Abstract
A mood of cynicism, a pervasive feeling of powerlessness, a sense of being unable to connect with and engage in the political process in any meaningful way — these descriptions characterized the feelings of many in the American public during the 1992 presidential election campaign. In that election year, and indeed perhaps because it was an election year, those sentiments seemed to be especially apparent. For example an August 1992 U.S. News and World Report survey found that ‘80 per cent of those surveyed are dissatisfied with the country’s course’.1 That dissatisfaction may have had many root causes, for example, worry about a lagging economy, discontent with the choices for presidential office or concern that political mudslinging had replaced public debate about relevant issues.2 Whatever the causes, it was clear from even a cursory look at polling data and only an occasional viewing of the televised nightly news or the daily print media that citizens’ feelings of disenchantment, dissatisfaction and disenfranchisement were running high.
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Notes
S. V. Roberts, ‘The Mood Swings of Anxious Voters’, U.S. News and World Report, 24 August 1992, p. 32.
G. Wills, ‘The Power of the Savior’, Time, 22 June 1992, pp. 41–2.
H. Mansfield, ‘Only Amend’, The New Republic, 6 July 1992, p. 14.
D. Balz, ‘A Year Later, Perot’s Purpose Still Defies Definition’, The Washington Post 22 June 1993, p. Al.
D. Balz, ‘Perot Avoids Specifying Spending He’d Reduce to Balance the Budget’, The Washington Post, 3 August 1993, p. A8.
A. Devroy, ‘Perot Takes Early Lead in Race on Trade Pact’, The Washington Post, 26 August 1993, p. A12.
See also D. S. Hilzenrath, ‘Administration Accuses Perot of Spreading NAFTA Falsehoods’, The Washington Post, 3 September 1993, p. A11.
D. S. Broder, ‘Tuesday Night Food Fight’, The Washington Post, 11 November 1993, p. A23.
T. B. Edsall, ‘Perot Backs Spending Cuts’, The Washington Posy 22 April 1994, p. A22.
See also E. Pianin ‘Perot Launches Bid to Sway Upcoming Elections’, The Washington Post, 11 September 1994, p. A8.
S. Wilentz, ‘Pox Populi’, The New Republic, 9 August 1993, p. 29.
K. Burke, A Grammar of Motives (Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1969), p. 472.
J. Byrd, ‘Three Months of Ross Perot’, The Washington Post, 19 July 1992, p. C6.
See J. B. Judis, ‘Bill Folds’, The New Republic, 28 January 1991, pp. 17–20;
E Clift, ‘Challengers on Ice’, Newsweek, 7 January 1991, p. 30;
M. Greenfield, ‘The Dropout Democrats’, Newsweek, 16 September 1991, p. 72;
M. Kondracke, ‘Gun Shy’, The New Republic, 20 May 1991, pp. 19–20;
A. McCarthy, ‘Wanted: Sacrificial Lamb’, Commonweal, 12 July 1992, pp. 422–3.
J. Nelson, ‘Poll Finds Bush’s Approval Rating at 39%’, Los Angeles Times, 28 February 1992, p. A36.
M. Shields, ‘The Gulf Glow Fades’, The Washington Post, 6 March 1992, p. A23.
M. Williams, ‘What We Know About George’, The Washington Post Magazine, 16 August 1992, p. 10.
See G. Will, ‘A Figure of Genuine Pathos’, The Washington Post, 29 July 1992, p. A23.
C. Krauthammer, ‘The Swoon for Tycoons’, The Washington Post, 12 June 1992, p. A23.
D. S. Broder, ‘When Winning Isn’t Everything’, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 8–14 June 1992.
See, for example, J. Mintz, ‘Crusades of Ross Perot’, The Washington Post 24 April 1992, p. Al.
J. Ceaser and A. Busch, Upside Down and Inside Out: The 1992 Election and American Politics (Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1993), pp. 90–1.
D. Shribman, ‘H. Ross Perot Vies for Disaffected Voters in Bid For Presidency’, The Wall Street Journal 9 April 1992, p. Al.
D. Shribman, ‘Ross Perot, Though To Many A Political Unknown, Emerges in Polls As A Formidable But Elusive Force’, The Wall Street Journal, 16 April 1992, p. A26.
D. Shribman, ‘Voters Who Know A Lot About Him Often Favor Perot’, The Wall Street Journal, 22 May 1992, p. A4.
B. McAllister and R. Marcus, ‘Presidential Race Looks Tighter’, The Washington Post 25 October 1992, p. Al.
P. Milius, ‘Perot’s Fuzz’, The Washington Post, 4 May 1992, p. A23.
M. Isikoff, ‘Perot Plans to Mobilize His Volunteers As a New Force in American Politics’, The Washington Post 18 July 1992, p. A11.
J. Mintz, ‘Dirty Tricks Charged by Perot’, The Washington Post, 26 October 1992, p. A9.
T. Shales, ‘Uncanned Ham: Perot’s Shows’, The Washington Post, 27 October 1992, p. C8.
W. Croty (ed.), America’s Choice: The Election of 1992 (Guildford, Conn.: The Dushkin Publishing Group, 1993), p. 1.
F. McDonald, The American Presidency: An Intellectual History (Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1994), p. 417.
W. R. Fisher, ‘Romantic Democracy, Ronald Reagan, and Presidential Heroes’, Western Journal of Speech Communication (1982), p. 301.
S. Blumenthal, ‘Perotnoia’, The New Republic, 15 June 1992, p. 23.
D. Wector, The Hero in America (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1941), p. 488.
K. Burke, Counter-Statement, 3rd edn (Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1968), p. 125.
L. O. Mink, ‘Narrative Form as a Cognitive Instrument’, in R. H. Canary and H. Kozicki (eds) The Writing of History, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978).
T. E. Patterson, Out of Order (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), p. 21.
B. Clinton, ‘Acceptance Speech at Democratic Convention’, The Washington Post, 17 July 1992, p. A26.
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Brown, G. (1997). Deliberation and its Discontents: H. Ross Perot’s Antipolitical Populism. In: Schedler, A. (eds) The End of Politics?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25251-0_6
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