The Bootblack Stand: Letters to Plunkitt from Senators Young and McGovern
18 The Alternative January, 1971 Unfortunately as the authors lead us into the reconstruction period their narrative begins to take on a blowziness which eventually sinks the entire book. Citing...
...It is titled Escape...
...Very truly yours, Senator Geo...
...Dear Mr...
...From the book's own evidence it is difficult to see how the average Coughlinite could get much exercised over any status whatsoever...
...What do you suggest I do...
...Could it be that ideological simpletons at both ends of the spectrum are susceptible to primitive monomanias...
...The unusual antics characterizing the extremist often issue from simple perversity, and his moments of celebrity or popularity are more the product of man's propensity for foolishness than the aftermath of any dark yearnings Finally the authors have pursued the taxonomy of right-wing nuisances at the expense of sound reporting Numerous errors appear in the text like the reference to the Ohio Congressman, John Ashbrook, as James Ashbrook and the slandering of Gerald L. K. Smith's virtuous little band, the Christian Nationalist Crusade, as the Christian Crusade This is all a terrible shame...
...11, Box 360, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401, Continental U.S.A...
...Is it possible that extremism of the left and of the right embrace more similarities than taxonomists of ideological exoticism are wont to admit...
...C) ascription of simple causes to complex problems--as with those who cite poverty as the cause of violence...
...Cordially Senator Stephen Young Dear Senator Young: How nice to hear from you...
...As to your immediate problem, I notice that you are on the Democratic Party Reform Commissif' Retire from that commission by 7 January If the American people ever hear that you had anything to do with reform your reputation will be tainted indelibly...
...If their grievances are rightist their programs are often leftist...
...Certainly antiCatholic organizations like the American Protective Association are entitled to deep respect for their achievement in educating the majority of decent Americans of 1870 to rate the papacy "alongside Chile, Italy, and Great Britain as one of the powers against which an inflamed populace prepared to do battle...
...Plunkitt: I am retiring from the Senate after serving our nation for twenty years both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate...
...When the authors bring up monism as the litmus test of a right-wing extremist all they are doing is describing extremism, for monism defines extremism only...
...It seems to me that I am ideally suited to be on such a commission, for I have always had an interest in astronomy.---GWP Dear Mr...
...I am surprised that they still allow you the use of sharp instruments...
...The book should have considered both species of extremism...
...Taking the authors' characteristics of right-wing kookery and pinning them to the activity of contemporary politicians, we arrived at astonishing conclusions The authors claim extreme right-wing characteristics are the following: A) reaction to status displacement--as with the slippage of intellectuals in a technetronic age...
...A friend told me about you after reading the National Insider...
...it can be purchased in all bookstores...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/ o The Establishment, R.R...
...It was kind of your doctors to allow you to write...
...I recently met with the jolly boys of the Saturday Evening Club and endeavored to identify those American magnificoes who are the real right-wing nuts...
...Inasmuch as antiSemitism and nativism are today considered characteristics of the right and part of the right's more sordid patrimony to America, the appearance of these repulsive mental seizures demands more serious thought Could it be that bigotry and elitism exist independent of one's political leanings...
...The extremist movements of this century are dizzily eclectic...
...Citing only anti-Catholicism and nativism as the thematic reservoirs of the post-Civil War period, they utterly ignore the Ku Klux Klan which they treat only in its twentieth century renaissance Obviously this highminded organization is one of right-wing extremism's greatest glories and its exclusion is both inexplicable and unfair...
...the authors could have presented us with such an engaging tale of nonsense...
...D) adherence to a conspiracy theory--as with those who gurgle about the military-industrial complex, institutionalized racism, war profiteers, etc., and E) concern about preservatism--as with those The Bootblack Stand Dr...
...McGovern aging Keynesian economists, New Dealers and New Frontiersmen who reign in editorial offices and university faculties Thus we concluded that the true nightriders in the land have been such men as Senator Fulbright, John Kenneth Galbraith, the late Martin Luther King, James Reston and ineluctably Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab...
...Their assertion that "backlash against change" or "status displacement" breeds right-wing extremism is satisfying only temporarily, for in the Coughlin movement, the modern Klan, the Black Legion, the Silver Shirts and other rightwing extremist movements of this century, too many exceptions have appeared to establish any comprehensive rule...
...A New Demand Response System...
...This cavalier attention to a truly energetic right-wing group has shocked my Liberal advisors and sown in them the conviction that The Politics of Unreason was written as a thinly veiled apology for Ku Kluxery-a wild allegation, and one that I cannot swallow...
...Plunkitt: I am a Senator in the United States Senate from South Dakota (a state just east of Wyoming) and would very much so like to be President of the United States of America just like Presidents Kennedy and Johnson...
...The truth probably rests somewhere in the middle...
...And as they enter upon their discussions of the Birch Society and the Wallace campaign, confusions multiply...
...Now, the distinguished Dr...
...Dear Senator: In my first book, Plunkitt of Tammany flail, I devoted much time to discussion of the American democratic system I suggest you read it, paying especial attention to my remarks on honest and dishonest graft...
...George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, has just completed a penetrating study of the last Congolese election...
...Published in August, it focuses on the unique position of minority groups in the Congolese electoral process...
...I am withholding further advice until you reveal to me your position on civil service reform and establishment of a commission to study mercury in tuna...
...Plunkitt has agreed to, through this column, advise American statesmen in this time of, troubles...
...Regarding your question, I suggest that after twenty years in Washington you turn yourself in to the authorities.- -GWP...
...For instance...
...Even then the authors would be on sounder ground only if they avoided drawing elaborate behavioral blueprints of the political zany and contented themselves with writing a history of those groups defiant of democratic process or flagrantly abusive of democratic mores...
...How do you suggest I seek that high Office...
...The basic problem with The Politics of Unreason is that behaviorists have not been able to segregate the impulses of the obsessed rightist from those of the obsessed leftist...
...Somehow I just do not feel this is what the authors had in mind With the most admirable intentions the authors have ascribed simply too much sophistication to bigotry and brutishness...
...But they wither into insignificance when compared to the Klan's commitment, idealism and actionoriented programs Quite aside from the authors' peculiar evasions on the Klan,, their cursory and indecisive treatment of the confluence of nativism and anti-Semitism with the Free Silver movement, the Populist movement and the Grangers marks the incipient decline of the book...
...B) a propensity to violate the norms of pluralistic politics and democratic procedure--as with nonviolent protests like poverty marches and sit-ins...
...o R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...In failing to resolve these matters the authors preordained the eventual collapse of their study...
Vol. 4 • January 1971 • No. 3
