Political Chicanery
Sbarboro, Gerald L.
Political Chicanery Dirty Politics, by Bruce L. Felknor. W. W. Norton. 295 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by Gerald L Sbarboro Tn recent years, the increasing study of politics in this country has been...
...In a lively style he traces the frightening power of the written word...
...Readers of Dirty Politics will learn of the spies and stratagems of early campaigns and of the origins of such terms as "roorback"—a term known to generation after generation of political figures as any false or damaging story about a candidate published too late in a campaign to permit effective refutation...
...But the United States of America cannot stand it...
...The author's trim style, his eye for appropriate detail, and his refreshing judgments combine to make this book eminently readable for the general citizen, a must text for the politico, and a challenging study for the political scientist...
...He tells of the envy-ridden lies and half-truths and accusations which victimized the only President unanimously elected—George Washington—and which have plagued every successor to this high office in some degree...
...But perhaps the most significant contribution of this stimulating book will be to rekindle in its readers a greater appreciation of the complexities and values of the American political system, a system which at times must be viewed, as Paul H. Douglas wrote in Ethics in Government, with this perspective: "The faults we see in government are all too often the reflection of our own moral failures...
...He begins with the time when politics was the privilege of the elite few and news traveled slowly, and closes with today when every citizen may vote and news travels with the speed of light...
...In Dirty Politics, Bruce Felknor, for ten years executive director of the Committee for Fair Campaign Practices, draws on his ringside knowledge to weave a penetrating, sprightly, and immensely readable story of dirty campaigning and political chicanery in America...
...This represents a significant change in American attitudes...
...politics has usually been regarded as a dirty game in which amateur "reformers" engaged only to undo the mischief of professional politicians...
...As recently as 1950 The New York Times expressed the fear that in some elections the character assassination of those who reach public office is so complete that the voters who put them there will have lost confidence in them...
...In his final chapter he offers concrete recommendations for the alleviation of the ills he has portrayed...
...Reviewed by Gerald L Sbarboro Tn recent years, the increasing study of politics in this country has been accompanied by increasingly serious attention to politics as a possibly dignified and honorable vocation for the public-spirited man and woman...
...Perhaps the one suggestion which will provoke wide discussion is a proposed government subsidy for campaign television time...
...Felknor discusses the dilemma of campaign finances, the various organizations and indexes which rate the candidate, the impact of the communications industry on the 1964 Johnson-Goldwater campaign, and the role of the Fair Campaign Practices Committee during the Robert Kennedy-Kenneth Keating campaign...
...He compares the religious issues of the Al Smith campaign of 1928 with the 1960 campaign of John F. Kennedy and quotes liberally from Al Smith's speech of 1924 regarding bigotry: "The Catholics in this country can stand bigotry, the Jews can stand it, our citizens born under foreign skies can stand it, the Negro can stand it...
Vol. 31 • May 1967 • No. 5
