ABROAD AT HOME / WHY NOT FAT AND HAPPY?

BOSTON -- There is a curious thing about the John McCain phenomenon.
Populist campaigns usually arise from adversity. In this time of
unprecedented prosperity, one would expect voters to be fat and happy,
contented with the status quo. Why, then, are so many turning to an
iconoclast, a candidate who promises to shake things up?

The answer must be that a good many Americans, however full their pockets,
are discontented with something. And the something is evident: the
political system. Fewer and fewer people vote: in 1996, under half of those
of voting age. Why vote when you feel that policy is shaped not by your
votes but by money? One observer summarizes it this way:

"The economic boom of the 90's has masked a looming national crisis: a
corrupt political system that auctions off public policy to the highest
bidder and leaves the overwhelming majority of Americans feeling alienated
from their own government."

That quotation is from a new book by Arianna Huffington, "How to Overthrow
the Government." Yes, the same Arianna Huffington who has so pungently
argued conservative views. Her rhetoric is still pungent, but her viewpoint
seems to have undergone a sea change.

The book is devastating on the flood of money into our politics. There is a
certain irony in that: Her former husband, Michael, spent $28 million of
his family fortune in an unsuccessful race for the Senate in 1994. She
notes wryly that Al Checchi spent $40 million trying to be governor of
California in 1998 -- "thankfully, for those of us named Huffington,
replacing Michael Huffington as the poster child of campaign profligacy."

Lobbying is another of her targets. She describes Dwayne Andreas, chairman
of Archer Daniels Midland, as "Mr. Special Interest" for his success in
getting federal subsidies for ethanol. He and ADM have given more than $3
million to the parties in soft money, and they get $300 million a year in
ethanol subsidies. "How this differs from Al Capone buying off judges in
Chicago is a topic worthy of debate in civics class," Ms. Huffington writes.

But the book is not only about money in politics. Ms. Huffington attacks
what she calls "the culture of greed" that makes the rich much richer while
"more children are homeless than at any time since the Great Depression."
She savages Republican attempts to abolish the estate tax for the sake of
the rich.

What has happened to Arianna Huffington? I asked her that question when she
was here in Boston the other day. Writing a column about politics as she
does, she said, brought her "face to face with distorted priorities, the
abuse of language, the neglect of poverty as a social issue. I couldn't
bear to hear them going on about our prosperity."

The most striking thing in the book, for me, is Ms. Huffington's discussion
of what she calls the two greatest crime problems, "the exploding prison
population and the failure of the war on drugs."

The priorities of the drug war, emphasizing criminal prosecution and
attempts to cut off drug supplies, are all wrong, she argues. Supplies and
use have increased, and will not go down until the priority is shifted to
education and treatment of addicts.

Coupled with the excesses of the drug war is the policy of mandatory
minimum prison sentences for even trivial drug offenses. The policy is not
only inhumane, she says, but has created an enormous social problem: two
million Americans in prison, where they are being brutalized.

The drug war and long prison sentences are indeed a disaster for our
country. Yet it seems impossible to do anything about them. Politicians are
afraid to do anything that would make them vulnerable to charges of being
"soft on crime."

That is the problem that Ms. Huffington's book underlines. We have a
democratic system of government, but it seems unable to respond to urgent
needs. The power of money prevents economic and political reform. In
California the prison guards' union is so powerful that even the most
sensible criminal law reform is blocked -- because the union wants more
prisons and more prisoners.

What will break us out of the stalemate? In a democracy the answer is
leadership. I have no idea whether Senator McCain would look at the drug
war or poverty or health care and say it is time for a change. But people
are looking for someone who might have the courage to challenge the
profound flaws in the status quo.