Richard Hofstadter: Champion of the Values of Irony and Balance- But Relentless Passion is Often Essential to Make Breakthrough Progress

 

David S. Brown’s book, Richard Hofstadter, An Intellectual Biography reminded me why I so appreciated Hofstadter’s writings and political beliefs in my younger days.  He takes a balanced and appropriately ironic view to both the Left and Right when they plant themselves in ideological certainties, which he dismisses.  He found himself “oppositional” and “skeptical” by nature throughout his career, from different vantage points in terms of emphasis, including being no fan of Roosevelt, even though he agreed with many of his policies’ and, of course, being bitterly opposed to McCarthy and the far Right.

 

He would be dismayed by what exists today, a too-far-left progressive wing of the Democratic Party and an entrenched right wing of the Republican Party fueled and caricatured by Trump himself, with an eroding middle in the values he most appreciated:  “Intellectual autonomy, scientific enquiry, individual freedom, and cultural latitude,” or, in my words, open-minded consideration of different cultural views. 

 

Late in his career, probably close to his death in 1970, Hofstadter wrote presciently in terms of our current moment:  “The United States began with the heritage of slavery and with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant domination…”  “The upsurge of new immigrants, the Catholics and now finally the Negroes has made our 20^th century history into a story of ethnic wars of various kinds, war incidental to transforming the old America into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious urban society.” 

 

The arc of Hofstadter’s career in thinking was in effect a pilgrimage from the Left to the liberalist center.

 

Late in his career, Hofstadter raised the issue of violence.  He, together with a number of other historians, contributed original essays to the New York Times magazine on the topic, “Is America by Nature a Violent Society?”  Hofstadter’s brief piece, produced only days after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, saw more darkness than light.  He lashed out at the “feebleness of our efforts at gun control” and the ease with which “any zealot, any maniac, could purchase a firearm.”  Disturbed by the New Left posturing, and concerned with the fate of pluralism and a political system crippled by sharp ideological divisions, Hofstadter saw little promise for a peaceful society.  Quoting from D.H. Lawrence, he concluded that, “The sacred rites of American manhood” to arm oneself have led to a deeper and more ominous truth—“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer.”  This is going too far.  Yet, 54 years later, sadly and truthfully these words ring with more truth than we wish, as we witness the even greater prevalence of guns, outbreak of mass shootings, and the removal by the Supreme Court of the state’s right to control the concealed carrying of handguns.

 

Irony permeated Hofstadter’s writing and thinking.  He used irony to shed light on the confusing and often absurd episodes of the past.  This struck many scholars as a strategy of careful detachment or evasion—imposing an artificial sense of complexity as a means of avoiding or rationalizing away conflict.  That’s not how he intended, nor do I; it’s to show the reality of conflict and, yes, the absurdity of unintended consequences which pursuit of ideals often produces.

 

Hofstadter lamented unreflecting, all-knowing and close-minded pronouncements on both the Left and Right.  He saw the irony in student protests on campus at a time when they had more freedom and more rights than ever before.

And yet, knowing where to draw the line on this is difficult.  For if it were not for what Hofstadter probably would have called intemperate protests, progressive social change of which he approves would not have taken place, certainly not on the timing that it did.  That’s true when it comes to women’s suffrage, the abolition of slavery, the approval of fair labor and childcare policies, securing the right to vote.  Progress, like it or not, will often depend, if not always, especially when it comes to the big changes on what those in the middle (and I am often there) would describe as intemperate.

President Biden's and the Nation's Lost Opportunity--Restoring the "Soul of America"

Whatever the future brings, we must never forget the eternal debt we owe President Biden. He enabled our country, as only he at the time could have, to avoid the damage and scourge which another four years of Donald Trump would have inflicted on our Nation and the world. And with the confidence foreign leaders had in him,  President Biden has brought together an allied front to thwart Russia's invasion of Ukraine as few if any other leader could have done. And there is much more he will be recognized for in the retrospect of history, including the bi-partisan infrastructure bill which has been too little celebrated and expanded health care. 

But it could have been so much more!

Biden campaigned under the banner of  restoring the "Soul of America". There was never any doubt he meant it; that he intended to do it. Nor was there any doubt how urgent is was to do just that. Yet that vision of restoring a unified view of what we aspire to as a Nation is more distant today than perhaps any time in my 80+ year life. And that makes me very sad. 

