September 2007
September 22, 2007
The Parties are over
By Bill Kraus
For many years a few states determined their national convention delegates by popular vote. The parties used those states to test the viability of presidential candidates.
It worked.
New Hampshire proved that Ike was a legitimate and very popular presidential contender.
Wisconsin proved that Douglas MacArthur (who claimed Milwaukee as a birthplace) was not.
Wisconsin and West Virginia voters indicated that being a Roman Catholic was not exactly an asset, but Kennedy could win anyway.
And Wisconsin had the unusual distinction of driving Lyndon Johnson out of the 1968 race. When it became clear that he was going to lose big to Gene McCarthy, he withdrew on the Sunday before the Tuesday primary election.
As the parties' power to nominate declined and more and more states went to primaries to select delegates, a kind of power/money seeking disease infected state governments.
They decided they weren't having enough say so in the nomination process and they certainly weren't getting the money that candidates and campaigns spend in primary states.
So now we have a kind of insanity as every state clamors to not only get into the act, but to be the first primary on the block.
The suggestion that the first primary for the 2012 election will take place on the Wednesday after the 2008 election is probably extreme, but maybe not.
But something is going to happen. Something is going to have to happen.
NPR's Cokie Roberts suggested recently that the first thing that could (should?) happen is the national conventions, which are anachronistic and irrelevant, will go away. TV coverage has already reduced them to the status of an unreality show which nobody watches.
The more ominous prospect is that the parties themselves will be revealed as anachronistic and irrelevant.
Then what?
Italy?
As the deadlocked struggle to make the compromises necessary to pass a budget in Wisconsin make clear, the parties' legislative caucuses are fundamentally a collection of small sub-caucuses with agendas so different they can't agree among themselves.
If nobody is thinking about giving the parties enough authority to give them a reason to exist, somebody should.
Entrepreneurialism has arrived.
Anarchy looms.
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September 16, 2007
Hoping against hope
By Bill Kraus
I confess to a lifelong, probably terminal, case of politic-filia.
I like politics.
I like politicians.
I think it is an honorable trade practiced, for the most part, by superior people.
Whenever I get an audience of the alienated and outsourcing, I go into my pied piper routine and encourage them to come back into the game, to put politics into their lives.
This will, I assure them, be good for the country and make their lives better. Politics, as an old pro named Charlie Davis once explained to me, is the only game for adults. All other games are for children.
I am not, however, having a good year.
The governor and many legislators are oblivious to the Caesar's wife adage. They are gathering money at a frenetic pace, and they don't seem to be as concerned as they should be about where (or who) it is coming from or what it hopes it is buying.
It is coming, increasingly, from unsavory sources and those who are bringing it have an agenda that may or may not improve the human condition, except theirs.
The Republicans in the Assembly are embarrassing themselves and their trade by their truculence, incivility, and rigidity.
Both risk a public reaction against a.) the perception of corruption and b.) mobilizing the latent but ignitable movement to recreate something that worked once and could work again: a genuine part-time legislature. A part-time legislature would not have the leisure to waste months posing for holy pictures and ignoring the jobs that kept them in food and shelter. Economics, if nothing else, would bring them to the table and make compromise palatable. Part-time legislators would not only have one foot in reality but couldn't afford to dawdle the summer away at the conference table.
I have not changed my mind about politics and politicians. I have not given up on representative democracy as so many of my contemporaries seem to be doing.
That said, it has still been a tough year for me and my kind.
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September 13, 2007
The second coming of The Surge
By Stanley I. Kutler
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile politely asked George W. Bush on the tarmac in Sydney what he saw during his stopover in Iraq. "We're kicking ass," our chipper President replied. So, after four long years since his memorable words of "bring 'em on" and "mission accomplished," the President continues on his own merry course.
Bush returns to direct the national "debate" on the progress of his "surge" strategy in Iraq, which features reports by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The president is already kicking some ass, but on his own political turf. The White House, we know, has been engaged in the preparation of the Petraeus and Crocker reports. Can there be any surprises? We have formal Congressional hearings, but they promise little in the way of real inquiry--or real opposition. After the testimony, the President will address the nation and, once again, put his imprimatur on "the course." Bush is engaged: He has the microphone and the national stage.
