Waiting for Perot-Not

...Politics is a culture, just as assuredly as is business...

...It is one thing to be a self-declared "outsider" as a result of being the mayor of a city or the governor of a state...

...The demand for efficiency in government, argued abstractly by Perot, is a dangerous form of demagogy...

...There is no gainsaying Perot's skills as a businessman...

...In keeping with Commonweal's usual schedule, only one issue is published each month during July and August...

...But the Perot candidacy indicates a reaching for solutions far beyond the norms of American party politics, and far beyond our democratic traditions as such...

...A strategy to market Perot through the Larry King, Phil Donahue, and David Frost talk shows is essentially an effort 6.19 June 1992 by that segment of the media to play an active role in the presidential election, one beyond just tallying up results or providing prime time for debates...

...Such people have earned their spurs in the crucible of party struggles and popular contests...

...That is why our system of checks and balances often appears awkward, clumsy, and unable to get things done—the very bane of a good business or industry...

...For there is a means-ends continuity in politics no less than in moral life...

...Perot's candidacy is quite different from previous third-party efforts, either sucessful ones such as those of Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose party, or failed ones, from socialist to states' rights to vegetarian...

...Such cults have an ugly but proper identification with mass culture and totalitarian politics in the twentieth century...

...Before we leap to support this white knight in commercial armor, it might be worth our while to carefully note that what we will be losing is far greater and more substantial than what we might be gaining...

...If anything, his platitudinous soundbites represent a far bigger danger to American democracy than the ills he proposes to remedy...

...The notion of streamlining government is an appealing slogan...

...in the corruption and venality in the American Congress...

...Decision making and chain of command in business presuppose a consensus about a service or a product...

...Other than idle speculation about a "running mate"—extending from Jeanne Kirkpatrick and John Connally, each of whom had links to both Democratic and Republican party politics in their careers and therefore fit the mandatory profile of independence, to Colin Powell, who as a miltiary figure without known party affiliation also fits the Perot search for the insider-outsider—there is scant evidence that Perot cares one whit for establishing an authentic, long-lived third party...

...In the absence of such elementary concerns about political legitimacy and in his insistence that "people want things fixed," the faint whiff of authoritarianism, even dictatorship, can be detected...

...Indeed, the latent candidacy of Perot is not so much a third-party effort, but a cult of personality belatedly insinuated into a political campaign that presumably lacks charisma...

...In this curious scenario, Perot is able to muster support without spending a dime of his vaunted billions...

...It is intriguing that there is not even a hint of the nature of a "Perot party...

...In the absence of detailed analysis of the issues, ranging from welfare to warfare, we are thrown back on politics by analogy: how did Ross Perot manage his businesses, and what clues does this provide for the sort of president he would make...

...and coauthor (with S.M...

...Indeed, he is on record as saying that "working folks say...

...At best, one can foresee an extended period of political gridlock, the very opposite of what Perot envisions would happen as president...

...At the operational level, we can also envision a most serious problem: a president who, while not "beholden" to various interest groups and constituencies, also has no political allies beholden to him...

...He has a demonstrable track record deserving of respect and even emulation...

...in the alleged immorality of at least one candidate and the spinelessness of the other...

...But the notion he continually hearkens to— of a business-like government—confuses the nature of commerce with the character of government...

...Lipset) of Dialogues in American Politics—both published by Oxford University Press...

...Before we cavalierly march into a long night of electronic town meetings, hero worship, and the cult of personality, it behooves us to look deeply not only at Perot, but at our sense of both the purpose of politics and the political process itself...

...It might well be argued that Perot's candidacy is less the result of his wealth than the effort by the media to move itself from the periphery to the center of political power...

...Individuals such as Henry Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Eugene V. Debs, George Wallace, or Robert LaFollette offered either a break from Commonweal established parties after a lifetime of struggle, or a genuine sense of political options not provided for in the major parties...

...But at worst, we can design a scenario for breaking the gridlock by destroying the delicate web of relationships that we call the American political system...

...For better or worse, in truth or in error, there is a widespread belief in the inefficiency of the two-party system...

...Whatever the merits of such assertions, or others like them, H. Ross Perot is certainly not the answer...

...Ostensibily an appeal for a reduced bureaucracy, it is in fact an argument for greater concentration of power in the executive branch of government, specifically in one individual, the president...

...As such, he is the problem, and not the solution...

...Ross Perot is an outsider, but an outsider to the culture of the political process...

...we're not interested in your damn positions, Perot, we're interested in your principles.'" Aside from the pseudopopulist nonsense involved in such an assertion, the fact is that the public and candidates alike do take such pledges seriously, and that candidates later break them with a deep sense of concern, even fear...

...Indeed, by all accounts, his regular guest appearances not only cost him nothing, but have created a war chest of no small magnitude...

...It is time now to recognize that the very thought of Perot's candidacy is a reflection of our collective concerns, but not Perot's unique brilliance...

...It is quite another thing to be an outsider of Perot's type: outside the political process, its modes and sensibilities...

...It will avail us little to look back nostalgically on the "colorlessness" of a George Bush or the "sinfulness" of a Bill Clinton when it is too late...

...And on the economic side of the ledger, there is a feeling on the part of the middle class that they have no representation...

...There is little doubt that the Perot candidacy signifies a deep discontent with the current political process, no less than with the rate of economic growth...

...The Grace Commission has made a serious attempt at a solution...

...My plea is, not so much against third-party politics, but for retaining a sense of the connection of the causes and consequences of waiting for Perot...

...Far from representing himself, or being represented as simply a Texas billionaire who outfoxed General Motors, the media have their hands on the pure media candidate: what was only hinted at in the early days of radio and the movies emerges full blown in the nights of television...

...The next issue will be dated July 17...

...irving LOUIS HOROWITZ Irving Louis Horowitz is Hannah Arendt Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University...

...And there is little doubt that these concerns and others are legitimate and even urgent...

...But there are grave risks that when policies are called for, they will not so much be debated as rammed down the throat of an enthralled citizenry by a "consensus president...

...whereas in government, it is precisely the nature of the consensus itself that is constantly being debated and fine-tuned...

...The electorate continues to await Perot's specific proposals or even broad policy papers on a variety of domestic and foreign-policy issues...

...His candidacy, initially greeted with bemused dismissal by the professionals, is now the subject of intense scrutiny by these very same professionals...

...But Perot has artfully avoided articulating his positions, requesting a sixty-day cooling-off period and quipping that few take campaign pledges seriously anyhow...

...He is the author of Ideology and Utopia in the United States...