THE
DISCONTENTED CLASSES
71
fested at home, in America, is so huge that there is little energy left
over for the rest of the globe-rather, there is an aimless destructive–
ness in which legislative and local battles simply focus and dramatize
resentment.
Nevertheless, this group now possesses the enthusiasm and mo–
mentum previously held by liberals. Its leaders cannot channel dis–
content; they can interpret it: they can explain why everything has
gone wrong-for the while, that is enough. Thus, the picture today
in American politics is of intelligence without force or enthusiasm
facing force and enthusiasm without intelligence.
How much longer can this pattern last? International develop–
ments will probably be determinative-the belligerence coupled with
isolationism of this rightist group may tempt or frighten the Soviet
Union into further adventures and incidents, finally touching off a
war of annihilation (we think this most unlikely, and assuredly not
inevitable) . But the present leadership of the discontented classes has
to do more than symbolize their disorientation and lack of satisfying
political loyalties if it is to solidify new allegiances. For this, no intel–
ectual reserve of demands appears in the offing. Instead, the leader–
ship is continually subject to the temptation to fall back on the more
developed intellectual positions of laissez-faire or of various brands
of fascism-but these, it knows, will lose them much of their poten–
tial following, which is neither conservative in the older free enter–
prise sense nor on the look-out for, though tempted by, civil commo–
tion and foreign adventure. It is not surprising that Congress repre–
sents the peak of strength of this group, since Congress is a sounding–
board for mood-and an extraordinarily democratic one-as much as
it is a machine for pork-processing and bill-passing. A tone, how–
ever, soon becomes monotonous and, if not institutionalized when
at its shrillest, fades away.
In sum, the earlier leadership by the intellectuals of the under–
privileged came about through a program of economic changes; and
this program demonstrated an ability in the leaders to interpret the
situation of the unorganized workers, of minority groups, and of mar–
ginal farmers. Today, a different group of classes (including many
of these former underprivileged groups, now risen to middle-income
status ) wants something, but their wants (partly for the very reason
that these people are now above subsistence or disfranchisement) are
