President Lyndon B. Johnson was the mastermind of this coalition. In simple terms, it meant guns and butter. Johnson figured that most Americans wouldn't want to fight the expensive battles for democracy. So to keep them in the Democratic-dominated, internationalist camp, he gave them goodies: expanded welfare, unemployment benefits, Medicare. And to woo Blacks into the coalition, civil rights legislation and eventually affirmative action.

And now, the fallout. All those goodies cost lots of tax dollars--tax dollars that Americans want back. The Cold War which justified them has disappeared, and the coalition which supported them has disintegrated.

SO NOW the David Dukes will fill the political vacuum. Duke carries a banner bashing "tax-'n'-spend" liberals, "Big Government" and affirmative action. He calls on welfare recipients "to work for their welfare checks." He laments that "there is no room in the jails." And he wraps himself in the rhetoric of the working middle class.

None of this is outrageous in today's political discourse. (Obviously such ideas did not begin with the end of the Cold War, but for years Democrats felt that the only way to win popular support for that war was to beef up social programs. Now that rationale has disappeared.) Less extreme versions of Duke--those without the racism stigma, that is--are winning support all over.

On the Democratic side, Gov. Bill Clinton (D-Ark.) and the "mainstream" Democratic Leadership Council advocate almost identical reforms. Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder talks about a "fiscal conservatism" calling for similar spending cuts under the rubric of a "New Mainstream." And it seems that "George Herbert Walker Bush" doesn't stand firmly for "the hard-working men and women of America," as Sen. Thomas Richard Harkin (D-Iowa) reminded us last Sunday.

These politicians are latching on to the tendency in American politics to find blame. The same tendency exists overseas--it's the anger that causes other Yugoslavs to blame the Slovenians for their economic malaise. Here, it's the blame that was for 45 years hoisted on Communism: Fighting the Reds cost us precious resources, the argument goes.

And now blame will fall elsewhere. On the Japanese for Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.). On welfare recipients for the DLC. On Blacks for David Duke.

The point is that David Duke's success does not mean Americans--or even Louisianans--are sliding into racism. At most, they've found a temporary excuse to support a has-been racist with ideas that appeal to a broad group of young Americans and their leaders. Duke is a political lightweight, a gimmick politician who will move no closer to the governor's mansion than his seat in the state legislature--despite what the polls say.

So for now, pass the jambalaya and warm up the bread pudding. We've got bigger things to worry about than David Duke.