THE HIGHBROW IN POLITICS
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Astor in New York, declared that the great tragedy of our times is
the "dichotomy between the people and the so-called intellectuals."
But do not despair. "Thank God, the people have arisen to protest
through the person of Joseph R. McCarthy." And what was intoned
by Protestants and Jews had long since received the assent of
Catholics.
What these expressions signaled was a rise to climax of the
hatred of the intellectuals which had long been stewing and stirring
in various sections of American society. The dominant sentiment of
the '20s, our last interlude of business rule, it had been driven under–
ground by the depression and the New Deal to find only sporadic
vent through the years in congressional investigations and in the
gutter press. Now it burst forth in full violence. By early November
the word "egghead" seemed almost to detonate the pent-up ferocity
of twenty years of impotence. On November 4 the Republican vic–
tory
licensed those feelings and, in a sense, established them in power.
The new President, of course, was no particular enemy of the
intellectuals. He had himself been a university president, of a sort;
and even before his inauguration, he had appointed three other
captains of education to key positions in his administration (though,
perhaps significandy, no university professors). But other members
of
his
party were less admiring of the life of the mind. A number
of Republican senators and congressmen, flushed with political vic–
tory,
now sought to convert the Democratic defeat into an egghead
rout by tracking the intellectual down to his final stronghold, the
university.
These men did not underestimate what they described as their
courage in thus pressing the hunt. "This will be the most unpopular,
the most unpleasant task anyone can do," Senator McCarthy bravely
explained, "that is, exposing Communists and Communist thinkers-–
I'd rather use the words 'Communist thinkers' than 'Communists'–
in your educational institutions, because the minute you do that all
hell breaks loose. From coast to coast you hear the screaming of
interference with academic freedom." But, fortified by a series of
decorations tardily conferred by the United States Marine Corps,
the junior Senator from Wisconsin has announced himself ready to
lead the assault-if Congressman Velde and Senator J enner and the
other aspirants for the honor will let
him.
In any case, the bullies
