THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Ross Perot held his own personal political convention in Dallas last weekend and politicians of every stripe turned up. They were less interested in courting the quixotic Perot than in performing for C-Span cameras and wooing the 19 percent of voters who chose Perot in 1992 who are thought to hold the key to the presidency and the composition of Congress in 1996.
Every announced candidate for the Republican nomination spoke as did members of Congress, Jesse Jackson, White House spokesman Mack McLarty and - repeatedly - Ross Perot. The themes were populist throughout.
Perot voters are angry. They endorse the George Wallace sentiment that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties. They don't like President Clinton but are also suspicious of Sen. Bob Dole as an insider. They are disillusioned with Congress for not making sweeping reforms faster.
On some issues Perot voters have been constructive. Without them, the two parties would be less committed to deficit reduction. Perot voters are also keeping campaign-finance reform alive when politicians would as soon forget it.
But there's a paranoid strain in populism that imagines conspiracies and seeks someone to blame for historical changes that are nobody's fault. The most popular speakers were the most negative, those who lambasted lobbyists, special interests, corrupt politicians, Wall Street manipulators, foreigners, illegal aliens and - at its ugliest - Americans of other classes and other races.
Pat Buchanan was their clear favorite and that's worrisome. This country's real problems won't be solved by isolationism and protectionism, nor by pitting us against them. We can't return to a fantasy America divorced from the rest of the world. We are going to have to compete in the future, not yearn for the past.
Perot was heard to remark that ``the elite are gradually taking over the world,'' a comic sentiment coming from a multibillionaire. The elite is already running the world, always has and always will. That, after all, is the meaning of the elite. The issue is not whether CEOs and senators have power, but whether anybody with brains and drive can become a CEO like Ross Perot, whether senators are responsive to the people or only to special interests.
The convention's wish list favors neither party exclusively, though Perot voters lean toward the libertarian end of the political spectrum. Their demand for major reform of campaign finance and lobbying is unpopular with Republicans. Their calls for deep budget cuts, drastic entitlement and tax reforms are anathema to Democrats.
Yet neither party can afford to ignore a group that has been called the radical middle. Maine Democrat Philip Merrill is a possible Senate candidate in 1996. He came away saying, ``If you can figure out what these people want - and convince them you will fight for it - you can win.'' More to the point, the party that doesn't attract these voters is virtually assured of losing. With 60 percent of the electorate now saying they'd welcome a third party, Republicans and Democrats alike must listen and respond or a third party will be born. by CNB