European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday May 30, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary George f. Will Woodrow Wilson to blame for Perot s Rise Qew Herman Rorschach a Swiss psychiatrist gauged patients mental states by what they saw in inkblot. Ross Perot is americans Rorschach test. His Rise reveals americans dangerous cult of presidential leadership. Perot a popularity is fresh and redundant evidence that the Public suffers from what psychiatrists Call cognitive dissonance an incongruity Between attitudes and behaviour. That often is brought on by the mental incoherence of professing simultaneously and Fer idly incompatible beliefs. The Public wants Perot to put an end to what the Public a wants have produced a the fiscal crisis caused by the Public a demand for increased government and decreased taxes. And while the Public claims to want More modesty from politicians the Public flirts with Perot a politician especially political in his denial that he is a politician of stupendous vanity. Sigmund Freud the vain est person who Ever lived believed that no one prior to him had Ever understood anything his insights being indispensable and sufficient for understanding everything. But Perot a political vanity is impressive. He seems to think America has problems because it has not had the Benefit of his Wilfulness that compared to him everyone in Public life lacks courage or common sense that he can assuage conflict and reconcile competing values by establishing in his person an electronic communion with a the people through televised a town  never mind that town meetings Are supposed to serve a polity the size of a Small new England town not a Continental nation and that such meetings Are for discussions and decisions not gatherings to give a Leader information Perot a childlike fascination with gadgetry envisions government As a great Telephone answering machine. The evident idea behind his electronic town meetings is that government is not properly responsive because the Public s wishes Are not Well measured. Actually government today involves minute measurement of Public appetites by Servile politicians worshipful of those measurements. Such government reflects the decay of deliberative democracy into Plebs scutary answering machine democracy. The Core principle of our republicanism is representation the people do not decide things they decide who will decide. Representatives Are supposed to deliberate about the National interest not just broker demands registered from various factions. But Perot a idea of the Plebs scutary presidency reflects Woodrow Wilson a revolution against the founders idea of deliberative democracy. T the Perot phenomenon is a consequence of Wilson a mystification of the presidency. Wilson a theory of presidential government makes the president the indispensable catalyst of mass opinion. He defined the primary business of government As the massing of opinion by a Strong Leader. More than a decade before he became president Wilson the political scientist wrote a a nation is led by a Man. In whose ears the voices of the nation. Sound. Like the United voices of a chorus whose Many meanings spoken by melodious tongues unite in his understanding in a single meaning and reveal to him a single vision so that he can speak what no Man else knows the common meaning of the common  so a wilsonian president knows a what no Man else knows and his mystical a a understanding and a single vision supplants All constitutional arrangements and becomes the sole motor of government. A cult of leadership was in the air Here and abroad in Wilson a Day. Soon in Italy and then Germany the head of government was called simply Leader Duce fuehrer. In Wilson a 1913 inaugural he was at it again having visions a at last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life As a whole. We know our task to be no Mere task of  a a mercy politics is not enough for a mystical Leader whose business is the ecstatic transformation of the nation into a melodious chorus. The founders idea of government entered on the deliberation of Many representatives has been replaced by the idea of presidential a a interpretation Wilson swords. The Leader interprets what is in the hearts of the masses. What that Means today is that the electronic town meeting will come to order. When sen. Tim Wirth a Colo recently announced his decision not to seek a second term he listed Many defects of american life including George Bush who Wirth said a refuses to  who docs not seem to have a sense of where he wants the country to go and whose Lack of direction in turn pervades the whole government.�?�. Wirth too reflects Wilson a obsession with the presidential Persona if a president is inadequate stasis pervades the government and the country is threatened by entropy. Bush is a mediocre president but most presidents have been mediocre. What is new is the notion that the nations health is held hostage to the Genius or Lack of Genius of the chief executive. The Public a pathetic determination to perceive Genius in Ross Perot that political inkblot is a result of what Wilson wrought. C Tho Washington pos James j. Kilpatrick Murphy Brown an aside in thoughtful speech vice president Dan Quayle spoke at a luncheon in san Francisco on May 19. His theme was the necessity to return to old moral values of right and wrong. His speech ran to 50 paragraphs. This was paragraph 43 a it does no to help matters when primetime to has Murphy Brown a a character who supposedly epitomizes today a intelligent highly paid professional woman a mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another a lifestyle  a the american press reacted As predictably As the dogs of or. Pavlov. Quayle rang a Bell and Mouths watered. Platoons of sociologists pressed for timely quotes fired their Little pop guns. The Washington Post curled its editorial lip. 1 he crackers and brie set sneered and snickered. Predictably the Bush White House came Down with the impotent dithers. In All this commotion Quayle s serious message scarcely could be heard. Forget Murphy Brown. In the other 49 paragraphs Quayle spoke with clarity and Force. He said a when i have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in l.a., my answer has been direct and simple who is to blame for the riots the rioters Are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings the killers Are to blame. A there is simply no excuse for the mayhem that followed the Rodney King trial. To apologize or in any Way to excuse what happened is wrong. It is a betrayal of All those people equally outraged and equally disadvantaged who did not loot and did not riot. No matter How much you May disagree with the verdict the riots were wrong. And if we As a society done to condemn what is wrong How can we teach our children what is right a Quayle spoke for All those who believe that casual fornication out of Wedlock is wrong. He made a valid Point the Media profoundly influence the shaping of contemporary conduct. If this were not so we would not have Beer commercials. Of course the Media a glorification of sex has consequences. Among the consequences a in 1965 the illegitimacy rate among Black families was 28 percent. In 1989, 65 percent a two thirds a of All Black children were born to never married  the vice president did not even remotely suggest that Murphy and the Media Are solely responsible for illegitimacy among Blacks. Neither did he blame such great society programs As general welfare and Public housing. The responsibility is personal. Just As rioters produce riots and arsonists produce arson so do irresponsible couples produce families without fathers. A unless we change the Basic rules of society in our inner cities a Quayle said a we cannot expect anything else to change. We will simply get More of what we saw three weeks ago. New thinking new ideas new strategies Are needed. Government has a Large part to play. Governmental policies said Quayle must he premised upon such values As a family hard work integrity and personal  it is governments obligation to restore Law and order. Those Are a code words for safety getting control of the streets and Freedom from  government said Quayle can encourage the residents of Public housing to become homeowners. Enterprise zones will create jobs in inner cities. The parents of poor children must be Given a Choice of Public or private schools. Policies of Public welfare must be reformed to create incentives for saving and to remove the penalties for marriage. This was the speech that the Washington Post mocked As a a pretty comic performance and a hardly original and a morally  for my own part i thought Quayle was squarely on target. Such unsophisticated talk of old fashioned families May bore the Finger bowl crowd. The rest of the country wont be bored at All.  Prius a re Liuato