How the Good Guys Finally Won

...Breslin's argument, however, is seriously flawed and much too simplistic...

...For a seasoned Mencken aficionado, the surprise of this tome is the revelation that the old man could wax as sentimental as Kiwanian undertaker about the altruism and idealism of his craft...

...These cynics demonstrated the age-old desire of wanting to take the law into their own hands...

...If we decide to amplify the power of the legislature while diminishing that of the executive, we may create a climate in which thepursuit of popular or narrow interests through the use of governmental power will flourish...

...Indeed, it is self-righteousness carried to its most dangerous extreme for it constrains our ability to change, a characteristic essential for the survival of any government (or society...

...It is this tendency which in the aftermath of Watergate many, including Breslin, have become blinded to...

...Since that fateful Thursday in August of 1974, it has become fashionable to chastise those of the American public who supposedly kept their rose-colored glasses on too long and thus failed to see that President Nixon had been "guilty" all along...

...Skepticism of the actions of government is an essential component of the popular will because it leads to constructive improvements...

...if anything, they were doing the country a great disThe Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976 27 service by not trusting that our political system would function as swiftly and justly as most of us have come to believe...

...Et tu, Henry...

...It is of univer sal application, unchanging and everlast ing...

...There is a very real danger, as a result of all that has followed Watergate, that we now face a permanent shift in the balance of power in government...

...Presidents, in his view, are bad guys, because the Presidency, as it exists today, is a power-hungry institution that tends to subvert the wishes of all the people...

...Kirk's intent is not only descriptive, but prescriptive as well...

...Solon taught that a balanced mixed form of government which respects the interests and rights of all classes and elements in the commonwealth is the best form...

...Against the arbitrary and unjust acts of the state, man can appeal to this universal law...

...For this reason, they were, and hopefully will continue to be, the backbone of the Republic...

...Good laws must reconcile the claims of different social groups as the American Founding Fathers wisely understood...

...this distinction, if not made carefully and continuously, will become blurred over time and will serve to undercut the strengths of a democratic republic...

...In How the Good Guys Finally Won Breslin holds up Congressman Tip O'Neill for the highest esteem precisely because he was convinced of coming impeachment at a time when "there wasn't even a shred of documentation, only a race-track suspicion by one Congressman...

...Historically, the book ranges from the Hebrew prophets to the middle of the nineteenth century...

...And a great many of the bunco artists who pass for editors and investigative reporters nowadays would be turned out to pasture with politicians, public interest lawyers, lobbyists, evangelists, and other quacks...

...to say that an action by government (or for that matter business) which ostensibly goes counter to popular opinion (e.g., oil decontrol, the Russian wheat deals, Presidential vetoes) is in fact in the common good is more and more frequently to invite sneers and derision...

...There is—and this cannot be overly emphasized—a crucial difference between the popular will and what has traditionally been called the "common good...

...Its achievement in preserving a decent social and moral or der was largely based upon the unique development of common law...

...Kirk's broader Judeo-Christian perspective, challenging much of what is found in the prevailing schools of interpretation, makes this a welcome contribution to the literature of American political thought...

...Consequently, the book is partly a historical commentary, partly a history of ideas, and partly political advocacy...

...He applauds the ascendancy of Congress, because he thinks it closest to the popularwill...

...Like old aunts with their predictions-come-true, a number of writers have felt the need to tell us their versions of the inside story—which, if we had only known, would have convinced us long before of the President's guilt...

...Good literature alters the climate of opinion, and the shape of society, for the better, while the literature of decadence, or the decay of literary tradition, can undermine the commonwealth...

...So essential is the existence of some sort of a religious grounding for the social order that Kirk would agree with John Adams that even the worship of pagan gods would be preferable to atheism...

...It can hardly be unexpected that the greater bulk of books which will appear during this Bicentennial period, hailing the American founding, will "reflect the spirit of the age" in their concentration on America's tradition of social dissent and revolution...

...That view may be correct, but the crucial issue is whether a country should be led by the popular will...

...Cynicism tends not to lead to improvements in our condition...

...This body of non-codified law was the foundation an good order in England—enforceable largely because it reflected the enduring norms of the English people...

...The skeptics thought that the mounting evidence warranted a Congressional inquiry, but instead of passing judgment themselves they preferred to rely on our Constitutional process...

...With Tocqueville, Kirk holds that America's religious principles are "indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions...

...The Prophets knew that there is a moral order which transcends time, and that to defy that order by separating man from God's order will make man something less than human...

...This book is meant," he writes, "to water roots for the renewing of order, and the betterment of justice and freedom...

...was above all a scoffer, and won fame as such, so it is astonishing to see that he harbored and occasionally gushed positive opinions...

...Within this framework of moral belief and understanding, The Roots of American Order selectively studies only those "certain ideas and beliefs, which continue to nurture order in the person and order in the republic down to our time...

...The Roman civilization, although lacking in Greek imagination and artistic genius, "held more meaning for the new United States than did any other civilization and political community except the British and their own colonial society...

...What seems to make this tendency all the more pervasive is the general attitude of cynicism on the part of many writers and other political pundits, like Breslin, that has become so entrenched over the last year...

...Although he did not provide a workable model for the structure of a regime, Plato's analysis of the human condition has been incorporated into the American concepts of order...

...The Founding Fathers, recognizing this essential distinction, balanced the powers within government to restrain the aggrandizement of power not only by the executive but also by the legislature...

...Watergate was basically a case of popular representatives versus the public leader—the good guys versus the bad guy—and it was a glorious occasion because Congress (i.e., the people) triumphed...

