Fundamental misjudgment of minds-It is easy to blame the Christian right for the political malaise in the US, but blame lies elsewhere
Fundamental misjudgment of minds
By Edward Luce
Published: May 6 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 6 2006 03:00. Copyright by The Financial Times
It is easy to blame the Christian right for the political malaise in the US, but Washington lobbysts and presidential advisers have more to answer.
Every half-generation or so the US undergoes a bout of self- analysis over fears of imminent national decline. Then something happens - putting a man on the moon, the election of Reagan, the bursting of the Japanese bubble - and the mood swings back to star- spangled optimism.
Whether it is because of the mess in Iraq, anxiety over stagnating incomes or the emergence of China, almost two-thirds of Americans consistently say in opinion polls that their country is heading in the wrong direction - a sharp rise from just a few years ago. Will this latest phase prove as shallow as previous ones?
Three new books address this question. The K Street Gang by Matthew Continetti and Politics Lost by Joe Klein address it obliquely by focusing on specific aspects of America's political malaise. A third, American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, self-consciously aims for a place on the shelf with the grand declinists. On a bad day, one might be swayed by this last one. Phillips came to prominence in 1969 with his seminal book, The Emerging Republican Majority, in which he argued that the demographic shift of people from the rust belt to the sun belt and the southern white alienation from the Democrats would create a natural Republican majority.
But Phillips' prescience has long since been replaced by his tendency to get swept away by his own rhetoric. He contends that the US suffers from the triple curse of growing Christian evangelism, vast external deficits and a crippling dependence on imported oil. These present a witches' brew of threats that he doubts America will have the ingenuity to overcome.
But he exaggerates all three. The US does tend towards a uniquely militant strain of Christian revivalism. But this has waxed and waned for centuries. It is hard to see why this latest phase, which has been so skilfully reaped by George W. Bush, necessarily marks a radical departure from earlier ones.
For all its mistrust of modernity, the coherence of American evangelism should not be overstated. Is Phillips' theocratic America the same one that shrugged when it learned of Bill Clinton's escapades in the Oval Office? Or the same country that continues by clear majorities to support women's right to abortion (albeit with varying preferences on term limits)?
As for the contention that America invaded Iraq to secure its oil, this sits oddly with the fact that three years later Iraqi oil production is still below pre-invasion levels. If oil had been Washington's sole and primary motive, Bush would surely have overridden Donald Rumsfeld by now and assigned more troops to secure the oil fields.
Nor should America's financial outlook be dressed up as a fiscal Armageddon in the making. Add a couple of years on to the retirement age and the looming social security deficit suddenly looks manageable. It is true Bush squandered a large share of the budget surpluses of the 1990s on tax cuts for those who least need them. But the US got into worse deficits during the Reagan years and managed to pull through.
What is most frustrating about American Theocracy is that all these problems are real and merit serious appraisal. But in his rush to predict a fate he implies America deserves, Phillips manages to trivialise the themes he identifies as most important.
As a recently-arrived outsider, what most strikes me is the tarnished condition of American democracy. Last month Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, announced he was standing down from his Congressional seat. Several of DeLay's staff members are under investigation for corruption and he himself is indicted for campaign finance fraud in his home state of Texas. It was DeLay who brought about the marriage of the Republican party to K Street, where most of Washington's lobby groups are located.
DeLay is a friend of Jack Abramoff, the most influential K Street Republican and a "pioneer" (high category) donor to George W. Bush's re-election campaign. "Casino Jack" was sentenced last month to almost six years in prison for wire fraud and corruption after having cheated American Indian groups out of millions of dollars. Much of that money was recycled as campaign donations to politicians such as DeLay in exchange for manipulating legislation to suit Abramoff's favourite clients.
Rather than take the opportunity to address the American public's deep cynicism about Capitol Hill, John Boehner, the new majority leader, issued a statement praising DeLay's "honesty and integrity". It would have been naive to expect anything different. In the 1990s, Boehner was forced to apologise after he was observed distributing cheques issued by the tobacco industry to colleagues on the floor of the House.
Those with longer memories might dismiss the corrupting of the Republican party as a predictable turn of the American wheel. They may be right. But after reading Continetti's superbly researched The K Street Gang it is hard to view what is happening as business as usual - or to dismiss Abramoff as a bad apple. When DeLay and Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to control of Congress in November 1994, they promised to wrest it from the grip of special interests and hand it back to "you, the American people".
