Monday, September 12, 2005
Politicizing
Each party loves to accuse the other of 'politicizing' the war, the hurricane, the Supreme Court, etc, etc, etc.
If 'politicizing' means scoring false points, then I'll agree that it's bad.
If -- and let me boldface, italicize, and underline* that IF -- politicizing means taking advantage of the event to show that you can do a better job than your opponent, then politicizing is the heart and soul of a representative government. Old-style politicians like Huey Long, Alfalfa Bill Murray, and Richard Daley the Elder understood this point deeply. (Here is an interesting essay on how Huey Long might have handled Katrina. The essay slides off into strange paranoia, but the basic point is valid.)
We don't see nearly as much of this old-style politicizing nowadays, because the legacy of campaign reform and Good Government makes it much harder for a poor man to run for office, and harder for any pol to exchange favors for votes among the poor.
Thanks to McCain, politicians now deal exclusively with the rich.
One shining exception: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Perry politicized Katrina in the right way by showing how quickly and effectively Texas could help the refugees.
Oops: I should add Gov. Barbour of Miss to the shining exceptions. Because Barbour was doing what a governor should do, while Perry was doing the unexpected, I focused on Perry. But that doesn't make Barbour's achievement any less! Perception, saliency, and all that...
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* A little Dan Rather lingo there. Ironic, isn't it? Rather, who constantly used typefaces as metaphor, was brought down by typefaces. ¶ 10:00 AM
If 'politicizing' means scoring false points, then I'll agree that it's bad.
If -- and let me boldface, italicize, and underline* that IF -- politicizing means taking advantage of the event to show that you can do a better job than your opponent, then politicizing is the heart and soul of a representative government. Old-style politicians like Huey Long, Alfalfa Bill Murray, and Richard Daley the Elder understood this point deeply. (Here is an interesting essay on how Huey Long might have handled Katrina. The essay slides off into strange paranoia, but the basic point is valid.)
We don't see nearly as much of this old-style politicizing nowadays, because the legacy of campaign reform and Good Government makes it much harder for a poor man to run for office, and harder for any pol to exchange favors for votes among the poor.
Thanks to McCain, politicians now deal exclusively with the rich.
One shining exception: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Perry politicized Katrina in the right way by showing how quickly and effectively Texas could help the refugees.
Oops: I should add Gov. Barbour of Miss to the shining exceptions. Because Barbour was doing what a governor should do, while Perry was doing the unexpected, I focused on Perry. But that doesn't make Barbour's achievement any less! Perception, saliency, and all that...
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* A little Dan Rather lingo there. Ironic, isn't it? Rather, who constantly used typefaces as metaphor, was brought down by typefaces. ¶ 10:00 AM
