Lee Atwater was a Republican political strategist who advised President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush. He was the political mentor and a close friend of Karl Rove. He has been characterized as the “happy hatchet man” and the “Darth Vader” of Republican party campaign politics. He built his power base by designing many of the techniques that have since become common in American political life, including the design and promulgation of “reputation-destroying rumors.”
Atwater died in 1991 at the age of forty from a brain tumor. Shortly before his death, he converted to Catholicism through the assistance of a Jesuit priest, Fr. John Hardon, S.J. As part of his process of repentance, Atwater released a number of public apologies and wrote letters to individuals whom he hurt throughout his career.
In an article for Life Magazine in February 1991, Atwater wrote:”My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80’s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.”
It is the corrosive influence of Lee Atwater and his protege Karl Rove that Senator Barack Obama is attempting to efface from America’s political scene. He has vowed never to use such techniques in his presidential campaign. Whether he wins or loses this contest, one can hope that he succeeds in inspiring other political aspirants to take the same stance against negative politics.
The politics of fear is destructive of the common good. Only a politics that struggles to enhance the dignity of the person, individual freedom, and human solidarity is worthy of the American people.
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