As Bush expands Petraeus's role and strategy, Congress will find it difficult to challenge, let alone oppose, the mountain of authority the President is erecting.
Congress's Government Accountability Office has reported on the failure to achieve eleven of the eighteen legislative, security and economic benchmarks established in Congressional legislation, approved by the President and accepted by the Iraqi government. But the story has been overwhelmed by other news surrounding the impending review and seems destined to be ignored.
The authors of the GAO report interviewed Petraeus, Crocker and other government officials and made multiple trips to Iraq, including several as late as August. Overall, the report noted that "key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds." The news already has floated into media heaven and will likely not be heard again.
The White House's choreography is impeccable. In August, Bush addressed the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, facing his typically captive and approving audience in a flag-draped setting. After warming up his crowd with Pollyanna promises of better medical care and better pensions, he launched a typical jeremiad on his plans to spread the blessings of freedom and democracy. He offered his familiar message promising to fight terrorism there so we don't have to fight it here.
The military naturally has a large stake in the surge. A commission of military experts presented a one-size-fits-all report. Retired Marine General James Jones testified that Iraqi police forces are dysfunctional and hopeless. The Iraqi military has some promise but is nearly two years away from being effective and on its own. Still, the commission concluded that the only course is to do more. Shades of Vietnam and the light at the end of the tunnel.
The report was ambiguous enough for Senator John McCain to find "progress"; he said it would be a mistake for Congress to set a firm deadline for withdrawing troops. General Jones dutifully told the committee, "I think deadlines can work against us, and I think a deadline of this magnitude would be against our national interest." "I thank you," replied an obviously satisfied McCain. Senator Hillary Clinton noted the report's emphasis on the lack of any political progress, which, she said, buttressed her view for a firm deadline. General Jones had no reply for her.
General Petraeus calls for the removal of a brigade, but he also talks about maintaining current troop levels and waiting six months for a further evaluation. Buried in there are his remarks about staying the course in 2008--and 2009. One's eyes glaze over the plethora of words being generated, words at once portraying success but a need for more success; or words that speak of failures but only urge more effort.
Bush clearly is challenging Democratic opponents of the war. Republicans have little stomach for questioning his policies. Senator John Warner, ostensibly a critic of Bush's policy, appeared with Bush on the podium at the American Legion convention in August. But the President's assault on his Congressional opponents has another front--this time at the Democrats' rear, as the Administration mounts an intensive advertising campaign urging people to tell their representatives not to "surrender." The public relations campaign comes armed with appeals to patriotism phrased so that Democratic opponents of the war appear to be lacking in that virtue.
The chief front group for this is Freedom's Watch, whose prominent Internet and radio commercials are now are beginning to penetrate the nation. Former aides and supporters of the President, along with high-profile Republicans, have organized the group and have launched a monthlong, $15 million TV, radio and "grassroots activities" with the avowed purpose of pressuring Congress to support Bush's Iraq strategy. The war's original explainer and apologist, former press secretary Ari Fleischer, heads the effort. Fleischer bluntly dismissed as "stale" any questions challenging the validity of the war. He and the President want to hold the Democrats' feet to the fire they so timidly supported in 2002. Fleischer makes one long for Tony Snow.
Television and radio spots feature a wounded Marine eager to return to Iraq--"if I could", a wounded veteran and a war widow whose uncle died on 9/11. In his video the legless veteran asserts, "We are winning on the ground...It is no time to quit. It is no time for politics." The Marine boldly attacks Democrats who want to "surrender." All the ads urge listeners to call their Congressmen and tell them "victory is America's only choice." The Swift Boaters are back with sharpened wedge words, most worthy of our Great Divider.
