On Hacks and Wonks
Please subscribeBruce Reed and Rahm Emanuel have written a book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America:
Strip away the job titles and party labels, and you will find two tribes of people in Washington: political Hacks and policy Wonks. Hacks come to Washington because anywhere else they’d be bored to death. Wonks come here because nowhere else could they bore so many to death.[...]
Throughout history, Hacks and Wonks have been the yin and yang of politics. But in the last few years, something terrible has destroyed our political equilibrium. The political world suffered a devastating outbreak of what might be called Rove Flu — a virus that destroys any part of the brain not dedicated to partisan political manipulation. Now, Hacks are everywhere. Like woolly mammoths on the run from Neanderthals, Wonks are all but extinct.
OK, I’ll ask the obvious question: who was the last Wonk Republican President? Answer: Herbert Hoover.
Trick question: Who was the last Wonk Democratic President? Trick answer: Al Gore. Real answer: Bill Clinton. But that’s another trick answer because Clinton was both a Hack and a Wonk. A better answer might be Jimmy Carter. Hack Democratic presidents include Johnson (who was also a Wonk), Harry Truman and FDR (also a Wonk). Hack Republicans? Take your pick.
Discuss.
RSS
