Priestly Rule (III)

Intellectuals are usually in the elite mix for a share of power, and have been since priestly rule at the dawn of civilization.

It is said Washington D.C. is the nation’s SAT capital, staffed by the meritocracy that has done well in school. That’s true for the bureaucracy, the media, the Third Sector, and law firms that represent special interests included in the Democratic coalition. All this intellectual entitlement is frustrated, however, by GOP control of the White House.

In 1988, with Reagan completing his final year in office, it seemed intellectuals would again run the city. Reagan, like Eisenhower in the 1950’s, was an aberration, someone too popular for the masses to resist. It was time for the Democrats’ natural majority of labor, minorities, and women to recapture power and provide intellectuals the positions to which their achievements entitle them.

From the intellectuals’ viewpoint—and remember, they write the history books—Lee Atwater [pictured] is the villain who blotted this pretty picture. On behalf of Bush 41, using dirty big business money, Atwater mounted a vicious, unimaginably dishonest smear campaign against Democratic nominee Dukakis, thereby hijacking the election. The brains behind the Democratic Party resolved never to be outsmeared again, and to be smarter about at what a low common denominator of intellectual debate elections are won.

Intellectuals believe “the politics of personal destruction” began with Atwater. (What was it that brought down Johnson and Nixon--creampuffs?) Now “personal destruction” would be the norm against Bush 41 in 1992, Newt Gingrich in 1995-98, and Bush 43 and Chaney from 2000 onward. The GOP of Atwater responded with its own misguided effort to impeach Clinton (1997-99), then with the brutally-effective Swift-boat attacks on Kerry (2004).

Above the slime of negative campaigning, however, the intellectual drive to recapture control of Washington involves real issues. We will take up two: national security and Christianity.