Bush can rely on the public's lack of interest. The media, always his unwitting but reliable ally, will continue to focus on the scandal du jour or upon Fred Thompson's earth-shaking pronouncements--"He's in!" In the meantime, Bush pushes us deeper and deeper into Iraq, determined and defiantly staying his course. The President has put his Democratic opponents into a neat box: If they win the White House in 2008, any attempt to withdraw our forces will only be met with heated, divisive criticism and more charges of surrender. Democrats will be too intimidated--no, paralyzed--to do anything. Indeed, cheerleaders such as Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, offer words from Bush's vocabulary: "Now's the time to pour it on." Bush can count on maintaining his surge, if not beyond.
After leaving Iraq, General Petraeus sent an open letter to those serving under his command. He told them he would appear before Congress "conscious of the strain on our forces," the sacrifices of soldiers and their families and "the gains we have made in Iraq, the challenges that remain, and the importance of building on what we and our Iraqi counterparts have fought so hard to achieve." Petraeus is not a man preparing to leave. His appearance is only an offer of coming attractions for Surge 2.
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September 12, 2007
Storm for Reform
By Mike McCabe
If you were among the thousands of people at Saturday's biggest and best Fighting Bob Fest, chances are you heard about the upcoming People's Legislature Storm for Reform . One of the ways you can put the spirit of Bob Fest into action is to be part of the storm front that will move into Madison next Tuesday, September 18 at noon in front of the Capitol. You can sign up online.
In the last sentence of the very last column Molly Ivins wrote before her passing, she left her readers with this thought: "We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'"
We're taking Molly's advice to heart and asking participants to bring pots and pans to bang. And we're asking everyone to come prepared to say in 15 words or less what the bosses at the Capitol most need to hear.
The first assembly of the People’s Legislature in 2005 brought more than 1,100 people together on a weekday right after the holidays. Here’s hoping similar numbers will storm the Capitol on the 18th. Here's hoping we speak volumes of blunt truth to entrenched power – 15 words at a time – and collectively deliver an unmistakable message to the Lobbyists’ Legislature: Stop the partisan bickering. Stop using the state budget as a fundraising tool. Stop playing games, do your job and finish the budget. Then stop stonewalling campaign finance reform, clean up your act and give us our democracy back.
Maybe you have a few lines from a memorable poem that would be just perfect for the occasion. Or lyrics from a favorite song. Be funny. Be poignant. Be creative. But, by all means, be there. See you next Tuesday!
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September 9, 2007
Democracy's fear factor
By Bill Kraus
What the reformers want to do is get their proposals on the short agenda of the increasingly invincible incumbents in the legislatures and the leaders of the legislative and executive branches.
What the reformers have noticed is that the power to reform—the power to do anything consequential for that matter—is now concentrated in the hands of organizations that contribute money and/or can deliver the votes of their zealots.
The current list of power centers includes the National Rifle Association, AARP, Public Employees, Trial Lawyers, Business organizations, teachers’ unions, and the more vague but equally menacing theocrats and taxophobic anarchists and their spiritual leader, Charlie Sykes.
The interests of these organizations make the legislative and executive short agendas because they frighten the incumbents, even the obviously invincible ones.
It is this power shift from the general interest to special interest factions that the reformers want to reform.
Their dilemma is that they have to turn their reform organizations into zealous, menacing special interest groups to get their agenda on the short agenda.
They have to adopt the tactics they decry.
And while doing this they have to convince legislators and governors that the devolution into segmentation and away from unification (the politicians’ traditional and admirable role) is what must be reversed if we are to get our democracy back.
The formidable Bert Grover (former state legislator, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and former Fighting Bob Fest speaker) was one of the first to call for a strategy of confrontation to replace the reformers’ wimpy strategy of persuasion.
The only way to get the fear out of the political process it seems is by scaring those in power into diminishing the influence of those who they fear. Once that is accomplished, the people who have given up on the system and the politicians will come back and the interests will take an important but less dominant place in the process.
Politicians who are beholden to money and factions inevitably put money and factions on the short agenda.
We have a government of the money, by the mercenaries, for the interests.
The route to getting back to a government for the people is for the reformers to become one of the fearful interests.
A dilemma. And a reality.
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