THE NATIONAL STYLE
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traditionally been one of
ressentiment.
Today the politics of the
radical Right is the politics of frustration-the sour impotence of
those who find themselves unable to understand, let alone command,
the complex mass society that is polity today, while only the Negro
community is fired by the politics of resentment-and this resent–
ment, based on a
j~stified
demand for equity, presents no psycho–
logical polarity to the radical Right. Insofar as there is no real Left
to counterpose to the Right, the liberal has become the psychological
target of that frustration.
One of the reasons why psychological politics can flare up so
much more easily here than, say, in Great Britain is the essentially
"populist" character of American institutions and the volatile role
of public opinion. In the ill-defined, loosely articulated structure of
American life, public opinion rather than law has been the operative
sanction against non-conformists and dissenters. Though Americans
often respond to a problem with the phrase "there ought to be a
law," their respect for law has been minimal, and during periods of
extreme excitement, whether it be the vigilante action of a mob or
the removal of a book from a school library, the punitive sanctions of
opinion quickly supersede law. The very openness or egalitarianism of
the American political system is predicated on the "right of the
people to know," and the Congressional committees, whether search–
ing into the pricing policies of corporations or the political beliefs of
individuals, have historically based their investigative claims on this
populist premise.
It
has always been easier to "mobilize" public opinion on
legislation here than in England; and in the United States the
masses of people have a more direct access to politics. In the elite
structure of British politics, control is not in the constituencies (or, as
here, among the hundreds of local political bosses who have to be
dealt into the game), but in the small parliamentary caucuses which
have a legal, as well as historic, independence from mass party control.
The British elite, wedded to a "politics of civility," tends to dampen
any extremism within the top political structure, while the control
system keeps the masses outside and makes it difficult for them to
be mobilized for direct pressure on the government. The presidential
election system-as against a ministerial system-with the candidates
appealing to every voter and, if possible, shaking every hand, involves
