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The Alhambra Decree

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The Alhambra Decree BOOKS IN REVIEW/71 Post-Electoral Politics less than the new weapons and Tony Coelho, Michael Deaver, Bar- tactics of political warfare. Primary ney Frank, Douglas Ginsburg, POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS: THE among these are an investigative Anne Burford, Gary Hart, Edwin DECLINING IMPORTANCE OF press, congressional hearings, and Meese, Lyn Nofziger, John Tower, ELECTIONS IN AMERICA. By BEN- special prosecutors. Watergate is Jim Wright, and many others. Yet, JAMIN GINSBERG and MARTIN the paradigm; Richard Nixon was for all of the fighting, neither side SHEFTER. Basic Books. 195 pp. the first target. Since then the list has been able entirely to dislodge $19.95. of casualties has grown exponen- the other from its position of in- tially, a whole roster of public of- fluence. Reviewed by KEVIN J. MCNAMARA ficials who have served as cannon "This competitive retrench- fodder for the political wars of the ment," Ginsberg and Shefter main- N Politics By Other Means, Ben- 1980's: Joseph Biden, Robert Bork, tain, "helps explain how high lev- jamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter argue that the plague of accusations, scandals, investiga- tions, and prosecutions which have crippled Washington represents CARMI HOUSE PRESS: only one side of a new political The 1492 Spanish-Jewish Connection coin; on the other side are a shrink- ing electorate, the decline of the 1492. parties, and the appearance of The year of Spain's greatest glory. elected officials who cannot be un- The year of Spain's greatest shame. CHRISTOPHER seated. What we are witnessing, in COLUMBUS short, is "the emergence of a post- The And The Participation of the Jews electoral political order," and what In the Spanish and Portuguese we should ask ourselves is whether Alhambra Discoveries America is about to end.its exper- Decree by Dr. M. Kayserling iment with electoral democracy. A Historical Novel About The Elections, the authors say, no Expulsion of the Jews from Spain The classic work by the great Ger- longer serve the function of settling by David Raphael man historian on the contributions of the Jews to the epic voyages of political disputes because they no "Fasten your seatbelt! You are in for an Columbus. Da Gama. Prince Henry alter the forces that exercise unusually hard ride... longer - Professor Benno Weiser Varon. The Navigator, and other explorers influence over the national govern- Boston University who transformed the world. ment. The institutions of democra- "Impressively researched ... Fascinating.' Now in paperback! - BarbaraFinkelstein. cy have instead been effectively New York Times Book Revie seized by opposing parties who $18.00 have happily settled into a kind of Hardbound 356 pp. 188 pp. $7.95 protracted trench warfare. In one . camp are Democrats in Congress, federal social-welfare bureaucra- THE CAVALIER cies, public-interest groups, and OF MALAGA other nonprofit organizations. In A Historical Romance Novel About the other are Republicans in the Converso Life in Inquisitional Spain White House, the national-security SONG OF THE by David Raphael bureaucracies, the defense industry, SEPHARDI The world of the Conversos, the "and those segments of American secret Jews who pretend to be Chris- A Feature-Length DocumentaryFilm About tians, is artfully reconstructed in this society whose income, autonomy, the Songsand Traditions of theSpanish Jews exciting, heart-pounding adventure or values are threatened by the wel- novel set in 15th century Spain. This is a film about the Sephardim, A relentless romp from start to finish, fare and regulatory state built by the descendants of the Jews that were it tells the story of Alberto Galante - expelled from Spain in 1492. a bold, dashing Converso cavalier the Democrats," a category that can The documentary aspects focus on encompass groups as disparate as the use of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) in who valiantly wields his sword against the synagogue and in the home. the Moorish warriors at Mflaga, but evangelical Christians and corpo- Made with the participation of the who then must face an even greater rate CEO's. Sephardic communities of Seattle and foe: the dreaded Holy Office of the Jerusalem and singing star Rivka Raz. Inquisition. The traditional methods of gain- ing and wielding power in a rep- 75 min., color, VHS or Beta $35 Hardbound 189 pp. $15.00 resentative government-swaying public opinion, mobilizing voters, Order from: CARMI HOUSE PRESS * P.O. Box 4796. No. Hollywood, CA 91607 and winning elections-matter or call toll free 1-800-365-1492. Add $2 postage and handling fee per item KEVIN J. MCNAMARA, a former journal- ist and congressional aide, is an assis- tant director of the Foreign Policy Re- search Institute in Philadelphia. 