Stirling Newberry wrote a glowingly optimistic diary here about the idea of an "open convention" called
We Can Do Better: 2006 Open Convention.
There is a flaw in the diary AND in the idea.
Unfortunately.
Read on for more:
One of several, flaws, actually. I do not mean to disagree with the basic concept of an open convention. However, I am quite sure that a TRULY open convention is impossible, given the sheer mass of corporate money and clout the would be marshaled against even the remote
possibility of such a thing coming to pass. We must remember the scale at which we are talking. Trillions and trillions of dollars and the power that those trillions would buy hangs in the balance here. The last winners of this competition have failed to use their power well, and it is now up for grabs. The BIG sharks are circling.
If one WERE to try to have an "open convention", the first thing that would be necessary is to actually understand how power is accumulated in this country.
ELECTORAL power.
And here he is sadly and deeply mistaken.
I will address the rest of this post directly to Mr. Newberry, but it is really aimed at every Kossack who has not stepped out of his or her middle class and/or intellectual protective shell and gone out into the red country where the people of America live.
YOU know...the ones that voted for Bush?
Remember them?
I mean...they had to have had SOME reason for doing so patently foolish a thing, right?
Read on.
Mr. Newberry said in the above referenced diary "There is also a growing realization that we no longer live in the era of television dominance."
I do not know where you got that idea, Stirling, nor do I agree with it. On the evidence. The evidence of EXTENSIVE personal experience and ad hoc research.
"A growing realzation" among WHOM, exactly? I fear that it must be among an intellectual elite who depend on studies and poll numbers to provide their information rather than personal observation. I do not know where you live, sir, but my guess is that it is in (or near) a large metropolitan center or perhaps in a university town of some kind. If indeed you live in the United States at all.
Do you travel within the US much? If you do not, I STRONGLY suggest that you do so. Go to the smaller cities, to the south and west and midwest, to New England. Fly into a fairly small airport somewhere...Duluth, Syracuse, Little Rock. Dress down so you look like you might be a normal, middle to lower middle class American working Joe. Rent a cheap car. And drive.
Drive into the country. Drive along the interstates. Eat at fast food places. Stay at relatively inexpensive chain motels. Go into local bars. Local diners and breakfast places in small towns. Truck stops. Go into middle class suburban areas. Banks. Malls. Professional offices of every variety, Lawyers, doctors, dentists.
And LISTEN. And watch.
If within about 3 days you are not totally convinced that the vast majority of all of the working, voting people of this country are TOTALLY dependent for their news and their "opinions" on what is coming out of the tube, what is coming out of the AM radio and what is being printed in right-centrist local and national newspapers...then I think that you are quite possibly blind, deaf and dumb, because it is RIGHT THERE TO BE SEEN.
BushCo won the election..besides its successful vote fraud and voter suppression efforts, of course...on merit. It won because its backers own and control the mass media of this country. The very election antics that provided the numbers that won the election were only possible because the corporate media refused to cover them.
If they are to be taken down, these criminals...then it will have to be a mass media-driven event.
And it is increasingly likely that indeed this is what WILL happen. Those same "backers" are now backing OFF because their horse has fucked up too often and too deeply. They are looking for a NEW horse.
And here you are with your "open convention" idea.
You finish this post with the words "America can do better than closed government and top down thinking, and it is time that the Democratic Party went out and proved it."
A noble sentiment.
Please...tell me how it can be done. The forces that are presently dismembering the neo-con wing of the Republican Party are NOT the forces of the Democratic Party, they are the forces of the secret government.
The PERMANENT government.
The whole effort turns on the outing of a CIA operative.
NOT on the multiple political, military and economic malfeasances of BushCo.
NOT on the misguided efforts of this society to dominate the third world for political and economic gain.
It is an internal squabble over tactics between two groups that basically agree on their overall strategic goal...an oil-based economy predicated on preferential treatment that is achieved through the application and/or threat of military force plus a HUGE worldwide system of covert operations.
And you envision an "open convention" as a way to counter this force?
You are dreaming, sir.
A lovely dream...but a dream nevertheless.
If you actually managed to HAVE this convention...against the wishes of a huge portion of the Democratic Party establishment, I will assure you...then the serious threat to the status quo that it would impose would guarantee a MASSIVE media effort to either bury it and/or make it appear to be inconsequential. The "ARRRRGH!!!" approach used on Dean would probably be the major thrust of that effort ("Oh, those flakey, FLAKEY Democrats!!!"), and it would work like a charm in the precincts that I suggest you go and visit.
Coming over the TVs in the Dunkin' Donuts and banks and airports and waiting rooms of this world.
"Oh, those flakey, FLAKEY Democrats!!!"
"Duuuuhhh...YEAH!!! Those flakey, flakey elitist Eastern Democratic BASTIDS!!! I'M votin' fer McCAIN!!!" (Or whomever is suggested as an alternative. Dem or Ratpub. 2006 OR 2008.)
I am sorry, Stirling.
It just won't wash.
Back to the drawing board.
It is said that plans are what you make while Life goes on about its business regardless.
Well...THIS plan is what you make while Hillary Clinton, Wesley Clark, the Democratic power elite in the Senate and other big-time politicians go on about THEIR business of consolidating their alliances with big money.
So that THEY can run the "open convention".
Just like the last one.
Just like ALL of them within living memory.
The fix is ALWAYS in.
"It's just business. Nothing personal. YOU understand."
"Bada-BING!!!"
Now...if you REALLY want to effect the outcome of this process, then concentrate on just what you have been doing.
Telling the truth as you see it on the internet.
We here have about a 3% to 5% effect on what actually happens. That is the strength of our vector, and it is considerable given our numbers. Everything is pushing on this system from every conceivable angle. If we can move it 5% to the left...then we will have done our job.
Our MEDIA job.
Other than that...dream on.
Life loves dreamers too.
NEEDS 'em, even.
But please... INFORM your dreaming with a dose of mainstream, American reality.
Go on out in mufti and get up close and personal with the people who really live in this country.
Your dreams may acquire a sort of nightmarish tinge for a while if you do so...all of those Dunkin' Donuts and Big Macs'll do that, as will a few conversations with Bubba and his wife Hilda...but that would be a small price to pay in order to get real.
And...have fun...
Those rental cars are SO...entertaining.
Charles