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Tom Harkin's Militant Populism
| Article
# : |
20125 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1992 |
1,704 Words |
| Author
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Gary Bullert
Gary Bullert is professor of political science at Troy State
University and is the author of The Politics of John Dewey. |
Sen. Tom Harkin's presidential candidacy promises to be the perfect antidote to Michael Dukakis' failed campaign. As a professed prairie populist, Harkin is not defensive, dispassionate, or wimpy about his unabashed liberalism. Instead of attempting to frame the issue as being one of competence and not ideology, Harkin endeavors to polarize the electorate along, class lines. Whereas Dukakis' stump style exuded an aura of Harvard intellectual superiority, Harkin specializes in street language. He mocks George Herbert Walker Bush and J. Danforth Quayle as rich kids who inherited their privileged status on the social ladder.
Harkin often reminisces about his disadvantaged childhood in small-town Iowa. He was born fifty-one years ago in the endemically poor railroad stop of Cumming. Most everyone from Cumming was raised in comparative poverty. Harkin was one of six children who lived in a two-bedroom house. His mother died when he was 10; his father became afflicted with black lung disease. Harkin's half-brother was born deaf. These roots of hardship serve as a badge of authenticity in his empathizing with the human needs of the poor.
After graduating from a Catholic high school in Des Moines, Harkin attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC scholarship. He majored in government and economics while cultivating an intense interest in politics. Upon graduation, he ferried damaged jets between Vietnam and Japan on noncombat missions. His military service would late enable him to fend off charges of antipatriotism due to his opposition to a constitutional ban on flag burning.
Upon his discharge from the military, Harkin arrived in
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