The Toll of the Anti-Politicians By Jim Hoagland

National issues dominate [many] country’s troubles. But part of the broader erosion is due to the rise of the anti-politician: the leader who seeks or wields power in the name of a cause higher than politics and the art of compromise, and who gains electoral advantage by denigrating government and its funding. [mjh: i.e., the work of the Radical Right]

That advantage turns out to be temporary and ultimately self-defeating. Related assaults on politics as a profession, on compromise as a function of government and on taxes as a valid instrument for common welfare turn quickly into dead ends. They deliver only instant gratification for the frustrated.

President Bush’s well-advertised animus toward “Washington” and his refusal to work with Congress to reformulate the national security and civil liberties laws needed to support an enduring war on terrorist networks provide examples of the kind of corrosive anti-politics that I have in mind. A recent trip to Europe shows that the practice and its consequences are not confined to Washington.