Anger Hangs Over the Campaign

Who is H. Ross Perot? A Times poll of 1,233 registered voters taken over the weekend found that around one-third knew enough about the Texas billionaire to have an opinion of him. And an astonishing 21% of those polled said that as of now they would vote for him in preference to George Bush or Bill Clinton. Who is H. Ross Perot? For the moment at least he’s the latest beneficiary of a widespread sense of dissatisfaction with the shape and tenor of American politics, and of a galloping mood of anger, resentment and fear running like an infection through the body politic.

That mood was evident well before Perot said he was ready to spend $100 million of his own money to seek the presidency, provided he can get on the ballot in all 50 states. Pat Buchanan’s anti-Bush campaign in the Republican primaries has exploited this mood; so has Jerry Brown’s run against what he deems the Democratic Establishment. But Buchanan and Brown are working within their parties. Perot is talking about running as an independent, a true political outsider who seeks to lure voters from both major parties.

What is--or seems to be--his appeal? No doubt part of it is precisely that he’s mainly an unknown, with an unexamined past and a largely unarticulated program. But there’s no doubt either that much of his appeal--maybe most of it--is that unlike a Bush or a Clinton he is as divorced from the profession of politics as any potentially serious candidate can be.

Once, not long ago, experience in the arts of government--a description of courtesy, perhaps, for those who make a career of holding elective office--was considered an asset. This year it could prove a crushing liability.

What accounts for the uneasiness and anger so many Americans seem to feel toward the conditions of contemporary life? Most of all, we think, there’s a deepening and even despairing impression that many things just don’t work right anymore. The list begins most fundamentally with the social contract that is supposed to set the rules for civilized behavior; it goes on to include the schools, the industrial economy, the health care system, the processes of government itself. Our guess is that what voters most of all want this year is for candidates to take their grievances and concerns seriously. The rumblings continue to suggest that a lot of them don’t think that is yet happening.