UC Berkeley Working Papers Title Media manipulation in electoral campaigns : a qualitative look at David Duke's political career Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/220212df Author Fong, Henry C. Publication Date 1995 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Ho 'fs -"/J Media Manipulation in Electoral Campaigns: AQualitative Look at David Duke's Political Career Henry C. Feng Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley institute OFGOVeiN STUDIES LIBSflf JUL 3 1 ]9{)5 yNi¥fcH«Siy OF CALiri Working Paper 95-13 IGS INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY Media Manipulation in Electoral Campaigns: AQualitative Look at David Duke's Political Career Henry ^ong Institute of GoverninenfaLSTirdies, University of California, Berkeley Working Paper 95-13 Working Papers published by the Institute of Governmentol Studies provide quick dissemination of draft reports and papers, preliminary analysis, and papers with a limited audience. The ohjective is to assist authors in refining their ideas by circulating research results and to stimulate discussion about public policy. Working Papers are reproduced unedited directly from the author's pages. Media Manipulation in Electoral Campaigns: A Qualitative Look at David Duke's Political Career Henry C. Fong As acandidate for the Louisiana State the candidate rode a wave of Southern House in 1989, David Ernest Duke resentment, political cynicism, falling living certainly did not seem to live up to his image standards and social instability into political as a world-famous racist. office. But there is another question that On the surface. Duke looked every bit comes to mind: How didDavidDuke manage the friendly, reasonable boy-next-door: to secure an elected political office despite campaigning for a seat in the state legislature his reputation as the most visible racist in as a conservative Republican in a mostly white the United States? district, he appealed to voters who agreed Throughout most of his life. Duke had with his fmely-tuned platform of tax relief, never been one to hide his extremism; on the welfare reform, and an end to affirmative contrary, he had always deliberately and action programs. Although Duke's margin of publicly flaunted his bizarre beliefs and victory was tiny (he beat fellow Republican actions. He has worn swastika-emblazoned John Treen by a mere 227 votes in a runoff), Nazi uniforms, burned crosses as the Grand it was clear that Duke had aroused a white Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, sold blatantly working- and middle-class insurgency that anti-Semitic literature such as Hitler Was My resembled the populism ofthe Earl and Huey Friend,^ and advocated the geographic Long era in its antagonism towards elites and division of the United States into ethnic special interests.' There was no question that homelands i la South Africa.' Duke once ' Lawrence N. Powell, "ReadMy Liposuction: The Makeover of David Duke," New Republic, October 15, 1990. ^Jon Meacham, "Dukedumb: How a Lightweight Louisiana Racist Came to Spook a Nation," Washington Monthly, July- August, 1992. ' James Ridgeway, Bloodin the Face: TheKu Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, NaziSkinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture, (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991), 150. Also see Tyler Bridges, "Working Together is Louisiana's Best Chance," NewOrleans Times-Picayune, October30, 1991. In this article. Duke says that his vision for the ideal structure of a racially mixed state is "like an apartheid, except more complete." Media Manipulation in Electoral Campaigns publicly stated that "Jews belong in the ashbin The Southern Context of history."'^ He was arrested twice for inciting riots and has presented a false military Although it is tempting to simply dismiss record. And to top off his list of outrageous Duke as yet another colorful example of behavior. Duke posed as a black militant when Louisiana's populist idiosyncrasy, this he penned a book instructing blacks how to explanation can only partially account for his "kill whitey," and he also posed as a woman emergence as a factor in American politics. when he wrote a sex manual entitled Finders Still, Duke is a complex product of his Keepers.^ abilities, his past, his character, and his Given his unusual past and racist beliefs, environment, and it can be argued that the very fact that Duke was able to mount a Louisiana's unique political setting serious political campaign for office is contributed greatly to Duke's electoral appeal. surprising. Any perceived misstep on the part Like every other native ofthe state, David of a political actor can spell electoral doom, Duke is a product of the social tensions and it is certainly safe to say that Duke's created in the aftermath of southern lifetime record of racism, extremism and desegregation. Certainly this post- demagoguery would have meant political desegregation era reflected a period of suicide for any other candidate. So the political growth, but at the same time, it also question remains: How is David Duke produced a new economic and