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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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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