The American people didn't stand a chance. Since DeLay and his colleagues proclaimed the "Contract with America" in 1994, the number of lobby groups based in Washington has almost quadrupled to 36,000. It is now routine for Congressional staffers, including 29 of DeLay's erstwhile employees, to move into K Street jobs. More than half of all Republican Congressmen who have stood down since 1998 are now employed as lobbyists.
Since the DeLay revolution, those who proclaim the merits of competition for all but themselves have a better chance of paying their legislators to secure a more favourable arrangement. It is shockingly easy. "How do we find little silly things which are moving which can have some technical correction language attached?" Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to a Congressional staffer. The latter's boss received a cheque for his services.
It has been just as easy to persuade Christian Republicans to choose new principles. The ever-artful Abramoff even got Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition, to campaign against the immorality of a casino bill that would undercut the gambling profits of a business rival - Abramoff's client. As a close friend of Ralph Reed, the star of the Christian Coalition, Abramoff knew how to appeal to fundamentalists. Reed's own principles were also dispensable. Reed switched from being a militant opponent of giving China most favoured nation trading status (because of Beijing's persecution of Christians) to supporting the very same trading rights when he was hired by Business Roundtable to lobby for it.
There is more than enough material here to persuade Kevin Phillips to reappraise his eschatological interpretation of America's Christian right. On standing for chairman of Georgia's Republican Party, Reed asked Abramoff for $50,000 to $100,000 in donations. "Sure. Give me the name of the entity," Abramoff replied. "The Reed Family Retirement and Educational Foundation," replied Reed. "Ha, ha, ha," was Abramoff's knowing response.
The American public's apathy towards politics cannot just be blamed on lobbyists. Although it has undoubtedly deteriorated in the past decade, corruption has always been a problem on Capitol Hill. But the willingness of American politicians to allow consultants to take control of their campaigns and edit all spontaneity out of their political personas is a comparatively recent phenomenon - and still a work in progress.
Joe Klein is one of the US's most seasoned political reporters and (originally anonymous) author of Primary Colours, the lightly fictionalised novel about Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign. According to Klein, the rise of the political consultant can be traced to the late 1960s and 1970s. His new book Politics Lost, How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid, is a cri de coeur against the "insulting welter of sterilised speechifying, insipid photo ops, and idiotic advertising that passes for public discourse these days".
It is also a sharp and anecdote-rich chronicle of how this has come about. If there was a moment that could be identified as the tipping point, it was when Pat Caddell, the highly talented poll adviser to Jimmy Carter, told his president: "It is my thesis that governing with public approval requires a continuing political campaign." And thus, says Klein, the "Permanent Campaign" was born, albeit to as chronically ineffectual an exponent as Carter.
If the measure of success is election results, then George W. Bush - or, more properly, Karl Rove, his campaign chief - is a maestro. If it is quality of governance, then Bush might deserve a slightly different assessment. But in his opponents, Bush has arguably been lucky. Contrary to popular opinion, both Al Gore and John Kerry are, in some respects, passionate individuals who allowed their instincts to be smothered by consultants.
During one of the 2000 presidential debates, Gore kept sighing loudly rather than express his opposition to gun control. His market researchers had told him to avoid the subject. As governor of Texas, Bush had signed a bill permitting people to carry concealed guns into church. A passionate environmentalist, Gore was also warned off discussing climate change. And so he prevaricated and dissembled.
Having outsourced his deepest beliefs to focus groups, Gore came across as wooden and shifty. Bush, meanwhile, had delivered the perfect one-liner that put paid to the controversy about his wayward past. "When I was young and irresponsible," he said, "I was young and irresponsible."
Likewise, John Kerry was advised by his legions of consultants to avoid issues on which he cared deeply, such as the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib and the general prosecution of the Iraq war.
He too retreated into verbal torture and became known as a "flip- flopper". Kerry said: "I actually voted for the $87bn [to prosecute the war] before I voted against it." Bush said: "You may not always agree with me, but you'll always know where I stand."
In contrast to Continetti, who gives clear prescriptions for rejuvenating American democracy, Klein argues for a return of humanity to politics by making the eccentric claim that human foibles are popular on the rare occasions they slip through - even tawdry ones. "It wasn't what you think," said Clinton when a reporter asked why he had carpeted the back of his pick-up truck with Astroturf.
Neither Klein nor Continetti is optimistic. Yet their outrage is shared by many people across America - a majority apparently. It is unclear whether things will get better. But it is clear they could if Americans would somehow overcome their lassitude. Meanwhile, Phillips' next book should be entitled American Apathy.
