The awful advent of Tom Harkin

National Review, July 12, 1985 by Richard Brookhiser

A rookie senator from a small state, with no particular pizazz, Tom Harkin is unlikely to amount to much himself. He is, however, a symptom of several things.

Harkins represents the extreme Left of farm-belt politics. Robert Dole, perhaps, represents the Right. All farm-belt politicians vote a common economic interest. It may also be that, for some common sociological reasons, the spectrum they define is now slightly left of the national center--or, at least, left of where one thinks of the farm belt as being.

Harkin's Senate race cast an interesting light on the New Liberalism whose birth pangs we read so much about. The New Republic, universally looked to as the chief midwife, knows perfectly well what is at stake in Nicaragua. Its editorials on the subject are cogent, and it has opened its pages to Contra leaders. Yet when it came time to make endorsements for the 1984 election--to choose among people who aspired to set American policy--true to its past and habits, to a hundred partisan and ideological reflexes, The New Republic coasted along for Harkin. There was a failure of seriousness here. Which is worse--someone who goes to a massage parlor, or someone who goes to Managua? More precisely, someone who goes to a massage parlor and regrets it, or someone who goes to Managua and laps it up? Let the record show that the bold minds at TNR were not bold enough to prefer the former.

Harkin, said a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute who had debated him, is "not intellectually up to being a Marxist." That is an intellectual's judgment. It would probably apply to most Americans; with a little fine-tuning, it can be transformed into a compliment. As Harkin proves, though, one doesn't have to be any kind of thoughtful left-winger. The thinking is done for you. It's in the air. Central America? Phone the Washington School. Abortion? Unpack the "seamless garment." Vietnam? Read Life. Better yet, appear in Life. The quick study from the Plains has six years to try out his lessons.