Richard Cohen
A CHILLING DISDAIN FOR TRUTH
Washington Post, October 6, 1992
The story goes that when George
Smathers beat Claude Pepper in Florida's 1950 Democratic senatorial primary, he did so in Dart by accusing his
opponent of being the brother of a "thespian" who had "matriculated" while in college. When I called Smathers to ask about the story much a
part of American political lore that its
truth is taken for granted--his secretary said he could not be reached. I
guess the old thespian was out matriculating.
This brings us to George Bush, who
is attempting to do a Smathers. On a
number of occasions recently Bush has
linked Bill Clinton with, of all places,
Oxford the English university situated
in the city of the same name. It's the
place where Rhodes Scholars go for
graduate study. He suggests that by
living there, Clinton was tainted by
something foreign, possibly something
effete and, much worse, something intellectual as well. This Clinton is to be
watched.
At one event, Bush referred to Clinton's Oxford cronies" and said they
would visit "misery on Main Street
America." On another occasion, Bush
pointed to the "chicken" the Clinton
camp had sent to dog the Bush campaign (Can a chicken dog?) and said,"There he is, the chicken. I'm not sure if that chicken is from Oxford England,
or maybe he's the one that dumps that
fecal coliform bacteria into the Arkansas River." And just recently, Bush said
he would be up against an Oxford
debater when he and Clinton finally
faced off. Apparently, at Yale Bush took
no academic courses.
One is tempted to say that these are
not the musings of a sane man. But
upon reflection they are no more inane
than Bush's New Hampshire exclamation, "Don't cry for me Argentina" or
his message for that slate: "Message, I
care." What they are, really, are the
proclamations of a man who has utter
contempt for the people he seeks to
lead for another four years. The references to Oxford are, of course, an
appeal to provincialism and xenophobia,
but foremost they are additional examples of Bush's arrogance: his tendency
to see his fellow Americans as either
children or staff to whom you occasionally lie, for their own good, of course.
Bush first exhibited his contempt for
the average American's intelligence
during the 1988 campaign. Possibly
having noticed that Ronald Reagan was
believed even when he was at his most
preposterous, Bush adopted the same
tactic--but without, it has to be said,
any of Reagan's charm or beguiling
naivete. For instance, Bush blasted Michael Dukakis for being a creature of
Harvard, while he himself was prepar-
ing to stock his Cabinet with people
from that very university. And it was back then, of course, that he made his
"read my lips" pledge. He didn't really
mean a word of it.
Later, as president, Bush showed
that the campaign was no fluke. In his
very first nationally televised speech
from the Oval Office, he held up a bag
of crack cocaine and said--by way of
showing how brazen and common drug-
trafficking had become--that it had
been seized across the street from the
White House. It had--but only because
the drug dealer had been lured there by
Drug Enforcement Administration
agents so that Bush could include the
arrest in his speech. It was the only
cocaine arrest up to that time in Lafayette Park. When Bush was asked about
the sham, he did a so's your mother.
Whose side are you on, he asked the press--the drug dealer's!?
A kind of chilling disdain for the truth, an arrogant and deadly contempt
for the intelligence of others, infects
the politics of George Bush. It enables
him to air an anti-Clinton television
spot that is not just a stretch, not just
good ol' political hot air but a stupefying falsification--complete with seem
ingly precise estimates of all-but-certain Clinton tax increases ($1,088 for a
steamfitter) that are sheer inventions.
It permitted him to promote a bogus
figure for the number of times taxes
had been raised in Arkansas and to flit
from issue to issue in this campaign
hoping that one of them will strike a
chord in the electorate. He is all advertising and no product.
The references to Clinton's time in
England as a Rhodes Scholar--a distinct honor, by the way--make you
want to gag. Had they been uttered;
with even a hint of wit--as was Dan
Quayle's reference to himself as a public school boy who would be at a
disadvantage debating Al Gore--then
maybe we could all laugh at what is,
after all, the glorious nonsense of politics.
But it is the earnest seriousness of
Bush that leads us to conclude that he
takes us for fools. He emulates Smathers, but it is Lincoln he should heed.
Come November, Bush will find you
really cannot fool all of the people all all the time.
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