72/COMMENTARY MAY 1990 els of partisan conflict can coexist Republicans were building a na- litical party, it has no real value with low rates of voting participa- tional grassroots network of sup- except as a debating tool. Third, tion in contemporary American port, much of it from disaffected and truly fatal, is that unlike elec- politics." For when professional Democrats. When the Reagan ad- tions, opinion settles nothing. political operatives with little or no ministration came to power in 1980 Post-electoral politics is more popular support "can end the ca- it proceeded to squeeze the spend- combative, making bipartisan co- reers of politicians such as presi- ing programs that held the Dem- operation less likely. It is less pro- dents and big-city mayors, who en- ocratic coalition together by reduc- ductive, diminishing the effec- joy a broader popular base, .... ing spending, cutting tax rates and tiveness of government. Most voters are given little reason to par- indexing them to inflation, and important, however, it is less dem- ticipate." But the thesis explains imposing an enormous budget def- ocratic. It is politics of a type more more than just declining voter icit on Congress. With less money familiar in a royal court than in an turnout. It also accounts for the to go around, constituent groups American courthouse, dependent increasingly cannibalistic behavior were forced to compete against each more on political elites than on of political figures competing in an other for portions of a shrinking political parties. It is a system for arena that apparently measures federal pie. professionals only, transforming success less in election returns than The Democrats responded with the mass of citizens into mere spec- in body counts, the greater lengths stepped-up attacks via the press, tators. This encourages even great- to which the news media have been Congress, and the courts. Hence er popular disdain for, and with- willing to go in recent years to the Iran-contra affair and a slew of drawal from, politics. produce an expose, and the increas- other incidents of alleged execu- ingly negative tone of political tive-branch malfeasance. Eventual- Is THERE a solution? Ginsberg and campaigns. ly, the Republicans began to coun- Shefter offer one: "Bring into the terattack, and with the same electorate the tens of millions of How did it happen? In Watergate, weapons, using media revelations working-class and poor Americans the ability to remove from office a and a congressional inquiry to who presently stand entirely out- President who only two years ear- bring down House Speaker Jim side the political process." Such a lier had been reelected in a land- Wright. mobilization of new voters, they slide awoke liberals to the remark- The response of millions of feel, could tip the current balance able power of extra-electoral Americans to all this has been to of power sufficiently in favor of one methods. But it was no coincidence vote with their feet; in increasing party to enable it to gain control that liberals began to employ such numbers they are fleeing the elec- of all of the institutions of govern- methods at just that time, for the toral process entirely. The place of ment. That party, contrary to con- 1972 campaign also marked the elections (as the authors do not ventional wisdom, would not nec- moment when liberals had taken mention) has now been largely essarily be the Democrats. Some decisive control of the Democratic filled by other means of expressing Republicans, most notably Jack party, nominated someone from and measuring public opinion, Kemp, realize this, and so do the their own ranks-and fallen flat on primarily polls but also direct-mail authors of this book. Otto von Bis- their faces. The crushing defeat of campaigns aimed at elected repre- marck and Benjamin Disraeli, they the Democratic candidate George sentatives and public demonstra- observe, "brought millions of new McGovern in November 1972 led tions staged for the media. Nation- working-class voters into the elec- many to turn to the news media, al political figures can receive as torate and constructed extensive Congress, the courts, public-inter- many as several million pieces of party organizations to link them est groups, and other organizations mail in a single day. As for the securely to the conservative cause." which could weather even the most number of reporters accredited to This is a group among which Re- hostile electoral climate and the cover Congress, this has shot up publican candidates for national vagaries of public opinion. from about 1,600 in 1964 to more office have fared well. Republicans, Yet though this made liberals than 3,700 today. moreover, have had more success more powerful in Washington, it There are many things wrong than Democrats in bringing new made them less powerful else- with these non-electoral modes of voters into their coalition. where. As Ginsberg and Shefter expressing public opinion. First, Yet Ginsberg and Shefter are not point out, "the liberal Democrats' they tend to be issue-specific, and optimistic.
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