...Consequently, Kirk's idea of order is not the efficient order of an omnipresent police state, but "a systematic and harmonious arrangement," which has grown within the context of inherited wisdom, customs, and traditions...

...He frequently conceals his thoughts behind such imagery as "mirrors and blue smoke...

...it is not intended to chart the course of government, but rather only to give government its bearings...

...Until now the inside story has been mainly focused upon the inner workings of the Nixon White House, but Jimmy Breslin has written a work that ventures beyond these perimeters and looks at Watergate from the vantage point of Capitol Hill...

...We read, for example, that "The first job of a newspaper, to be sure, is to print the news, and nowhere on earth is it done more diligently or more honestly than in this great free Republic, the envy and despair of all the decadent principalities of Europe...

...In the aftermath of Watergate, the distinction between cynicism and skepticism has become increasingly blurred...

...This is one of "the lessons of Watergate" that we have yet to learn: Just because President Nixon eventually admitted his involvement, does not mean that those who said all along that he was "guilty" were at all justified...

...This is not a healthy attitude...

...Kirk traces within this large book (534 pages) those ideas and institutions which have influenced most significantly the maintenance and preservation of the American social and political order...

...They feared a monopoly of power in the hands of the legislature as much as they feared that the executive might become a monarch, for they understood the strong tendency in the legislature to reflect private or popular interests rather than the common good...

...Congressmen are good guys, because Congress is the most representative national institution...

...If people think you have no power, then you have no power...

...Most importantly, the Romans have taught us that true liberty can exist only if the law of state is subordinate to the law of nature...

...the spectacle makes him seem as preposterous as any other booster he ever roasted alive...

...A harmonious relationship between the inner order of the soul, the moral order of the individual, and the outer order of the republic, the The Roots of American Order by Russell Kirk Open Court $15.00 civil social order, must be established...

...Breslin doesn't always put things so simply...

...Of the eighteenth-century intellects who influenced the Founding Fathers 28 The Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976...

...Proceeding next to the contributions ofthe Greeks, Kirk notes that despite the remoteness of the Greek civilization from our own, "the ideas of Hellas still breathe life" into our understanding of order...

...The Roots of American Order, however, swims against the popular intellectual currents of our time through its distinctive examination of the foundations of America's order...

...Government is only possible "because most people...

...The Roman concepts of rule of law and ordered liberty have been imbedded intc the American Constitution...

...The first of the soul's needs," Kirk quotes from Simone Weil's The Need for Roots, "the one which touches most nearly its eternal des-tiny, is order, that is to say, a texture of social relationships in order to carry out other ones...

...Because of his wide-ranging concerns, this book is extraordinarily difficult to summarize and therefore this review will touch upon only a few of Kirk's major points...

...The ideas of Plato and Aristotle have been transmitted down the ages by the European civilization from which the colonists came...

...It is the leaders of government who are responsible for defining, and of course pursuing, the common good—i.e., those policies which will not necessarily give the populace immediate gratification, but which will give society a solid, lasting order within which it can continue to function freely and progressively...

...In How the Good Guys Finally Won, Breslin shows us a glimpse of Congressional backroom politics during the confusing and difficult period prior to Nixon's resignation, and as a behind-thescenes look at how Congress acted in a time of crisis, the book is invaluable...

...in fact it tends to blind us to information and opinions that lie outside of our purview...

...accept the existence of some moral order, by which they govern their conduct—the order of the soul...

...Book Review/W...

...And, if cynicism comes to dominate popular opinion, we may fail to see what Madison so emphatically warned us about: The aggrandizement of power by the Congress whose aim would be the satisfaction of popular wants and not that which would be in the common good...

...Geographically, the book maps the contributions made by five cities to America's vision of order: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia...

...Kirk begins his discussion with the Hebrew Prophets, noting their major contribution to modern social order as the understanding that all true law comes from God, Who is the source of order and justice...

...At one point he contends that "all political power is primarily an illusion...

...H.L...

...True law is right reason in agreemeni in Nature," wrote Cicero...

...The popular will, which the Founding How the Good Guys Finally Won by Jimmy Breslin Viking Press $6.95 Fathers clearly intended to be represented for the most part by Congress, is a constantly fluctuating stream of opinion that provides government with the necessary feedback by which it can guage its actions...

...If people think you have power, you have power...

...Cynicism, on the other hand, can only serve to undermine the popular foundations of government because it misdirects our focus away from the actions which may provide long-term benefits to society towards only those which can be immediately realized...

...Life without a sense of order is intolerable, like a man traveling through the night without a guide...

...Despite the popular misconception that the Dark Ages of Europe were too intel lectually and morally bleak and primitive to have contributed much to the Ameri can political order, Kirk contends that an understanding of medieval England and Scotland is essential to an understanding of American order...

...There is certainly a good deal of truth to this Machiavellian view, yet Breslin shows no understanding of our Constitutional system, of where power should lie and how it should be used...

...Kirk's concerns are first and foremost with religious order...

...Wesley McDonald The Order of the Ages • • "Books often reflect the spirit of the age," observed Russell Kirk six years ago in his Enemies of the Permanent Things, "but also books can conjure up the spirit of the age...

...A civilized social order depends upon a proper religious foundation...

...The popular will is a response to the leadership of government...

...Book Review/Bill Kucewicz Did the Good Guys Really Win...

...Because their conviction was "vindicated" on that August night, such pundits think that their views of the Presidency and their air of cynicism are therefore justified...

...If the reformers in Congress were to create an independent federal regulatory commission to enforce such principles among today's practitioners of journalism, we would all be spared a colossal amount of buncombe...