By Dick Miller
WE CONNECT DOTS: The effects of political activism are at an all-time low.
Our destiny has been taken over by mega organizations, cash, ideologues, more cash, bought “public” servants and – did I mention – lots of cash.
Historians tell us campaigns have always been this nasty. Then it was about candidates (and a few surrogates) riding their horses around the country side, making one or two speeches a day, calling their opponents a bad name or two.
Today, our senses are bombarded rat-a-tat-tat with commercials. In addition, the new surrogate is a robotic bobble head on 24-hour cable with a precision “on-message” message. “Turn around so we can see the wind-up key in the middle of your back.”
Political debates have been re-defined as whenever two candidates occupy the same stage at the same time. Issues are not debated for fear of losing votes. “I have a plan to balance the budget by cutting everybody’s taxes; just don’t ask me the details.”
Mainline news media does not insist on detailed answers. Print media is on its financial deathbed and TV basks in the millions of dollars showered on it by the campaigns.
Loyal party workers have been humbled the most. Donors no longer write checks in support of understandable general principals. Smart money is paid directly to candidates in exchange for helping the donor get richer.
During campaigns adequate copies of flyers and brochures are not made available less they might be passed out to the wrong target groups. Print media is for mailing to specific groups. Campaign direction flows from top down. Lower echelon loyalists are not asked for opinion. They are told when to knock on doors, when to make phone calls, when to show up. Polls, not people, drive campaigns.
It is worse in states already locked up. Party workers there are ignored, regardless of the down-ballot consequences.
In party activism in general, give a small nod to the Tea Baggers. They seem active every year, trying to make a difference in campaigns for state lawmakers to judges to court house row offices. Such antics are not always welcome by the more moderate GOP party loyalists.
In contrast, too many Obama supporters have not been seen since 2008. In 2011, while local Obama people completed their hibernation, Democrats lost a dozen courthouses in Pennsylvania. Similar local efforts and outcomes in Ohio could cost Obama the presidency next month.
Party organizations no longer pick candidates. Democrat influence waned shortly after the debacle at the 1968 convention in Chicago. Republicans over-democratized following Nixon’s prostitution of the process less than a half-decade later.
Today the process in both parties favors candidates from the fringe. Predictable movements to the center begin immediately after clinching the nomination, especially of the challenger. Gov. Mitt Romney was an exception, as explained below.
Bill Clinton defeated the last sitting President. He started as a conservative southern governor who could return some of that region back to Democrat electoral votes. As president he was partially responsible for NAFTA and dismantling the regulation of banks. His lack of concern for appointees to the National Labor Relations Board will someday be considered crucial in the demise of organized labor.
With Romney — should he replicate Clinton — his reign can only be shaped around one of two philosophies. He captured the nomination by being the only moderate Republican who could raise money while the remaining candidates, all more conservative, scrambled for Far Right support. Romney can only win if he convinces centrist voters that this Romney is the same one who governed in Massachusetts.
The alternative, now that he has been bought with conservative money, is that he stays bought and rules from the right. More bluntly, his philosophy about universal health care, abortion and government in general could be shaped by those who bought him last. The “One Percenters” and those who think the very, very rich are going to move over and make room for them are counting on it.
For certain, two people have very little to do with what direction this country takes – You and Me.
