I often feel slightly bipolar when it comes to writers like Joe Klein. Some days I want to stab them in the neck, other days I want to etch their names in stone.
I'll be pulling out my chisel today, friends.
Klein has just penned a remarkable article for Time in which he elucidates the juxtaposition of political consultancy, losing Democrats, and the dumbing-down of the electorate.
I could give you all excerpts and teases, but honestly it won't do any good. Go read the article in its entirety. It's brilliant writing and is among the best indictments of the Democrats reliance on the consultant-culture I've ever read.
Klein closes with this, which I think harbours some insight for us all:
Consultants are unavoidable, given the complexity of modern communications. But I have a vague hope that the most talented politicians now realize that the public has come to understand what market-tested language sounds like, and that there is a demand for leadership, as opposed to the regurgitation of carefully massaged nostrums. To be sure, the old tricks--the negative ads, the insipid photo ops--still work, but only in the absence of an alternative. What might that be?
I hate predictions. Most pundits, like most pollsters, get their information by looking in the rearview mirror. But let me give 2008 a try. The winner will be the candidate who comes closest to this model: a politician who refuses to be a "performer," at least in the current sense. Who speaks but doesn't orate. Who never holds a press conference on or in front of an aircraft carrier. Who doesn't assume the public is stupid or uncaring. Who believes in at least one major idea, or program, that has less than 40% support in the polls. Who can tell a joke--at his or her own expense, if possible. Who gets angry, within reason; gets weepy, within reason ... but only if those emotions are real and rare. Who isn't averse to kicking his or her opponent in the shins but does it gently and cleverly. Who radiates good sense, common decency and calm. Who is not afraid to deliver bad news. Who is not afraid to admit a mistake. And who, above all, abides by the motto that graced Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Oval Office: let unconquerable gladness dwell.
I'm less optimistic than Klein, but I can't help thinking that it would be really nice if we didn't have to suffer through another campaign season full of dumbed-down slogans, fake patriotism, phoney piety, soccer-mom pandering, and all the rest of the irrelevant bullshit that the modern Presidential campaign has become.
In fact, everything else would be tolerable if I could just be promised one simple thing: that the candidates in 2008 treat us like adults again.