I don't know if was possible to have made progress against that vision. It was certainly an uphill battle from the start, given the Republican election deniers, led by Trump himself,  asserting in the face of all the facts that Trump should be President. And, equally, given those countless Republicans who knew better, like Rob Portman of Ohio and so many others, who failed to step up publicly, emphatically and repeatedly to assert the truth. 

Still, recognizing all those realities and I could cite many more, I don't believe President Biden gave it his best shot. I attribute this to two things.

1. He moved forward immediately with an agenda which was too varied and revolutionary; an agenda which failed to recognize the very slim Democratic majorities in Congress; an agenda which was too beholden to the interests of the Left wing of the Democratic party and which did not benefit from and reflect sufficient consultation with the middle of the Republican party. Again, I am not sure such consultation would have resulted in a better outcome. But I am convinced it should have been tried. 

I argued from the start that Biden should have appointed some Republicans to the Cabinet and Senior Adviser positions, as Lincoln did in 1860 and as Churchill did in 1940 and as FDR did as well. I argued from the start that Biden should have started his Administration on Day 1, by bringing the Congressional leaders together in the Oval Office to start to define the key issues (economy, immigration, Covid, health care, etc) that needed to be tackled and how he hoped they would work together to make progress to resolve them.

2. He has failed to address the Nation as OUR PRESIDENT, not just as the head of a political party or strong advocate of specific issues such as abortion, the integrity of the Supreme Court, gun control, immigration, etc. To be sure any President must speak out and advocate strongly for the specific measures he or she believes are essential to the future of the nation's citizens. But they must do more if they are are to have any hope of bringing the country together, of building confidence, of "restoring the Soul of America". 

They need to speak to the American public as THEIR PRESIDENT. They need to explain the state of the Nation, realistically, warts and all. They need to articulate a coherent and non-partisan vision of where we want to be.They need to recognize the polarization of views objectively without demonizing either side  (even while not agreeing with them). They should try to explain the origins of this polarization and what each of us can to to address it. They need to put key issues, like inflation and crime and immigration in context and relate them to a common vision for the country. 

I am under no illusion. Done as well as possible this will not result in some golden era of all people being together. There will always be outliers. But we dare not allow this fact to deter us from pursuing a bold uniting vision. A majority of people, perhaps a vast majority will unite behind a leader who they are confident has a vision worthy and befitting the nation we love, a credible set of prioiites to achieve that and who above all knows and believes that it will require ALL of us working together and respecting one another to achieve it. 

I write thinking of the future not simply to lament missed past opportunities. I write this  continuing to be convinced that President Biden has it in his mind and heart to lead this way. It will undoubtedly be even harder to lead this way in the next two years given the likely Republican leadership of the House and maybe Senate after the mid-terms only ten days away. But I hope he will try. He still is our President. Like no one else, he can bring people together. He can speak in a different way to the Nation; "fire side"chat conversations if you will. He can act as the People's President. 

Our nation desperately needs this. Of that I am sure.

John Pepper

Confronting the Risk of This Precarious Moment

 Over the course of the last nine months, I have posted several blogs related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  The first dealing with the threat of that invasion was on January 27; title:  Whether Ukraine.  I expressed the deep belief then that it was in no one’s interest, including not Russia’s, for Putin to invade Ukraine. 

 A month later, he did exactly that, in what I went on to describe 8 months later, in September, as a “cruel, tragic and misbegotten war.” 

I believe Putin's misguided and misinformed decision will go down in the annals of history as one of the worst decisions ever made by the leader of a major country. 

 

The killing continues.  Coverage of this war today has faded some, but it’s still a “top of the news” item, as it should be.  However, I find that it is being reported on now almost like it is a football game.  It secures its space among coverage of the baseball playoffs, discussion of inflation and the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States. 

 

On October 15, a Wall Street Journal article written by Peggy Noonan echoes what I have been saying for some months. 

 “As the stakes got higher, leaders have become all too casual—unserious and sloppy.  Part of it is social media, on which the whole world is hooked.  Ambassadors launch taunting tweets like rockets and getting high-fives. What is needed is a serious, weighty, textured document that reflects the gravity of the moment we are in; a full Oval Office address that doesn’t emote but speaks rationally to a nation of thoughtful people.  A big definitional statement.  Where are we?  Are we communicating with the Kremlin?  How should the American people be thinking about all this?”

