been better saved for a more importantnoccasion. There remains somethingninherently foolish — and tragic —nabout using an artillery battery to kill anrat, a rat that was half dead already. Butnpolitical capital totally aside, criticismnof the war, now that the action is over,nwould be, for a principled oppositionnparty, the right thing to do, which isnwhy it will never happen.nAnd truly, if the Democrats had anynspirit, any integrity, any faith in theirnown convictions, they would nominatenfor Bush’s opponent the Reverend JessenJackson, who is far and away theirnmost articulate, most charming, andnmost sincere leader. But this, of course,nthey will never do. Jackson at least hasnhad the guts and the patriotism toncomplain about the loss of family farmsnand the shipment of American bluecollarnjobs offshore — something nonleading Republican has had the integritynto do, as far as I know.nWatch Jackson when the cameras gonin close. He is a real human being —none who has suffered and thought. (Inwrite completely without irony.)nThough he is sometimes half-baked innhis solutions — what leading politiciannisn’t — he speaks from the heart aboutnreal problems, and once he has takennup an idea he does not retreat justnbecause it’s unpopular. That is, unlikenBush, he really represents his constituency.nAllowing for differences of style,nhe is in no rationally describable sensenThe Education ofnDavid DukenThe time has come, to paraphrasenGaspar Gutman in Dashiell Hammett’snThe Maltese Falcon, for plain speakingnand clear understanding. Last November,nDavid Duke failed to win thengovernorship of Louisiana, but he didngain some 39 percent of the popularnvote and carried a majority — about 55npercent — of the white vote. Whatndefeated Mr. Duke was not the “baggage”nof his background as a Nazi andna Klansman but rather the unprece­nany more of a demagogue than Bushn— and a lot more sincere. Beside himnBush looks like a preppie, and the othernDemocratic presidential contendersnlike pyramid scheme salesmen.n— Clyde WilsonnDASEBALL is reportedly repletenwith racism. Apparently concentratingnon the World Series-bound AtlantanBraves was not enough for the AtlantanConstitution, for it came to the conclusionnlate last summer that then”White Game Is Alienating ManynBlacks.” The white game? The problem,nsaid the newspaper, is that whilenblack players are a satisfying 72 percentnof the NBA and an OK 61 percent ofnthe NFL, they are “only” 18 percentnof Major League Baseball. Worse, onlyn6 percent of the fans are black.nThe answer? Affirmative action, ofncourse. Ball clubs, starting with thenAtianta Braves, were consequently beingnasked to recruit black fans, in partnwith cheaper tickets than whites cannbuy. And black players should be paidnhigher salaries than whites to raise thatn”low” 18 percent figure. Why then”under-representation” of blacks innbaseball? Montreal Expos scouting directornGary Hughes said, “You justndon’t go play baseball. It’s not enoughnto be naturally gifted like track ornfootball. To be honest, I don’t knownhow many black kids are willing tonPrincipalities & Powersnby Samuel Francisndented campaign in the press againstnhim and the concerted efforts of businessmen,nunion officials, church leaders,npoliticians of both parties, andnideological malcontents of every descriptionnto vilify him and to threatennthe state and people of Louisiana withnretaliation if they dared to break fromnthe political molds crafted for them.nFor at least two solid weeks beforenthe election, newspapers far from Louisiananas well as within it delved sedulouslyninto Mr. Duke’s backgroundnand statements since high school. Onnelection day, organizers literallyncombed the streets of New Orleansnnnwork hard enough at it to excel.”nRacism! said Richard Lapchick, directornof the Genter for the Study ofnSports in Society at Northeastern University.n”That sounds typical of thenstereotype that studies show have longnbeen held about blacks: that they’re toonlazy, they can’t swim, and they areninnately less intelligent.” But blacknDetroit Tigers farm club player EricnMangham, who played high school ballnnear Atlanta, agreed with Hughes.n”Baseball is a complex game. Footballnis a game of strength, but baseballnrequires certain fundamentals, like hittingnthe cutoff man. Baseball is totallyndifferent from the rest of sports.” Mostnblack kids, he notes, prefer the “action”nof basketball and football. As tonthe black attendance, the UCLAnSchool of Management, which did anstudy for Major League Baseball, saidnthat many clubs don’t recruit black fansnbecause “too many” would scare awaynwhites.nNot that everyone has worried aboutnblack attendance. In 1978, formernMinnesota Twins owner Galvin Griffinntold the Lions Club in Waseca, Minnesota,nthat he moved his team fromnWashington, D.G., to Minnesotanwhen he “found out that you only hadn15,000 blacks here. Blacks don’t go tonbaseball games.”n— Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.nlooking for blacks to go to the polls tonvote against him. The President andnVice-President of the United Statesndenounced him, as did several leadingnconservative spokesmen. If virtuallynany other politician in this country hadnexcited the fear and hatred Mr. Dukeninspired, not only would he have lostnthe election with far less than 39npercent of the vote but his careernwould have been ruined. What thenactual election results teach is that Mr.nDuke’s support, while not a majority ofnvoters, was deep, broad, and intense.nDespite Mr. Duke’s defeat, it isnpossible that future historians will looknFEBRUARY 1992/7n