THE DISCONTENTED CLASSES
67
just as the newer media (movies and broadcasting) in which they are
influential are weaker in the face of censorship than the older media
(book publishing and the press ) in which they play less part than
the Yankees do. To be sure, there are many affinities between J ews
and Puritans- both are people of the Book-and a political and in–
tellectual alliance of the sort that Holmes and Brandeis once typified
is still to be found, especially in smaller communities.
On the whole, as Americanization spreads, the old Puritan fam–
ilies have been slowly losing status. Some have responded by eccen–
tricity, leadership, intellectuality, and liberalism; others have joined
angry "pro-America" movements- where, ironically enough (save
in the DAR), they meet the very Irish or Italian or other newer ele–
ments who have displaced or jostled them.
s
Since they can no longer
safely snub these ex-Wops, ex-Shanty Irish, or ex-Hunkies, they dis–
place their animus onto the weak targets provided by intellectuals,
"left-wingers," "one-worlders," and so on.
9
And they can blame these
latter people for the very social changes that have brought the
descendants of lowly immigrants into the top councils of what was
once, in some areas, the ethnically rather exclusive club of the Re–
publican Party. Their blame, moreover, is not entirely misplaced, for
the New Deal, along with the War, did help bring prosperity and
mobility and reputability to Catholics and Jews.
After the War, the recognition of the Communist menace still
fur ther boosted the status of Catholics by making them almost auto–
matically charter members of the anti-Communist crusade. By the
same token, the intellectuals, their limited links with Communism
continuously and extravagantly exposed, became more vulnerable. We
8 The J ews, so largely beneficiaries of infla tion and gainers of middle-class
and professional status, h ave overwhelmingly remained Roosevelt D emocrats,
though a kind of "leakage" has provided some of the leadership and newspaper
support for the new righ t.
9 In general, it seems that th e non-conformist conscience must be surrounded
by
other such consciences if it is to remain effective. Thus, the English Methodist
who goes to Kenya or Australia is likely to retain the values he went out with,
and eventually will come into conflict with his cousin in the Colonial Office
who has moved forward intellectually and morally in the Old Country. And
similarly, the descendants of the New Englanders who left New England to
settle in the Middle West (consider the T afts ) will fall behind the New Eng–
landers left at home; indeed, it is this New England element in the Midwest
that Richard Hofstad ter, to whose comments on this article we are indebted,
sees as upholding reaction there. See his excellent article, "The Pseudo-Conserva–
tive Revolt," in the current
American Scholar.