 

Almost every columnist now is comparing the current moment to the Cuban Missile Crisis. And rightly so.  Yet Noonan aptly writes, “We are not addressing this the way JFK did.  When JFK spoke, it was in a studied, careful way and to the entire nation.”

 

I fear that leaders, including our leaders, are failing to give enough attention to the consequences here.  I don’t think Putin is.  I’m not sure Biden is.  I hope I am wrong. I hope we have serious back-channel, quiet discussions going on. 

 

 As Noonan writes, “There are times in life and diplomacy when silence must be maintained as circumstances evolve and new options emerge.  But we’re not maintaining silence.  I ask for the efficiency of thoughtfulness, sometimes it can cool things down or slow them down.  If we’re traveling toward Armageddon, the slow route is best.”

 

I pray for the kind of wisdom that prevailed with Nikita Khrushchev and JFK at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  They thought of options with imagination and with an eyes-wide-open, realistic view of the consequences of making the wrong decision.  Leaders need to do that today.

What Walter Lippman Has to Teach Us Today

 The more I read about Walter Lippman, the more I like him.   Old-time values, though you have to take his arrogance and his self-serving nature with his value-based prescriptions.  Writing over 75 years ago, he grieved that the ancient solidities of religious faith were in decline.  He wrote about this with passion and pessimism, especially after Hitler had conquered all of Western Europe.  

There is much that can produce similar pessimism today but we cannot allow this to conquer us. 

Lippman had the tendency to blame all of America’s troubles on its enemies, illuminating the  tendency of each of us is to look down on those who disagree with us.  He thought our salvation lay within ourselves and could not be achieved by looking elsewhere.

“Our civilization can be maintained and restored,” he wrote in 1940, “only by remembering and rediscovering the truths, and by reestablishing the virtuous habits on which it was founded.  There is no use looking into the blank future for some new and fancy revelation of what man needs in order to live.  The elemental principles of work and sacrifice and duty—and the transcendent criteria of truth, justice and righteousness—and the grace of love and charity are the things which have made men free…only in this profound, this stern, in this tested wisdom shall we find once more the light and the courage we need.”  

Surely, words for today, words for this moment, words for eternity. 

 

What’s the role of religion in all of this, I ask.  Is it an essential requirement for one to lead a moral life?  I wouldn’t say that.  I know people, a couple of my children among them, who are leading moral lives and yet they would not call themselves religious.  But they do believe there are higher values that stem from something outside themselves.  For me, religion has played that role.  Not alone.  A deep appreciation of nature, of humanity at its best leads me to the same conviction in the imperative of certain moral values.  But religion, as I’ve understood and tried to practice it, has played a bigger role than anything.

  

Timeless wisdom from Walter Lippman “Those in high places are more than the administrators of government bureaus.  They are more than the writers of laws.  They are the custodians of the nation’s ideals, of its permanent hopes, of the faith that makes a nation out of the mere aggregation of individuals.” 

 

 A message for leaders in every walk of life today and forever. 

 

A Cruel, Tragic and Misbegotten War--Putin's Decision to Invade Ukraine--The Screw Turns

When it happened seven months ago, I could not believe Putin's lack of sense and foresight in deciding to invade and attempt to take over the entirety of Ukraine.  His misjudgment of the attitude of the Ukrainian people, their willingness and ability to fight, as well as his misjudgment of the capability of the Russian Army and misreading of history were appalling. 

 

This invasion has caused deaths and injuries numbering in the hundreds of thousands.  It has resulted in the displacement of close to fifteen million Ukrainians from their homes.  It has resulted in a shattering of the economy of Ukraine and the burden of dramatically higher energy prices for the whole world. 

 

It has isolated Russia and turned it into a pariah. It has cut off communications between educational and cultural institutions.  Russia has become isolated economically, politically, culturally and morally. 

 

Putin’s attack, premised as it was on the threat of the expansion of NATO, has accomplished exactly the opposite: the accession of two new close-to-Russia countries to NATO, and a strengthening of the ties and commitments within it.

  

During the last three weeks we have witnessed six significant events deepening the reality of the folly of Putin’s decision:

 

1.          The Ukrainians counter-offensive in northeast Ukraine has re-taken more territory from the Russians than it took during the war to date.

 

2.          The summit held in last week in Uzbekistan, which included President Xi of China, and Prime Minister Modi of India, had to be a real downer for Putin.

