December 06, 2003

NICHOLAS KRISTOF'S BROKEN HEART

“Watching presidential politics lately, I've been thinking back to when I was 13 years old and had my heart broken for the first time. It was 1972, and I was antiwar and infatuated with Senator George McGovern. But as I handed out McGovern leaflets in Yamhill County, Ore., I was greeted as if I were the Antichrist. Soon afterward, Mr. McGovern was defeated in a landslide…”

        So begins Nick Kristof’s column advising Democrats not to nominate Howard Dean. Apparently he has never gotten over his first case of adolescent heartbreak. For most 13 yr. olds, such pain would probably have been caused by a disappointed longing for another 13 yr. old. Kristof, however, plighted his adolescent troth to George Mc’Govern’s campaign for President! Since then he has reached some post-traumatic conclusions that he offers to his fellow liberal democrats. To sum them up: loser candidates like George Mc’Govern or Adlai Stevenson were just too smart, too wise for those of us who couldn't tolerate such intelligence in a political leader. Their oh so intelligent supporters failed to recognize that the rest of America is comprised of a bunch of dolts, who lack Kristof’s deep sophistication and affection for liberal truth tellers. They are resentful and envious of the superior intelligence of the Mc’Governs, Stevensons and Deans. The reason such highly intelligent men inevitably lose is because they fail to conceal their wisdom and knowledge from the envious rubes. Thus “…Mr. Dean is smart, but he knows it. America's heartland oozes suspicion of Eastern elitists, and Mr. Dean's cockiness would exacerbate that suspicion..” By contrast, Bill Clinton won because he pretended to be dumb, and succeeded in hiding his intelligence from your average dumb voter. Kristof cites Adlai Stevenson’s quip on the campaign trail: “…After one of his typically brilliant campaign speeches, someone shouted out to Stevenson from the crowd that he had the votes of all thinking Americans. Stevenson shouted back, saying that wasn't enough: "I need a majority!"

        Kristof, even as he is critical of his fellow liberals, never wonders what has become of a once muscular body of ideas now amounting to little more than a cocktail party pose of self-flattering scorn for the majority of Americans. He is utterly unaware of the contempt oozing from his column. No recognition that those who voted for Eisenhower against Stevenson might have been quite as intelligent as those who were seduced by Stevenson's shallow wordsmith glibness. The same holds for many who preferred Nixon to Mc'Govern, finding Mc'Govern's foreign policy stance superficial, ahistorical and dangerous. Kristof raises no questions about the failures of liberalism because he shares in its assumptions. He never even questions his first love; it stays pure in memory, continues to produce feelings of superior intelligence, despite the residue of pain. Perhaps if his readers can keep in mind that they are a superior minority of the highly intelligent, they can be spared the pain of a shattered romance.
See Kristof's column here

Posted at 09:52 AM by