Dwarfism: a diagnosis

National Review, Nov 6, 1987

Dwarfism: A Diagnosis

FOR A MOMENT there, the Democratic presidential race, which has been most distinguished for its faux pas, looked as if it was about to generate an interesting fight. No such luck.

Albert Gore Jr., a liberal senator from Tennessee, sought to break out of the pack by running to its right. At candidate forums in Des Moines and Washington, he supported the in-flight testing of missiles and the American presence in the Persian Gulf. He also let it be known that he had backed the bombing of Libya and the liberation of Grenada.

His fellow Democrats responded, with some justice, that there was less here than met the eye. On all the most controversial defense and foreign policy issues of recent years, they and Gore stand together: against SDI, against meaningful aid to the Contras.

But that's not all they said. "I don't think it helps any of us to be knifing each other,' said Senator Paul Simon. "You're getting intemperate in your use of adjectives,' said former governor Bruce Babbitt. Jesse Jackson loftily suggested that Gore was outside the "mainstream' of his party.

This is a snapshot of liberalism in debate: a conspiracy of silence enforced by bitchery. All positions on all issues are settled beforehand. Disagreement is, at best, bad manners; at worst, extremism beyond the "mainstream.' Judge Bork will recognize the technique.

This explains the blandness and inanity of the Democratic presidential contest so far--traits which also characterized the nomination struggle four years ago. Where all agree, all must seem puny. The only Democrat who stands out in any way is Jackson--not because he deviates from the party line, but because he delivers it in blackface. Race, however inappropriate as a political category, is a reality. Thus Jackson reaps real support, which has enabled him to weather scandals--Hymietown and Farrakhan, fawning on Castro, lying about the circumstances of Martin Luther King's death, allegations of sexual straying, sloppy bookkeeping at PUSH--far more serious than those that blew away the weightless Joe Biden.

The other cleric who recently announced his candidacy, Pat Robertson, has been subjected to his own slew of damaging revelations--a child conceived out of wedlock, stretchers in his resume. He will survive these, for kindred reasons. He appeals to a mobilized community (united, in his case, by a shared moral perspective), which will stay mobilized when clouds cover his sun.

It is worth noting that all the candidates in the Republican field, either because of strong issue commitments or definite political personalities established over a number of years, are weightier, more serieux, than their Democratic counterparts. (The only previously unknown GOP factor, former governor Pierre du Pont, has taken some of the most startling positions of any politician in recent memory, daring even to use the S words--Social Security--in public.) No one has called them dwarfs. The Gore-bashers might take a leaf out of the Republican book.