[lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading butNotfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Tue Oct 17 14:16:55 PDT 2006


On 10/17/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> This is from "Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited - 1965," an essay
> included in the Paranoid Style volume (pp. 69-70):
>
> "Part of McCarthy's strength lay in his ability to combine a mass
> appeal with a special appeal to a limited stratum of the upper
> classes. As compared with Coughlin, whose following had been almost
> entirely from a low-status public, McCarthy was able to win
> considerable support from the middle and upper ranks of society,
> mobilizing Republicans who had never accepted the changes brought by
> the New Deal and whose rage at the long exclusion of the party from
> presidential power was reaching a peak. There is evidence also that
> McCarthy had a special appeal to the postwar newly rich. Most
> prophetic of the future of the right wing was his strong appeal to
> fundamentalist-oriented Protestants...."

Richard Hofstadter wrote: "However, in a populistic culture like ours, which seems to lack a responsible elite with political and moral autonomy, and in which it is possible to exploit the wildest currents of public sentiment for private purposes, it is at least conceivable that a highly organized, vocal, active and well-financed minority could create a political climate in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible" ("The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt," The American Scholar 24, Winter 1954-55).

Isn't the reason you like Hofstadter that you are yearning for the same kind of elite: "a responsible elite with political and moral autonomy," who can check both "a highly organized, vocal, active and well-financed minority" on the Right and those segments of the American public who are easily exploited by that minority? -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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