There is abroad what Herbert Agar, writing in the late '30s, denoted as an anarchic passion to smash -- the kind of satisfaction people get from smashing the icons. Someone told Dr. Dean that he had smashed one icon too many, so he discovered God last week. People will still forgive occasional bows in the direction of our Maker, but the passion-to-smash itch is there. Probably there is no way for Mr. Bush to satisfy those special impulses. It would be out of character for him to streak across the plain late in the afternoon before meeting with his supporters in Texas. He will have to let Dr. Dean collect for his own political stand all the stridencies of dissent.
Howard Dean won't attract a majority of the voters, one supposes. But what about the alarum raised by his threat to secede? He has said that l.5 million of his supporters aren't going to vote cow-like for another Democratic candidate if ... if what? If he is rejected?
If Dr. Dean decides to go it alone, he is free to run on a third-party ticket. If he did so, he would of course damage the Democratic Party. But the damage would go further. There is much to be gained from the two-party system. If the second party is reduced to true impotence, the republic suffers. A good working majority is better than a majority so heavy as to eliminate opposition.
And there is always the possibility that Howard Dean will win. After all, in recent weeks a man successfully negotiated Niagara Falls.