Operation Clark County and the Murchison Letter. I am sure someone must have suggested by now that Operation Clark County was actually a black op by Karl Rove. My regular correspondent ARC wrote to remind me of a Republican dirty trick of long ago:
In the hilarious and so-predictable collapse of operation Clark county, has anyone pointed out yet that if the Guardian staff had known their history they could have predicted the outcome. (O.K. they could also have predicted it with an atom of common sense or understanding of human nature, or just with a little less arrogance - but although we already knew they lacked those qualities, are intellectuals not supposed to be educated?)
Back in the 1890s [1888 - NS], a Republican who was more clever than scrupulous sent a letter to the British embassy in Washington. The letter purported to be from a British-born man, now resident in California, who wished to know how to cast his vote for presidential candidate so as best to aid his native land. In that more innocent age, the ambassador quite failed to smell a rat. After a very proper introduction about how her Majesty's government would be happy enough with either candidate, he suggested that perhaps Grover Cleveland (Democrat) would be marginally preferable for British interests. The Republican who sent the letter exploited this to good effect in the election and (probably not because of it) their candidate won.
It was Benjamin Harrison, and the letter was known to history as the
Murchison Letter. Interestingly Harrison won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Although the Murchison Letter was an effective ploy, particularly with voters of Irish extraction, the issue that was probably decisive for the Republicans was their support for high tariffs. In those days the Democrats were the free trade party.
ARC made two more points. The first:
When Kipling asked Theodore Roosevelt how he would create public support for the massive naval expansion he planned, he replied, "out of you", explaining that Britain's large navy would have to be the 'threat' in public oratory. Kipling, who was far-sighted enough to see the need of American military involvement in the old world in the 20th century, took all this in good part - but then, he wasn't a Guardian reader.
Kipling himself tells the story in
Something of Myself. One final point from ARC:
The phrase 'Guardian reader' occurs in 'The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy'; I remember wondering whether it was one of the British idioms they would have to translate for a transatlantic audience. If they didn't know what it meant then, I suspect they do now - in Clark county at least.
posted by Natalie at 9:53 AM