 

Xi did nothing to express his commitment to what Putin is doing in Ukraine.  In fact, he didn’t even mention Ukraine. His silence spoke volumes.

 

   Modi, on his part, lectured Putin on the need to stop the war and achieve peace.

   Russia is isolated. 

 

3.          The discovery of mass graves in the liberated city of Izyum in northwestern Ukraine is putting a spotlight on the horrors Russian soldiers had inflicted on Ukrainian citizens.  Some of the bodies had ropes around their necks; others showed signs of torture.

 

4.  Many of those living in Donetsk and Luhansk who were initially happy that Russia was coming in, changed their mind as they saw the way Russian soldiers were treating the Ukrainian citizens.  Their conduct is quite understandably turning away many of those who due to their family lineage and proximity to Russia had been sympathetic to Russia.  

 

5.          The shades appear to be lifting in the state press in Russia on what is really going on.  There is pushback on Putin, not enough to overthrow him, but enough to surely unsettle him and his supporters from people who are criticizing the war effort and implicitly if not explicitly the folly of what is happening. 

6.      Putin's calling up 300,000 so-called reservists (many have had no training) has unmasked the fiction that this not a real war and is producing significant push-back. Over 200,000 men have reportedly fled Russia in little more than one week. 

 

The stakes and risks involved in this war are being raised as I write this by a sham-referendum conducted under gun point in eastern and south eastern Ukraine and the likelihood Russia will move to annex these regions making them part of Russia. This increases the challenge of achieving a negotiated settlement which Ukraine will sign on to. In truth, however, that is the only conceivable outcome if we are avoid a multi-year, costly battle of attrition. 

My view of this war from the start has been that Putin's decision to invade Ukraine will go down in history as one of the cruelest and misbegotten self-immolating undertakings ever. 

Its deadly impact on the people ofUkraine and others in the world suffering from its consequences is abundantly clear.  The harm to Russia in lives lost and the severance of connection with the West—economic, cultural and technology—is horrendous.  It will take years, perhaps decades to recover.  The sooner that recovery begins, the better. I remain optimistic that in time it will happen. A long term relationship for Russia with the West seems much more plausible than with China and India or Russia's going it alone, isolated as it is becoming.

 

In the current moment, we must continue to support Ukraine in its drive to regain territory even if incrementally. We should not allow Putin's thinly veiled threat to use tactical nuclear weapons to deter us from hanging tough, without provoking a direct confrontation with Russia. The longer this continues the weaker I believe Putin's position will become. He is yielding both the moral and military high ground. Patience I believe will be rewarding.

Longer term, I continue to see no alternative but new leadership in Russia. I write this conscious of the challenge of achieving it and the uncertainty of what that new leadership will bring.

To Be Hopeful In Bad Times--Howard Zinn

 TO BE HOPEFUL IN BAD TIMES is not just foolishly

romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is
a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion,
sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to
emphasize in this complex history will determine our
lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity
to do something. If we remember those times and
places--and there are so many--where people have
behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act,
and at least the possibility of sending this spinning
top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't
have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future
is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as
we think human beings should live, in defiance of all
that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Assessing the Record of Biden's Presidency

Way too soon to say, especially with two years left on his current term, but I believe history will judge the first two years of Biden's presidency far more positively than he is being given credit for by most of the media, almost all Republicans and even many Democrats. To wit:

1. Biggest infrastructure bill in modern history. (Should be making more of the benefits of this).

2. Biggest climate bill in modern history.

3. Repaired credibility of US with allies.

4. Led the west in supporting Ukraine against the invasion by Russia--essential to where we are today.

5. Ended hopeless war in Afghanistan. 

6. Appointing very large number of qualified judges. 

7. Bringing manufacturing jobs back to US for the first time in decades, in part due to the provisions of the climate bill.

8. Acting to support a stronger economy than any other major nation, dramatically signaled by significantly strengthening dollar.

9. Very low unemployment.

10. Further expansion of health care coverage.

All-together, a very strong record of accomplishment in a highly partisan environment.

My biggest disappointment so far is the failure to make an effective attempt to try to marshal something other than a "zero sum" adversarial relationship with China, though I don't know if this was possible given Xi's aspirations. I had hoped Biden could help narrow the partisan divide but I do not believe that was possible given the current still Trump-infested state of the Republican party.