Bread & circuses - Colin Powell

National Review, Nov 6, 1995 by Kate O'Beirne

I CONFESS that I love a guy in uniform, but the appeal of the military man of the moment is wearing thin. Colin Powell is flirting with the nation and the GOP. But will he respect them after the election?

Powell will announce his political intentions next month, and Washington prognosticators are evenly divided over whether or not he'll toss his helmet into the ring. Some Powell watchers are convinced that his innate caution will dictate enjoyment of his new prosperity and privacy rather than entry into the mean world of presidential politics. Others believe the rumor that Powell has hired a Republican polling firm and intends to announce his candidacy on Veterans' Day, in time to make a big splash in the November 18 straw poll in Florida.

If General Powell does decide to enter the Republican race, what kind of Republican will he be? His popular image is of someone who had to do it all himself, overcoming the obstacles of poverty and a racist society through intelligence and gumption. Powell did work hard, and deserves respect. But as My American Journey candidly reveals, his childhood was far more secure and comfortable than, say, Phil Gramm's. Powell was raised by loving, middle-class parents in the South Bronx of the Forties, a far cry from the living hell that is the South Bronx in the Nineties. He grew up in a racially mixed, harmonious neighborhood, and went to City College in New York at a time when academic standards were high and racial separatism was not preached. Powell's justifiable pride owes no debt to an Afrocentric curriculum.

Politically, however, Powell has shown little appreciation for the lessons to be drawn from the differences between life in pre- Balkanized New York and life in the racially tense city of today. Indeed, in the wake of the O.J. verdict, he has shown an uncharacteristic clumsiness in handling racial issues. The O.J. verdict itself, Powell says, "shows that the judicial system works." And though the sense of self-preservation he developed in the Army prevented him from joining Louis Farrakhan's march in Washington, he at first pleaded a schedule conflict rather than refusing straightforwardly to attend -- an evasion that was all too transparent. Willing to offend conservatives (he is "disturbed by the class and racial undertones beneath the surface of [their] rhetoric"), he seemed wary of taking on the outspokenly bigoted Farrakhan.

More generally, Powell has tacked left and right as his political interests have dictated. Until a week or two ago, he was expressing liberal social views; he stated his opposition to a Balanced Budget Amendment, and declared the Contract with America "a little too hard, a little too harsh, a little too unkind." He called conservatives "Neanderthals." His few genuflections in a conservative direction were vague tributes to the family and fiscal restraint, without any particular policy agenda, rather as if Bill Clinton had stepped up to the Republican mike. Indeed, he frankly said that "neither of the two major parties fits me comfortably in its present state."

How did he choose which party to flirt with? He explained that the Democratic Party "is not alive and well like the Republican Party is." Instead of rescutitating the Democrats, however, he seems more interested in tailoring the GOP to his own measure. But first he has to capture it. He duly tacked rightwards in an interview with Le Figaro. Suddenly the Contract with America was marked by "energy, life, and a will to change." Even Newt Gingrich came in for a compliment. As for Powell himself, he pronounced himself "slightly to the right of center."

Initially, this may well work. As several polls have demonstrated, there is probably a larger popular audience for Powell than there is for his establishment opinions, including among GOP primary voters. But this popularity makes Powell a very valuable resource to those who do agree with his views. And who might they be? Over the past few months, says Powell, he has become aware of plenty of Rockefeller Republicans who have been "somewhat silent."

Now, liberal Republican committee chairmen on Capitol Hill may not have had time to talk to Colin Powell, but their "voice" is being heard loud and clear. They have been working feverishly to derail the conservative revolution. Is it, then, the rank-and-file Rockefeller Republicans to whom Powell intends to give a voice? If he has met large numbers of them, he must have spent the summer in Connecticut or Rhode Island. And any impression that they represent the country's Republican voters is unlikely to be dislodged by his book tour, where he reportedly signs a thousand books an hour with barely a glance at the grateful purchaser, before he's off to his next star-struck press interview.

SO, IF he were to enter the Republican primaries, Colin Powell would be undertaking the political mission of transforming a vibrant, conservative GOP into a pre-1964-style progressive GOP. Since Clinton's election, 142 Democratic officeholders have switched to the Republican Party. There are a record number of Democratic retirements from the Senate, and when the Republicans succeed in delivering on their agenda, there will be a boatload of Democrats retiring from the House. The current state of the GOP should suggest another maxim for Powell to add to his famous list of rules: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."