The Emptiness of Politics

 

The Emptiness of Politics

Peter Schultz

 

                  Here are some passages from Bruce Miroff’s Pragmatic Illusions, about the presidency of John F. Kennedy. “The history of the Alliance for Progress can be traced relatively quickly…. What requires fuller consideration is the story of what didn’t happen – the Alliance’s glaring failure….” [112]

 

                  Here’s a question: Is Miroff describing the failure of the Alliance for Progress or the failure of the political generally? Given that Miroff later describes the failure of the strategic hamlets in Vietnam, as well as the failure of that war generally, isn’t it fair to ask: Is the political arena essentially empty? That is, it isn’t only that Kennedy’s “pragmatic politics” dealt in illusions; it is rather that politics in general deals in illusions. In other words, the political arena is essentially empty. Or as one book has it, dealing with Nixon’s and Reagan’s war on drugs, it’s all “smoke and mirrors,” leading to the politics of failure.