Edward Luce is the FT's Washington commentator.
By Edward Luce
Published: May 6 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 6 2006 03:00. Copyright by The Financial Times
It is easy to blame the Christian right for the political malaise in the US, but Washington lobbysts and presidential advisers have more to answer.
Every half-generation or so the US undergoes a bout of self- analysis over fears of imminent national decline. Then something happens - putting a man on the moon, the election of Reagan, the bursting of the Japanese bubble - and the mood swings back to star- spangled optimism.
Whether it is because of the mess in Iraq, anxiety over stagnating incomes or the emergence of China, almost two-thirds of Americans consistently say in opinion polls that their country is heading in the wrong direction - a sharp rise from just a few years ago. Will this latest phase prove as shallow as previous ones?
Three new books address this question. The K Street Gang by Matthew Continetti and Politics Lost by Joe Klein address it obliquely by focusing on specific aspects of America's political malaise. A third, American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, self-consciously aims for a place on the shelf with the grand declinists. On a bad day, one might be swayed by this last one. Phillips came to prominence in 1969 with his seminal book, The Emerging Republican Majority, in which he argued that the demographic shift of people from the rust belt to the sun belt and the southern white alienation from the Democrats would create a natural Republican majority.
But Phillips' prescience has long since been replaced by his tendency to get swept away by his own rhetoric. He contends that the US suffers from the triple curse of growing Christian evangelism, vast external deficits and a crippling dependence on imported oil. These present a witches' brew of threats that he doubts America will have the ingenuity to overcome.
But he exaggerates all three. The US does tend towards a uniquely militant strain of Christian revivalism. But this has waxed and waned for centuries. It is hard to see why this latest phase, which has been so skilfully reaped by George W. Bush, necessarily marks a radical departure from earlier ones.
For all its mistrust of modernity, the coherence of American evangelism should not be overstated. Is Phillips' theocratic America the same one that shrugged when it learned of Bill Clinton's escapades in the Oval Office? Or the same country that continues by clear majorities to support women's right to abortion (albeit with varying preferences on term limits)?
As for the contention that America invaded Iraq to secure its oil, this sits oddly with the fact that three years later Iraqi oil production is still below pre-invasion levels. If oil had been Washington's sole and primary motive, Bush would surely have overridden Donald Rumsfeld by now and assigned more troops to secure the oil fields.
Nor should America's financial outlook be dressed up as a fiscal Armageddon in the making. Add a couple of years on to the retirement age and the looming social security deficit suddenly looks manageable. It is true Bush squandered a large share of the budget surpluses of the 1990s on tax cuts for those who least need them. But the US got into worse deficits during the Reagan years and managed to pull through.
What is most frustrating about American Theocracy is that all these problems are real and merit serious appraisal. But in his rush to predict a fate he implies America deserves, Phillips manages to trivialise the themes he identifies as most important.
As a recently-arrived outsider, what most strikes me is the tarnished condition of American democracy. Last month Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, announced he was standing down from his Congressional seat. Several of DeLay's staff members are under investigation for corruption and he himself is indicted for campaign finance fraud in his home state of Texas. It was DeLay who brought about the marriage of the Republican party to K Street, where most of Washington's lobby groups are located.
DeLay is a friend of Jack Abramoff, the most influential K Street Republican and a "pioneer" (high category) donor to George W. Bush's re-election campaign. "Casino Jack" was sentenced last month to almost six years in prison for wire fraud and corruption after having cheated American Indian groups out of millions of dollars. Much of that money was recycled as campaign donations to politicians such as DeLay in exchange for manipulating legislation to suit Abramoff's favourite clients.
Rather than take the opportunity to address the American public's deep cynicism about Capitol Hill, John Boehner, the new majority leader, issued a statement praising DeLay's "honesty and integrity". It would have been naive to expect anything different. In the 1990s, Boehner was forced to apologise after he was observed distributing cheques issued by the tobacco industry to colleagues on the floor of the House.
Those with longer memories might dismiss the corrupting of the Republican party as a predictable turn of the American wheel. They may be right. But after reading Continetti's superbly researched The K Street Gang it is hard to view what is happening as business as usual - or to dismiss Abramoff as a bad apple. When DeLay and Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to control of Congress in November 1994, they promised to wrest it from the grip of special interests and hand it back to "you, the American people".
