WASHINGTON — Do you recall in reading President Harry S.
Truman’s very good memoir, Years of Trial and Hope:
1946-1952, his scholarly dissection of the Federal Reserve
System and discussion of low inflation’s influence on relatively
unstable growth? Actually, I do not either, and I read the book
from cover to cover. Or how about Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man who
led our forces in vanquishing Hitler’s war machine, became the
first Supreme Commander of NATO and eventually president, serving
until 1960? Do you remember his erudite discussions of domestic
policy during his 1952 campaign? His plan to pare down the national
debt with a temporary “surcharge” on the top 1.5% of income
earners? And then there was, of course, his education policy that
would include highly nutritious lunches to low-income students so
the students would not be a burden on our healthcare system in
future years? Well, I do not recall these discussions
either.
Actually I do not recall Eisenhower’s talking in such
wonky ways about anything, and I know Truman’s memoir was devoid of
the stuff. It read too well. Of course, today both Truman and
Eisenhower would have to be really up to the highest wonk standards
if they hoped to run against Barack Obama or Newt
Gingrich.
For that matter, our greatest president since the sainted
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I speak of Ronald Reagan, was not a wonk
at all. Nor were John F. Kennedy or Richard M. Nixon, and certainly
not Lyndon B. Johnson. Jimmy Carter made a stab at being a wonk,
but as with everything else he failed. The real wonks came with the
maturing of the 1960s generation, most notably Bill Clinton and
Newt Gingrich, but there were also those curiosities California’s
Jerry Brown and the ghost of 1972 Democratic convention, Gary Hart.
They are a little long in the tooth to be legitimate wonks of the
1960s generation, but they tried — as for a certitude Brown was
weird enough.
The true policy wonk is a juggler of facts and trends and
“ideas,” who came out of the 1960s to wow all those whom he
assaulted with his knowledge of government, of society, and the
movies, rock & roll, and the cost of a gallon of milk. They
have ideas for income distribution, the value of the dollar, for
crime in the inner city, healthcare, the environment — whatever is
in the headline at the moment. They dream up policies for things
whose policies are unclear. The problem of global warming? Cap and
trade! Healthcare? Well, tax income at a certain percentage and
apply the revenue to agreed-upon disbursements for earmarked
segments of the population but with mandates that… oh, forget about
it. The healthcare monstrosity should have earned every wonk a
price on his head. With the 1960s generation came government
policies for every aspect of the human condition and there has not
been a good president elected since 1988. Barack Obama is the
reductio ad absurdum of every policy wonk ever heard
of.
Now steps forward Bill Clinton with a new book, Back
to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy.
The presumption he attaches to the word “smart” is typical of him
and his fellow wonks. Would Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower have
the temerity to claim any of their policies as being smart? They
would not brag of their policies’ stupidities but they would leave
it to someone else to appraise their policies’ merits — and in the
1940s and 1950s “smart” was a word associated more frequently with
couture or tailoring than with policy. Both Harry and Ike were far
better presidents than Bill, the guy who got himself impeached and
trapped by a Republican majority in both houses, leaving him
muttering that “The era of big government is over.”
Now with this insufferable book of wonkish chatter he has
come forward and boasted of all that he achieved during his
big-government-is-over days and proclaimed a future that will be
dominated by the biggest government of all. It brings to mind
another problem with wonks. Their wonkery is not rooted in
principle or ethics. It is only rooted in their egos, which are
fickle.