racial different from other political aspirants in the instability in a society that had essentially American governmental system? How does a remained unchanged for almost two centuries. racist with a paper trail linking him to Nazis On the one hand, the newly booming urban and Klansmen get elected to political office South progressed quickly: blacks moved back in the United States? south, small-town southerners migrated to the Interestingly, David Duke's exploitation cities, and the cities themselves swelled with of white Southerners' economic and racial an influx of people, money, and services. But fears are not, in fact, the primarycontributor for the South, this rapid change was a to his emergence as a politician. In fact, there dramatic break with the past: as C. Vann are strong indications that Duke's electoral Woodward wrote, "The South suddenly success actually stemmed from his ability to entered a period filled with more shocks of manipulate the media and moderate his discontinuity than any period of its history. extremist image into one that is more Desegregation—the very catalyst of this era acceptable and appealing to mainstream of change—did not quite solve the South's voters. But even though he abandoned his already-fierce racial friction: white demagoguery and moderated his extremist southerners feared and resented image, his unwavering obsession with desegregational policy; to these individuals, advancing the cause of white supremacy the government was giving blacks free license eventually surfaced and derailed his political to usurp the whites' long-held social career. dominance and superior status. Capitalizing ' J. Michael Kennedy, "Duke's Talk of Piety May Further Erode Credibility," Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1991. 'Ridgeway 1991,146. Duke's book inciting blacks toviolence against whites was tvXxWtA African Atto and hisdating-and- sex guide was written under the pen name "Dorothy Vanderbilt." "Ferrel GuUIory, "David Duke inSouthern Context," The Emergence ofDavid Duke andthePolitics ofRace, ed. Douglas D. Rose (Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 2. POLITICA ♦ Spring 1995 on these fears, political candidates like Barry exploitation of economic fears and racial Goldwater and George Wallace targeted white tensions. In fact, during his few years of voters and called for resistance to what they greatest political achievement (1989 to 1991), saw as drastic measures produced by Duke's appeal had less to do with his reaction desegregation. White opposition over such to Louisianans' views than it had to do with policy issues fanned the flames of Southern voters' reactions to Duke's ever-changing racism. image. Southern economic stress and racial A large part of Duke's success in his friction also formed an important part of campaigns for the state legislature, U.S. Louisiana's recent history. Pollsters found Senate, and Louisiana governor was due to that white Louisianans had an overwhelming his ability to manipulate the media—especially desire to protect the middle class and its television—and thus publicly transform his values.^ As economic stagnation proceeded image from that of an extremist bigot to that to set in, voters began to feel that their of a moderate, mainstream politician. Duke government no longer cared about middle understood that in order to extend his appeal class needs. The sluggish economy led to a and influence politically, he had to somehow quiet depression that crushed Louisianans' escape his outrageous past, and he set about hopes for financial stability and led to even to do so in expert fashion: the new David greater frustration and resentment. Racial Duke soon sported toned-down rhetoric, strife continued as black-white friction in the coded political jargon and an amazingly post-desegregation years produced "mediagenic"' affinity for television controversies over jobs, schools, and housing. coverage. But upon closer inspection, it is Large differences in the living conditions and clear that Duke never wavered from his socioeconomic status of blacks and whites set extremist agenda and beliefs. And although the stage for caustic and prolonged racial he successfully moderated his public image conflicts.* Southern socioeconomic instability in order to win mainstream approval on a surrounded David Duke as he grew up in local level. Duke's extremist past and Louisiana, and he later used his knowledge unwavering racism ultimately could not of this particular environment to his political escape the eyes of a larger electorate. advantage. He knew that by exploiting the fears and hostilities of a large white voting base, he could potentially garner an A Personal Profile impressive amount of initial support. But Duke is more than just another David Duke's past is characterized by product of Louisiana's special brew of Huey deliberate and demagogic racism. He has lived Long populism: while he did manage to tap his life on the extreme fringes of the racial into the frustration and resentment of right, and for most of his life, he has Louisiana's white middle class in his various extensively publicized his racist beliefs.