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Show RIP: The Silent Majority " say to you tonight that the majority of Americans are silent, and it is this silent majority which needs to be heard" President Nixon, 1968 Something has happened to the Silent Majority. Strangely coinciding with the 1968 election of the President, the Silent Majority vanished into the suburban vapors whence they were created. That much was understandable, un-derstandable, for in the lackluster void between presidential elections. Silent Majorities become Working People. But this is an election year, and the public hasn't heard from the legendary political force. One might suppose that they gained representation in Congress. But theledgers of that body show a Democratic majority, more liberal now than in 1968. Perhaps the Vice President became their voice in Washington. No, Spiro Agnew, we learn, is re-making his image and speaking in muted tones. The backbone of the Silent Majority seems to have dissolved, leaving it such spokesmen as Hugh Scott and Robert Dole. And those two are about as 'enervating! as a bowl of Cream-O-Wheat. Perhaps it is best to admit that the Silent Majority was a hoax, which buffaloed many people (including the media). The politicians who created it were certainly never silent, and neither were the bolder advocates ad-vocates of the position. Everywhere a college student went he was subjected to involuntary lectures from loud-mouths who called themselves them-selves the "Silent Majority." Such silent mouths as Max Rafferty and Jack Kilpatrick and William Verbacious Buckley addressed us from editorial pages and television tubes. In fact, one had only to read the letters to the editor any daily paper received to determine that the Vast Vacal Majority was and had always been peeved at nearly everything from Asians to Zebras. In retrospect it seems there ought to be war reparations made to those who sat meekly through that hail of tripe. Their psycles have been forever fazed. Some still believe a Silent Majority exists, and walk apologizingly through the political straits of cocktail chatter. Of course, those who lie big also win big. Without the Silent Majority Mr. Nixon might not be Mr. President. But now that has attained that post he no longer needs the appellation. It hearkens of another fellow who employed the big lie. His name was McCarthy. |
