anger-without-alternative not good for republic. Invites vague and listless
dissatisfaction. But not revolt, since most Americans too contented to revolt despite disgust with isolated, unreal leaders. Prosperity great safeguard for a republic. Like money, it eases many small frictions but does not address basic questions.
Told `em most interesting candidate just now is Ross Perot.
George Bush has become personification of country`s own lassitude. (If only he would let Jack Kemp be Jack Kemp, or replace Dan Quayle on ticket with Colin Powell, but that is such stuff as dreams are made of.) President may pull repeat of Harry Truman`s upset in `48, losing only in polls.
Bill Clinton exciting only when in trouble. Once scandals abate, he sounds dull as Tom Dewey and not unlike George Bush. That leaves the big little Texan only excitement for moment in this our spring of discontent.
Told `em what`s different about Ross Perot. He`s unlike other third-party candidates-John Anderson, George or Henry Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Bob La Follette, Teddy Roosevelt, and all the way back to Greenbackers and Anti-Masonic Party. Ross Perot is non-ideological. He doesn`t compute on right-to-left spectrum. This makes him attractive in a blessedly non-ideological country.
Ross Perot more akin to movies than politics. Comes from great unpolitical, even anti-political tradition of Spencer Tracy in ”State of the Union,” or Gary Cooper in any Frank Capra special. Subtext of Perot campaign: Everyman Runs for President. He shares tradition of George Romney, Wendell Willkie, Engine Charlie Wilson and whole myth that success in business guarantees success in government/politics. Appeals to unstated but widespread American faith: A businessman shall save ye.
Told `em that only way Ross Perot can stay popular is to stay undefined. It can be done. Dwight Eisenhower did it in `52, but had military reputation to substitute for program. (”I will go to Korea.”) Also, Ike was model staff officer who had mastered epitome of bureaucracy-a modern army. Had a genius for saying nothing at great length. Ross Perot must find way to say nothing in short, crisp, direct, quotable lines. So far he`s succeeding but it`s only May.
Told `em we were still living off capital contributed by Founding Fathers and sacrifices of earlier generations. Told `em the present didn`t seem to understand both strength and flexibility of American institutions bequeathed by past, shaped and refined by history. Cited my favorite example: Just how Electoral College works not only unappreciated but almost unknown. Compare it to today`s crude fixes-term limits and balanced-budget amendments. Told `em I resented being driven to favor both by pols who have spent careers (and billions) currying favor instead of risking statesmanship.
Told `em that some writer in the `20s-D.H. Lawrence?-had said it was a tragic decade, and therefore his generation had a duty to live other than tragically. Told `em ours was a self-centered age, so we have duty to think of others. (Terms you don`t hear much any more: commonwealth, posterity, the general welfare. That says something about our time. Perhaps saddest of all, the great word ”community” tends to be preceded by a qualifier-black, Jewish, gay-and-lesbian, business, religious-so that it winds up dividing more than uniting.)
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More interesting was what they told me. Got told, for example, that newspapers depend too much on polls, too. One fellow said he didn`t know he was an angry voter till he kept seeing polls saying he was.
Told `em thank you, I had a nice time. I did.