Lessons from November
Carlin, David R Jr.
OF SEVERAL WIMPS David R. Carlin, Jr. LESSONS FROM NOVEMBER FRAYING THE BONDS rom where I sit, where I am in possession of what is, I admit, a parochial point of view, the worst thing...
...It is as if people are saying: "Yes, I happen to be a Catholic or a Democrat or a spouse...
...The individual is less likely to define himself or herself in terms of institutional memberships or loyalties...
...But I wonder...
...Some commentators have remarked that Perot's percentage of the vote was the highest for a third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt ran as the Progressive (or "Bull Moose") party candidate in 1912...
...Political parties may have been necessary in earlier times, when citizens were not so well educated and informed as they are today...
...But the new particularisms neither preach nor practice universalism...
...For in the last analysis we are not members of institutions...
...The retreat from marriage and family is still another...
...Instead of the retreat from the old particularisms having led to an outburst of universalistic solidarity, we find that new particularisms are growing faster than the old ones are dying out...
...The evil of particularism, if evil it be, having been thrown out the door, has returned through the windows...
...Multiculturalism—which is to say, multiparticularism—is the order of the day...
...But in each case the individual is less tightly bound to the institution...
...The second worst thing was the strong showing of Ross Perot, close to 20 percent of the popular vote, since this is one further sign of the dissolution of American political parties...
...But the Perot phenomenon appears to be the sign of the breakdown of the two-party system itself...
...a retreat from religious loyalties and identities is another example...
...While we may enter these institutions with both feet, we stand near the door in case we have to make a quick getaway...
...This is radical individualism, but an individualism compatible with universalism, as though our hypothetical speaker were to continue his or her speech thus: "Because I transcend all my roles and loyalties, I am not ultimately divided from my fellow human beings...
...But I'll tell you about that some other day...
...some will say...
...The retreat from party loyalties and identities is an example of a more generalized retreat that has taken place in recent decades...
...He or she wears the institutional garment more loosely, is more able to slip out of it if it becomes uncomfortable...
...and if we are to evaluate the merits of the dissolution of political parties, we will have to do this as part of a broader evaluation of the merits of this generalized retreat from the old particularisms...
...None of these roles or attachments constitutes the essential me...
...Maybe...
...and so is the hardcore Protestant or Catholic or Jew...
...Nowadays the hardcore Democrat or Republican is more difficult to find...
...I grow anxious when I consider that there is no example of a modern nation which has been a stable democracy in the absence of a multiparty system, usually a two- or three-party system...
...What's so sacred about the two-party system...
...Fine...
...Perhaps back then they needed parties to guide their political thinking...
...I have my doubts that this exchange of old particularisms for new is such a good deal...
...He was a no-party candidate...
...But when it comes to particularisms, human nature seems to abhor a vacuum...
...Political parties continue to exist, and so do religions, and so do families...
...But they are mistaken, for Perot was not a third-party candidate...
...That's what is so alarming...
...The real me transcends all roles and loyalties...
...we are members of the human race...
...If Perot had been a third-party candidate, the big vote for him might be a sign of the breakdown of one or both of the major parties...
...I am far from certain that our political intelligence is greater today than it was, say, among the audiences who listened to the Lincoln-Douglas debates...
...We are like the man who, having swept his house clean of the old devils, finds that an even greater number of new devils have come to dwell in the empty house...
...This sounds good, and when I hear it the Kantian in me nods in vigorous agreement, and so does the Christian in me...
...In our particularisms we are separate from one another, but at the level of our true selves we are capable of solidarity...
...The Whig party broke down in the 1850s, to be replaced by the new Republican party, whereupon the two-party system continued with a new player...
...And how about that audience a couple of months ago at Cooper Union in New York City, who shouted down Governor Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, not allowing him to speak on abortion (the second time this year Casey was not allowed to speak in New York on this topic...
...At least the churches and the political parties preached universalistic values if they did not always practice them...
...and so is the hardcore husband or wife...
...The rapid erosion of George Bush's popularity (it actually resembled a drop off a cliff more than an erosion), which went from 90-percent approval rating at the close of the Gulf War in early 1991 to a less than 40-percent vote on election day, is another sign of the same thing...
...But those days are gone forever...
...That's why, though I have no immediate plans to leave my church or my party or spouse, I could readily do so without ceasing to be myself...
...But I am so much more than any of these...
...I suspect these three, plus others that might be mentioned, are parts of a package...
...That would be a momentous development, certainly, but it would be neither unprecedented nor catastrophic...
...They all go together...
...We can and should vote for the person, not the party...
...We have learned how to Commonweal 18 December 1992:1 think for ourselves...
...Were they more enlightened than Lincoln's Cooper Union audience in 1860...
...So what...
...Racial and ethnic and sexual identities are aggressively asserted...
...LESSONS FROM NOVEMBER FRAYING THE BONDS rom where I sit, where I am in possession of what is, I admit, a parochial point of view, the worst thing that happened in November's election was that I was soundly defeated in my race for Congress...
...In no case has the old institution simply been repudiated...
...Thus we may reasonably ask: Is the slow dissolve of our party system the first stage in the collapse of American democracy...
...We are living in a brave new world of computers and fiber optics...
Vol. 119 • December 1992 • No. 22
