Principalities & Powersnby Samuel FrancisnAfter two years of desperate pretensenthat the Bush administration is but thenlong afternoon of the Reagan era, manynof Mr. Bush’s conservative supportersnnow begin to suspect that morning innAmerica is fast lurching toward chaosnand old night. The President’s apparentnwillingness to consider tax increases,ndespite his best-known campaign promise,nand the return of Secretary of StatenJames Baker from Moscow last springnwearing little more than his underpantsnhave disabused many on the right of anynillusions they may have harbored. Theynare late, but they are not alone, and farnfrom the Beltway comes the unsettlingnmurmur of rebellion, this time not fromnthe tenured revolutionaries of the left ornthe tax-exempt populists of the right,nbut out of the swamps and hills of thenAmerican heartland.nWhen David Duke announced inn1988 that he would run foi- the Louisiananstate legislature, few paid muchnattention. Mr. Duke first gained nationalnheadlines in the early 1970’s, whennhe won fame for being a member of thenKu Klux Klan as well as a collegengraduate, and he has run for officenseveral times before — most recently fornPresident in 1988. Any almanac willngive you a complete list of such alsorans,nfrom anti-Masons and Know-nNothings down to the candidacies ofnAngela Davis, Dr. Spock, and LyndonnLaRouche. But then Mr. Duke wonnthe legislative race, the almanacs had tonbe rewritten, and ears, even inside thenBeltway, began to prick.nMr. Duke not only won his electionn— against the brother of a former governornand despite the fulminations ofnPresident Bush and Republican NationalnCommittee Chairman Lee Atwaternand the avuncular counsel of RonaldnReagan—but also now seems to be onnthe verge of trouncing Republican StatenSenator Ben Bagert in Louisiana’s senatorialnprimary next month. If, as seemsnlikely, Mr. Duke beats Mr. Bagert and •nkeeps Democratic incumbent BennettnJohnston from winning more than 50npercent of the vote, he will face SenatornJohnston in November. Should he winnagainst him, the rebellion will begin tonsprint.nMr. Duke, however, has come a longnway since he posed for pictures in Klannrobes and Nazi uniform. While henrefuses to denounce the Klan, he doesnnot spend time or energy arguing thatnGod has cursed the children of Ham ornthat the Elders of Zion are fluoridatingnthe drinking water from their headquartersnin the Federal Reserve System. Norndoes he dote on the conclusions ofnresearches conducted by the late WilliamnShockley, Arthur Jensen, andnothers who believe that human intelligencenis largely inherited and that whitenpeople generally got a larger slice of thenintellectual pie than black people. Justnbecause he doesn’t talk about suchnmatters does not mean that Mr. Dukendoesn’t believe them, though he is quitencagey about whether he does or doesn’t.nBut regardless of what he thinks aboutnthese and other subjects, Mr. Duke’snsuccess in the polls has little to do withnsuch beliefs or with the kind of clothesnhe used to wear. Louisiana and mostnother states are full of characters whonstrut around in funny uniforms andnwould like to have political power, butnfew citizens there or anywhere else arendumb enough to vote for them.nMr. Duke has gained and kept anpolitical following because he understandsnsomething many contemporarynconservatives have forgotten or in somencases never knew: what attracts voters tona candidacy of the right is not what thencandidate thinks or says about the goldnstandard, creating democracy in Afghanistan,nexpanding economic opportunities,nor being kinder and gentler, butnwhat he will do to preserve and protectnwhat used to be called the AmericannWay of Life, the normative patterns andninstitutions that define and distinguishnwhat Americans believe and do fromnwhat other peoples believe and do — innshort, the American culture.nVoters — not all of them, but many—nare attracted to candidates who expressnclear positions supportive of traditionalnAmerican culture because they have tonlive every day with the erosion spawnednby politically engineered assaults fromnindividuals and groups that despisenAmerican norms and want to get rid ofnthem. For example, the ACLU andnkindred lobbies that manipulate judicialnnnpower to uproot folkways and the distributionnof social and political power thatnfolkways support; the “multiculturalism”nlobby, which uses the government educationnsystem to crush Euro-Americannculture; and the civil rights establishmentnand its allies in the immigrationnlobbies, which seek to dig a bottomlessnpit of welfare rights, political privilege,naffirmative action programs, and setasidesnto dispossess white Americansneconomically and culturally and gainnthe loyalty of their nonwhite followingnin the underclass and the governmentcreatednmiddle class. Such forces alsonenjoy the support of the bureaucraticnelites in the managerial state, corporations,nunions, and mass media, whichnuse them to expand their own power.nThe practical results of the success ofnthis alliance are commonly seen in thenviolent crime that crippled police andnprosecutors are unable to suppress, innentire systems of local governmentnoverturned by courts for the purpose ofnensuring “minority” power, in competentnwhite students denied admission toncollege because of the lower standardsnof enrollment universities allow for nonwhites,nand in qualified white job applicantsnunable to work because of affirmativenaction and set-aside plans. Yetnsuch material consequences of the racialnand cultural revolution merely frame itsnsubstance. In high school and college,ntelevision and film, the traditional culturenof Europe and America is vilified,nbelittled, debunked, and deconstructed,nwhile white. Christian, male heterosexualsnare consistently portrayed as criminals,ntyrants, incompetents, and madmen.nProbably more than the directnmaterial effect of dispossession, this lessn. tangible but far more pervasive dismantlingnand discrediting of an entire civilizationnhas produced the smolderingnpsychic embers from which rebellionnbursts into revolutionary flame.nThe core of the revolution consists ofnwhat sociologist Donald I. Warrennsome sixteen years ago called “MiddlenAmerican Radicals,” or “MARs,” ansocial and political force largely identicalnto what is usually called — dependingnon one’s inclination to affect dispassion,nenthusiasm, or contempt — “lowernmiddle-class white ethnics,” the “ReagannDemocrats,” or the “Bubba vote.”nSEPTEMBER 1990/11n