Tapping the Grass Roots

Nothing could be less scientific than my method of sampling public opinion in these over-the-road treks my wife and I make every year or two. The only thing to be said for it is that the findings are usually borne out by subsequent events. I here record a few of the impressions accumulated during the first half of our current swing through all of the New Eng- land states, New York, parts of Canada and the Midwest, and now Wyoming and Montana. Among a large and influential por- tion of usually-Democratic voters in the North and especially the North- east, the anti-Johnson bitterness— hatred would not be too strong a term —is deeper than I had realized. I refer here not to the New or Old Left or the more strident anti-war- riors, whose anti-Johnsonism has been Christian tradition, since there is nothing in the ad lib of neo-paganism which submits the political authori- ties to higher standards than their own desires. We know Caesaro-Pap- ism, witch-burnings and National Council welfarism are wrong for the same reason we know antique slav- ery, Renaissance despotism, and Com- munist blood purges are evil: be- cause they conflict with the central precepts of Christian ethical and so- cial teaching.

Miss Rand’s philosophy thus issues in the most incredible of ironies: She rightly prizes freedom and attacks the collectivists who would destroy it. But in the deeper realms of thought where the combat must finally be joined, she reverses her commitments; she attacks the Christian culture which has given birth to all our free- doms and takes her stand with the destroyers. Having flung the defi gal- lantly before the liberal host and marched steadfast into battle, she wheels about and embraces the stand- ard of the enemy. That embrace and the paradox it seals are fatal to morality and liberty alike.

JB

About the Author

James Burnham

Nothing could be less scientific than my method of sampling public opinion in these over-the-road treks my wife and I make every year or two. The only thing to be said for it is that the findings are usually borne out by subsequent events. I here record a few of the impressions accumulated during the first half of our current swing through all of the New Eng- land states, New York, parts of Canada and the Midwest, and now Wyoming and Montana. Among a large and influential por- tion of usually-Democratic voters in the North and especially the North- east, the anti-Johnson bitterness— hatred would not be too strong a term —is deeper than I had realized. I refer here not to the New or Old Left or the more strident anti-war- riors, whose anti-Johnsonism has been Christian tradition, since there is nothing in the ad lib of neo-paganism which submits the political authori- ties to higher standards than their own desires. We know Caesaro-Pap- ism, witch-burnings and National Council welfarism are wrong for the same reason we know antique slav- ery, Renaissance despotism, and Com- munist blood purges are evil: be- cause they conflict with the central precepts of Christian ethical and so- cial teaching.

Miss Rand’s philosophy thus issues in the most incredible of ironies: She rightly prizes freedom and attacks the collectivists who would destroy it. But in the deeper realms of thought where the combat must finally be joined, she reverses her commitments; she attacks the Christian culture which has given birth to all our free- doms and takes her stand with the destroyers. Having flung the defi gal- lantly before the liberal host and marched steadfast into battle, she wheels about and embraces the stand- ard of the enemy. That embrace and the paradox it seals are fatal to morality and liberty alike.