Jaws of Victory
McDonald, W. Wesley
"Jaws of Victory" Is still another book on Watergate, the 1972 election, and all the concomitant disasters that have befallen the Republican Party and conservatives really. necessary? Surely even the most vindictive,...
...Consequently, the conflict between parties and candidates is increasingly taking on all the attributes oftotal war instead of a mere political contest for public office...
...The consequences of this view, in the eyes of Prof...
...The inherent paradox of the excessive strategic approach is that its frenetic, almost paranoid preoccupation with security is ultimately self-destructive...
...Each of their strategies seemed quite logical, but as each began to increase the power of the President it simultaneously undercut his authority...
...Increasingly, political leaders are moving from the traditional constitutional representative ideal of politics to the strategic ideal...
...In any case, the failures of the Republican Party must not be perceived as a mere failure in public relations which could be solved by a national advertising firm marketing Republicanism or selling the Grand Old Party to the nation...
...Although the expressed purpose of the authors is to argue for the abandonment of strategic politics and for the return to party politics, they are gloomy about the likelihood of such an eventuality...
...The Old Right will soon perceive that nothing will hurt this country more than embracing the doctrine of the New Right...
...The strategic practices of modern politics are here with us to stay," they write...
...The authors' crucial argument is that "the 1972 election marked an undesirable turning point in the direction of an excessive use of strategic thinking and war-gaming techniques in American politics, and that the electorate was understandably reacting very negatively to this phenomenon...
...According to the Gallup Poll 59 percent of Americans identify themselves as "conservative," yet liberal candidates appear disproportionately successful in elections...
...The strategic view of politics ignores precisely this traditional adherence...
...Corporatist economic philosophy, new wealth, and a penchant for the heady politics of war-gaming are its characteristic attributes...
...The inability of the Republican Party to build a solid enduring constituency on this conservative base indicates a profound failure in its leadership...
...or perhaps, as Jeffrey Hart has argued, Republicans need only concern themselves with domestic policies more than they have in the past...
...Around these principles Republicans would be expected to unite and build a solid base of support...
...Like modern Clausewitzians they believe that "politics...was the continuation of warfare by other means...
...In other words, the modern disciples of Clausewitz and Hobbes have ascended the ranks of political parties to become campaign managers, media experts, and public relations men...
...The strategy of the campaign is to create a condition of party nonalignment among voters by concentrating on the swing voter and neglecting the party loyalists...
...To achieve this, the authors boldly argue for the formation of an alliance between the Old Right and moderate Republicans...
...The goals of strategy are simply to succeed, win, and prosper...
...Ignore anybody who has no place else to go' is a good strategic maxim...
...for in the narrow Hobbesian world where politics is looked upon as the "war of every man against every man," the objectives of politics are defined only in terms of success and are not limited by moral principle, respect for people and institutions, fairness and duty, commitment to service, or concrete principle...
...The authors' proposal for a new ideological realignment within the Republican Party is not the strongest section in this book and seems a little too self-serving coming from the liberal Ripon Society...
...Their "game mentality...led them to believe that the essence of politics was outpointing antagonists and adversaries...
...The basis of this realignment would be a commitment to rather broad and disturbingly vague policies of free-market economics, human rights, a nonadventurist foreign policy, and the mutual abhorrence of strategic policies...
...As a result of the confusions of Watergate, the opportunity now presents itself, in the authors' view, for the moderate Republicans and the traditionalists of the Old Right to explore the possibility of an alliance to check the excesses and dangerous policies of the New Right...
...Perhaps, as William Rusher has suggested, a new political party of traditional conservatives and blue-collar workers is needed...
...Surely even the most vindictive, gloating liberal has had his appetite for such books satiated by now...
...However, this chapter at least begins the discussion on the curious predicament in which the Republican Party now finds itself...
...Brown and his coauthors, have been unhealthy for both the party system and the state of the Union...
...This was the result of a fundamental change in the way many politicians think about politics...
...If the Republican Party is to survive and not be relegated to the "dustpin of history," as some have predicted, then it must appeal to a broad constituency...
...It was a dramatic example of men bent on rational suicide...
...The more Nixon's managers strove to increase his power through their strategies, the more they undermined respect for the Presidency and the legitimacy of Nixon's leadership...
...The hyperstrategists are accused of using "all the logic of military strategy: deterrence, contingency planning, escalation, diversionary tactics, counterintelligence, and sabotage...
...Second, political morality withers as the traditional adherence to the rules of politics based upon prudence, custom, and the reverence for limited constitutional government is ignored...
...Old loyalties based upon traditional categories of trust and obligation within parties are being replaced by mere strategic alignments between groups and individuals which tend to be characteristically transitory...
...Unlike the Old Right of the Eisenhower-Taft tradition, the New Righthas as its unifying principle not freedom, but security—"personal, proprietary, economic, political, and national security...
...No matter how much legislation is passed to curb the activities of politicians and no matter how many sermons are preached against them, they will continue to be strategists and manipulators...
...Therefore, it appears quite logical that it would opt for an alliance with Ripon Society Republicans to oppose the New Right...
...Such an approach, if we are to believe the convincing arguments of the authors of this book, would not end the crisis of the Republican Party but would perpetuate it...
...First, the strategic view is destroying the two-party system by creating a condition of nonalignment among voters...
...Thus conservatives were shunned by the Nixon managers...
...What then is to be done...
...Where other books merely chronicle events and speculate somewhat lamely on the motives of the Nixon managers, the authors of this book have a more serious, theoretical purpose...
...Their theme is that much of the disturbing, aberrant behavior associated with the entire Watergate phenomenon is the direct result of the growing popularity of game-plan politics...
...For four solid years [the Nixon Administration] had been pursuing a consistent policy of undercutting its own intrinsic power position as a result of its hyper-strategic perception of reality...
...Their fascination with strategy and tactics led them to "feel that government was chiefly a matter of playing and winning games...
...A partial response to this question lies in the capacity of the Republican Party to regenerate itself...
...Jaws of Victory, however, I am happy to report, is not just another Watergate book, but perhaps the most important analysis yet published on politics in the Nixon era...
Vol. 8 • April 1975 • No. 7
