Screwtape Report: The New Kingmakers
By Adam Graham (07/30/07)
The 2008 election marks a time of great celebration. Regardless of the eventual outcome, a great triumph is complete. It is not the triumph of a political party, but of those of us who've become America's kingmakers.
It’s been a long time coming, but now America has matured to the point where we no longer rely on farmers, ranchers, and civic activists to choose our Presidents, we’ve successfully figured how to make life simple for American voters.
In order to become the Presidential nominee of either party, you still have to make the pretense of visiting Iowa and New Hampshire, but the realistic choices have already been decided by a combination of party bosses, political consultants, fundraising kings, and the media.
There was a dark time in our country when tens of thousands of people chose who became the nominee of a political party. Raucous county caucuses led to raucous state conventions, and then the Summer led to an event where tempers flared and the political theater played out as America waited with baited breath as the first ever reality TV shows were produced live-the Republican and Democratic conventions (though the first weren’t televised). The winner would be their party’s nominee for President.
Oh, how abhorrent this process was! How uncontrollable! How unmanageable! Several times people found themselves absolutely shocked to be their party’s nominee for President. Now, we’ve turned the party conventions into the biggest infomercial in America. We’ve made politics boring, but we’ve made it very predictable, which our leadership in both parties is most grateful for.
I remember when the 1974 Campaign Finance law was passed. I was a visionary, I saw the future. No longer able to rely on a few big contributors, campaigns needed hundreds, and later thousands, of small contributions, raked in by prodigious fundraisers, without which a campaign had no prayer.
Of course, this was a long time coming. I realized in the 1970s how hard Iowa and New Hampshire would be for us to master. With candidates able to spend weeks around the corn fields of Iowa and the mountains of New Hampshire, they could make a surprise showing to help them raise funds to compete in larger states down the line. Iowa and New Hampshire winnowed the field, and the rest of the states were then able to pick a winner from the remaining candidates.
This was quite problematic, but in 1988, we had the first Super Tuesday as Southern States moved their primaries forward to have a greater influence on the outcome. I licked my chops, knowing how the state party bosses worked. They wouldn’t let the South have this advantage for long, and by 1996, New England States moved their primaries to the week before Super Tuesday for Junior Tuesday. Then, California moved to Super Tuesday in 2000. Oh, it was glorious to watch as slowly the noose tightened around the old system, and now in 2008, we watch the body hang.
Long live the new kingmakers! We’ve now guaranteed that candidates must raise absurd amounts of money in a short period of time if they’re to be successful in their campaigns. They have no time between Iowa and New Hampshire to raise enough to funds before the merciless onslaught that will occur on February 5th.
And how have we done this? In the name of Democracy. A democracy of people going to the polls with little clue or understanding as to who they’re voting for and a media that’s told them beforehand that they only have two choices, perhaps three.
We’ve also used the name of fairness and our greatest ally for weak minds: envy. Party bosses have gone from state to state telling state legislators and party membership, “We should vote earlier to have a greater impact on the process, it’s not fair.” The fools never considered that all they will gain for the effort and expense of an early presidential primary is a slate of campaign ads filling up their television sets, as candidates fly in for orchestrated events and then leave.
And there are some idiot savants out there who want a National Primary. Oh, let it be. Then, we’ll strip away the last vestiges of grassroots control.
As it, it’s pretty well limited. Under the current system, our kingmakers are what matters. The kingmakers all have a role to play:
· Political consultants: We’re at the top of the ladder. We know people and we bring together the campaign apparatus. We call in our favors from state party bosses and gain audiences for the top candidates.
· Fundraisers: The cash cows that will be fed, more often than not, at taxpayer expense.
· State Party Bosses: Their importance is diminished from years past, but still it’s not a bad gig. They can direct money, party machinery, and other apparatuses behind the candidates of their choice, while giving short shrift to those who are not some of the top candidates chosen by the fundraising crowd.
· The Media: They serve as the echo chamber for the party leaders. We’ve created a whole group of political experts and columnists who have no purpose in life other than to go on television, appear intelligent, and spread political gossip. We call this ‘news.’ However, as they have to say something, they say what party leaders say and thus, when those who actually pay attention to the news tune in, they hear over and over, that only candidates A, B, and C are going to be acceptable and like sheep they believe it.
Thus every election, people vote for candidates they abhor rather than ones they like in the name of winning influence and victory. How joyous to see our game has worked!
You may ask if the Internet and the blogosphere pose a risk to this fine structure. You bet it does. The technology is in a place for a grassroots revolt, but don’t bet on it anytime soon.
Bloggers on both sides of the aisle are analysts, not revolutionaries. As such, they often simply regurgitate the analysis of the mainstream press and act like they’re clever in doing so. Most will become part of the machine. Because they’ve accepted that elections are about winning, and nothing else, they won’t deign to fight an uphill battle because they have neither the courage or endurance to do so. Even those who publicly dislike all the major candidates will simply throw up their hands and declare their distaste rather than taking on the hard task of fighting against the odds.
The type of people who fought for decades against all odds to get a Conservative Republican nominated for President don’t exist anymore, and long may they lie dead. We are forever blessed to have people with spines of jelly and wills of marshmallows who have no patience to engage in long struggles and fight for their parties, but will whine about the way things are.
Such helpless “victims of the system” are the key to our success. Their spineless cowardice will insure we remain America’s kingmakers and it’s lawful rulers.
The Screwtape Report is written by Adam Graham. The Screwtape Report is written from a Democratic perspective by a conservative in order to reveal Democratic strategy and thinking.
A commentary from the Truth and Hope Report ( http://www.truthandhope.2truth.com ) Weekend update by Democratic Political Dave Screwtape in which Dave advises Democratic Congressional Candidates.
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