I’m a little bit obsessed with Lee Atwater. Part of the obsession has to do with the guy who had such an incredible impact on the Republican Party and the nation’s politics in such a short time. He died just a little older than 40. That’s looking younger everyday. He also stripped away all pretense of politics being a noble enterprise. Lee Atwater appealed to the vanities (or perhaps insecurities) of the people he was working to get elected.
He also played to the worst fears of the people whose votes he wanted. It did not really matter to him if he was dealing in the truth or not. I’m not sure he even cared that much about the principles of the people he was getting elected. Not that I’m questioning George H. W. Bush’s principles, I’m saying he probably could have done the same thing for Democrats if they would have let him. I sort of think the Clinton’s would have gone for it.
Not all Democrats would. We are Bill Cosby to Atwater’s Lenny Bruce. We try to keep the facade up despite evidence that, as Atwater succinctly put it, “It’s all bullshit.” Some of us (Democrats) really are true believers. That causes problems because we lose the fight that way. Those of us who accept that our self-righteousness is just as much as pose as a Republican’s no-tax pledge are even more troubling. We play the righteousness card unrighteously.
I don’t know if Atwater saw the bind he was putting us in. He may well have, because he was a damn smart guy. Arguably soulless, but smart. His stripping away of the illusory nature of politics has had a lot to do with my unwillingness to get into that arena. Not because it’s a bloodsport these days, which it is, but because Atwater exposed the one of the basic reasons anyone goes there: ego. I’ve not yet been able to reconcile my desire for ego gratification with the real need to do something good for a community. So I’ll stick with what I’ve got for the meantime.