The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Rootman's picture

    Why Politicians Suck

    By Rootman on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:15pm |

    This summer I had the unique experience of managing a congressional primary campaign in a solidly Democratic district. My candidate was a sincere progressive, challenging a 12-term representative in a furiously anti-incumbent season. It was a long shot, but with projected low turnouts and the possibility that our opponent could be indicted at any time, it seemed worth trying.

    We knew we needed to run to the left of the incumbent, who had a very solid liberal record. We seized upon an increase of the minimum wage. I think Obama has talked about $9. We decided on $12 as an amount that would appeal to the downtrodden district and would be, I believe, an economic stimulator. 

    The candidate believed in this policy with all of his heart. It looked great on billboard layouts. Simple and bold. $12 that you can believe in. For families, for the future, for America. We came up with a way it would not be a burden on small businesses, which would be able to hire for less than chains and large employers. Some employment tax magic was conjured up to make all that stuff work.

    Then the candidate wakes up one May morning with cold feet. His wife and friends have been telling him he'll lose potential financial supporters if he even touches minimum wage. It's too extreme. Refuses to even revisit it. Backers can be liberal --- up to the point that it affects their financial interests. And money is like oxygen to a campaign, much more than I ever knew.

    From that day on, win or lose, the candidate was, to me, a dead man walking.

    Comments

    Politicians are all zombies...they need money, not flesh, to survive.

    I take it you aware you opened the political Pandora's box for everyone to see? No politician will promote any piece of legislation, no matter how good it would be for the public, that would undermine their chance for political office with special interest groups, be they challenger or incumbent.

    Makes one think hard whose interests are being served.


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 7:55am

    True about politicians, Beet. But here was a good-hearted guy who had never held office, a lifelong civil rights warrior, who saw himself as a Mr. Smith going to Washington. Never got close to the Beltway, yet was transformed by the reality distortion field.


    by Rootman on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 8:28am

    The curse of the Zombie knows no borders. Anyone seeking political office opens themselves to infection. There is no cure.


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 10:43am

    In reality, that was one of the safest campaign platform planks your candidate couild possibly have run on.

    Why?  You might well ask.

    What are the odds anything raising the Federal minimum wage to $12/hr. makes it through Congress?

    Therefore: Safe, because it's completely unworkable, and easily blamed on others when it happens.  The problem is, voters know, whether consciously or otherwise, that this is the case, and candidates doing and saying things like that rarely if ever come out ahead when the votes are counted.

    You just managed a Dennis Kucinich Presidential campaign in microcosm.

    And why are you challenging a solid liberal from the left in a safe district anyway?  Really?  Better would have been to find some fence-sitter and make the same move there.

    The real idea is to move the center to the left, not move the left farther left. 


    by Austin Train on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 10:31am