2008 AND THE MEDIA MYTH MACHINE

Sam Smith

ONE THING is clear about the 2008 Democratic primary: there will be 
little room for reality. The media story line is already being driven by 
a mythology that in more trivial times would only be annoying but, given 
America's collapse as a constitutional society and as a respected 
nation, merely adds to the extraordinary danger the country faces today. 


It used to be that the length of the Democratic primary season at least 
allowed time for reflection and for recovery from illusions shattered in 
scattered states as presumed victors stumbled or fell. Now not even that 
is possible. 

But no more. The NY Times reports that "as many as four big states — 
California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey - are likely to move up 
their 2008 presidential primaries to early next February, further 
upending an already unsettled nominating process and forcing candidates 
of both parties to rethink their campaign strategies, party officials 
said Wednesday."

The Times politely notes that "Democrats and Republicans said that the 
changes would be the latest step in the evolution of a presidential 
nominating system that increasingly seems resistant to the kind of 
dark-horse presidential bid that was possible back when small states 
like Iowa and New Hampshire enjoyed such influence over the nominating 
process."

What is really happening is that the primary system is being 
nationalized and compressed for the benefit of those with the most money 
and the best early standings in the media mythology. 

Money at every level in American politics has already replaced the 
importance of the voter because money combined with media mythology 
makes voters do what the money wants them to. And in the last election 
cycle 48% of this money came from zip codes with a high proportion of 
households making over $100,000 a year. 

Two items give a good feel for what's going on this year: 

From ABC News: Movie moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey 
Katzenberg want their Hollywood peers to join them at a Feb. 20 
fundraiser the three are throwing for Obama. For $2,300 a person and 
$4600 a couple, they can meet the candidate at a reception at the 
Beverly Hilton Hotel, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Those who commit to raising 
$46,000 (10 couples/20 tickets) for the evening will be invited to a 
private dinner at Geffen's Malibu, Calif., home. 

From the Jewish journal Forward: Democratic activists and operatives 
said Clinton will pull in large quantities of cash among Jewish donors 
not only because of what they described as her strong positions on 
Israel and domestic matters of interest to Jews, but also because of 
longtime ties with these activists dating back to her husband's 
administration. The haul is important: Strategists say that serious 
candidates will need to raise at least $50 million -- and probably more 
like $100 million -- by the end of the year. They say that money from 
Jewish donors constitutes about half the donations given to national 
Democratic candidates.

This is not democracy. This is a cattle auction.

But the money's not enough. The media, which is, after all, part of the 
money, has to provide a myth to replace any troubling intrusions by 
reality. Hence we have the lovely story of an iconic feminist running 
against an iconic black with, by our count, two-thirds of the candidate 
headlines this month going to Clinton and Obama. 

The third placed candidate, John Edwards, has gotten just six percent of 
the headlines this month despite being ahead in Iowa and tying Clinton 
for second place in the last New Hampshire poll. 

Edwards, once a darling of the Democratic Abandonship Council, has done 
the unforgivable. He has strayed from the flock and is playing his own 
game. It matters not that this game is the most realistically Democratic 
one of any major candidate in the past few decades or that his opponents 
often seem to be trying to prove how conservative they can be. For them 
it's not a matter of being the best Democrat; it's a matter pleasing the 
media and the money. 

So you won't hear much about Hillary Clinton once being a Goldwater 
Republican or that Barack Obama offers little to write about, let alone 
justify electing him to the White House. To a media that otherwise 
produces soap operas and American Idol, Clinton and Obama are ideally 
simple to present in their mythcasts. 

And the mythology runs deep. For example, the Washington Post reports 
that black Democrats favor Clinton over Obama by a three to one 
majority. Why? Because Bill Clinton, the best hustler since Elmer 
Gantry, managed to get blacks to take the faux Baptist bait, favoring 
inflection in the pulpit over improvements in the community. Even Toni 
Morrison fell for the scam and few seemed to notice that black incomes 
and net worth were continuing to decline, that Clinton's so-called 
welfare reforms favored whites far more than blacks, and that his 
aggressive pursuit of the drug war made young urban black men worst 
victims than their fathers fighting in Vietnam.

I once was asked by a reporter about to interview Clinton on the radio 
whether I had any good questions. I suggested asking him, "Why do you 
like blacks so much more when they're in a church than when they're on 
the street?" He didn't take my suggestion, but twice during the Clinton 
years cab drivers told me how great the economy was. "How many jobs are 
you working?" I asked each and it was a revelation. They had never 
thought of their personal disconnect between myth and reality.

That's a big job of the mainstream media: to keep us from discovering 
that disconnect.

And that's why they don't want to give John Edwards too many headlines. 
He's no longer playing their game. 

Sure, Edwards partied with the Bilderberg mob, he's taken part in the 
current anti-Iran hysteria, he supports the death penalty, and he's won 
some court cases based on questionable medical science.

On the other hand it's hard to think of anyone since as far back as Fred 
Harris who has been willing to run for president sounding so much like a 
real Democrat, which is to say one centered on making life better for 
the most number of Americans. 

And I would rather deal with Edwards' straight-forward error on the 
death penalty than with Hillary Clinton's attempt to make all sides 
think she agreed with them.

I may be unduly optimistic, but Edwards seems an unusual politician in 
another way. He seems to have learned something along the way. That 
doesn't happen often in politics. 

But then Edwards lost a son in a car accident and his wife had breast 
cancer. It's hard to retain the sort of hubris one finds in a Clinton or 
a Kerry when life intrudes like that. 

Now life has intruded again. From a darling of the DLC and a Bilderberg 
prospect he's become an outsider like us. He may be a trial lawyer but 
he's chosen to be our trial lawyer. 

It's not perfect by a damn shot. For example, no major Democratic 
candidate - including Edwards - has addressed the collapse of American 
constitutional government and none has rejected Bush's education 
program. 

And it's also possible that Obama might turn out to be something other 
than a somewhat sanctimonious pop star trying to make us feel good about 
him. Certainly he's a vast improvement over the most corrupt and 
dishonest Democrat to seek the presidency since her husband. 

But at the moment, whatever his faults and given the realities of 
America's sick politics, Edwards is the best we've got, the best chance 
to hold the line against the money and the myths, against the corrupters 
and the corroders. 

And we don't have a hell of a lot of time. Both the money and the media 
want this settled soon and weeks to them would be better than months. 

The SUV liberals will stick with Clinton and Obama but, as Howard Dean 
showed the last time round, there's still a little room for an 
unanticipated rebellion, a demand for Democrats to be Democrats, for 
decency to go before power, and for the myth makers and the money 
shakers to be taught the lesson that reality still matters.   

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