The American people didn't stand a chance. Since DeLay and his colleagues proclaimed the "Contract with America" in 1994, the number of lobby groups based in Washington has almost quadrupled to 36,000. It is now routine for Congressional staffers, including 29 of DeLay's erstwhile employees, to move into K Street jobs. More than half of all Republican Congressmen who have stood down since 1998 are now employed as lobbyists.
Since the DeLay revolution, those who proclaim the merits of competition for all but themselves have a better chance of paying their legislators to secure a more favourable arrangement. It is shockingly easy. "How do we find little silly things which are moving which can have some technical correction language attached?" Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to a Congressional staffer. The latter's boss received a cheque for his services.
It has been just as easy to persuade Christian Republicans to choose new principles. The ever-artful Abramoff even got Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition, to campaign against the immorality of a casino bill that would undercut the gambling profits of a business rival - Abramoff's client. As a close friend of Ralph Reed, the star of the Christian Coalition, Abramoff knew how to appeal to fundamentalists. Reed's own principles were also dispensable. Reed switched from being a militant opponent of giving China most favoured nation trading status (because of Beijing's persecution of Christians) to supporting the very same trading rights when he was hired by Business Roundtable to lobby for it.
There is more than enough material here to persuade Kevin Phillips to reappraise his eschatological interpretation of America's Christian right. On standing for chairman of Georgia's Republican Party, Reed asked Abramoff for $50,000 to $100,000 in donations. "Sure. Give me the name of the entity," Abramoff replied. "The Reed Family Retirement and Educational Foundation," replied Reed. "Ha, ha, ha," was Abramoff's knowing response.
The American public's apathy towards politics cannot just be blamed on lobbyists. Although it has undoubtedly deteriorated in the past decade, corruption has always been a problem on Capitol Hill. But the willingness of American politicians to allow consultants to take control of their campaigns and edit all spontaneity out of their political personas is a comparatively recent phenomenon - and still a work in progress.
Joe Klein is one of the US's most seasoned political reporters and (originally anonymous) author of Primary Colours, the lightly fictionalised novel about Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign. According to Klein, the rise of the political consultant can be traced to the late 1960s and 1970s. His new book Politics Lost, How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid, is a cri de coeur against the "insulting welter of sterilised speechifying, insipid photo ops, and idiotic advertising that passes for public discourse these days".
It is also a sharp and anecdote-rich chronicle of how this has come about. If there was a moment that could be identified as the tipping point, it was when Pat Caddell, the highly talented poll adviser to Jimmy Carter, told his president: "It is my thesis that governing with public approval requires a continuing political campaign." And thus, says Klein, the "Permanent Campaign" was born, albeit to as chronically ineffectual an exponent as Carter.
If the measure of success is election results, then George W. Bush - or, more properly, Karl Rove, his campaign chief - is a maestro. If it is quality of governance, then Bush might deserve a slightly different assessment. But in his opponents, Bush has arguably been lucky. Contrary to popular opinion, both Al Gore and John Kerry are, in some respects, passionate individuals who allowed their instincts to be smothered by consultants.
During one of the 2000 presidential debates, Gore kept sighing loudly rather than express his opposition to gun control. His market researchers had told him to avoid the subject. As governor of Texas, Bush had signed a bill permitting people to carry concealed guns into church. A passionate environmentalist, Gore was also warned off discussing climate change. And so he prevaricated and dissembled.
Having outsourced his deepest beliefs to focus groups, Gore came across as wooden and shifty. Bush, meanwhile, had delivered the perfect one-liner that put paid to the controversy about his wayward past. "When I was young and irresponsible," he said, "I was young and irresponsible."
Likewise, John Kerry was advised by his legions of consultants to avoid issues on which he cared deeply, such as the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib and the general prosecution of the Iraq war.
He too retreated into verbal torture and became known as a "flip- flopper". Kerry said: "I actually voted for the $87bn [to prosecute the war] before I voted against it." Bush said: "You may not always agree with me, but you'll always know where I stand."
In contrast to Continetti, who gives clear prescriptions for rejuvenating American democracy, Klein argues for a return of humanity to politics by making the eccentric claim that human foibles are popular on the rare occasions they slip through - even tawdry ones. "It wasn't what you think," said Clinton when a reporter asked why he had carpeted the back of his pick-up truck with Astroturf.
Neither Klein nor Continetti is optimistic. Yet their outrage is shared by many people across America - a majority apparently. It is unclear whether things will get better. But it is clear they could if Americans would somehow overcome their lassitude. Meanwhile, Phillips' next book should be entitled American Apathy.
Edward Luce is the FT's Washington commentator.
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