THE END OF POLITICS?
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to deeper economic and political factors. In short, does our current situ–
ation signal the end of traditional politics, or is it a reflection of the
frustration people feel, because of the state of the economy and the lim–
ited choices offered to deal with our economic and political problems?
Another question is whether the disaffection is purely an American phe–
nomenon or whether it exists in Europe too. These are some of the
questions in my mind. The speakers and all of you here undoubtedly will
have different ones.
Our speakers tonight need no introduction. They are Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., the noted historian and advisor to American presidents,
and Eric Breindel, editor and columnist at
The New York Post.
Each
speaker will give a short presentation, after which they will be offered
the opportunity to comment on each other's remarks. Then we shall
turn over the discussion to questions and comments from the floor. Eric
Breindel will be our first speaker.
Eric Breindel:
Thank you for having me here tonight. I'm pleased by
the notion that I need no introduction - I want to say that it is a real
honor for me to share a panel with William Phillips. Earlier this evening,
Joanna Rose and Edith Kurzweil reminded a few of us that William
Phillips is the longest-serving editor of a major magazine in the Western
world: It's a special thrill to share the podium with him, with Edith
Kurzweil, and of course, with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. I hope that I am
not here in a situation I often find myself in these days - that of a token
reactionary.
I think William Phillips, in speaking to the notion of popular disaf–
fection with politics, assumes that this is a real phenomenon that we all
accept. Personally, I'm not sure how rampant disaffection actually is. I'm
not sure that it wasn't unique to the first half of this year. It is certainly
true that the American people didn't seem thrilled with their national
election alternatives. Moreover, a combination of factors, including re–
districting, the check scandal, and the term limits movement, will create
a vast turnover in the House of Representatives. But disaffection from
politics to me seems to convey a measure of non-participation, and I'm
not sure if a general effort to change things, to change the Congress and
to throw out the President of the United States - should that be the
result - can be defined as disaffection. In fact, if we look at an index
such as voter participation, which we obviously are going to find out
about after election day, I'll wager that we won't see a low voter
turnout. We haven't seen low voter turnouts - by our standards, not by
European standards - this year in the primaries, and I think that partici–
pation suggests a degree of excitement and engagement.
