Kick \u2018Em<\/p>\n
There is an ongoing debate in the Democratic Party:\u00a0 has the nature of politics changed?\u00a0 With the election of Donald Trump as President, have we entered a new period of\u00a0\u201creality show\u201d campaigning?<\/p>\n
Television had been around since the late 1940\u2019s.\u00a0 One of the first major political impacts of the medium was the televised McCarthy hearings in 1954, where Senator Joseph McCarthy led a hunt for Communists in the American government. The fervor of the chase led to a loose attitude about evidence, culminating in attorney Joseph Welch, defending a younger member of his firm saying:<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It was on TV, to a national audience.\u00a0 The statement struck Americans, and began the decline of McCarthy (and has been echoed in recent times in the Strozk and Kavanaugh hearings \u2013 by both sides.)<\/em><\/p>\n In the election of 1960, Vice President Richard Nixon was the Republican running against Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy.\u00a0 Nixon had been a World War II vet, a Congressman, Senator, and Vice President for eight years in the successful Eisenhower Administration.\u00a0 Kennedy was also a vet, and was elected to the Congress and the Senate. He had been touted as a possible Vice Presidential nominee in 1956 for Adlai Stevenson.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t until the televised Presidential debates of the 1960 election that TV came to the fore.\u00a0Nixon, a star debater, thought he was well prepared to show Kennedy as ignorant.\u00a0 Kennedy, on the other hand, had a much better understanding of what a national television audience would expect.\u00a0 Kennedy was well prepared, but he was also \u201ccool,\u201d in the Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford (his brother-in-law) sense.\u00a0 Americans ended up seeing Nixon as a pale, unshaven (he had a terrible five o\u2019clock shadow and refused to use makeup) and sweaty detail guy; while Kennedy was a tanned, well spoken, \u201ccool guy.\u201d\u00a0 It made the difference.<\/p>\n There are many Democrats who see a similar change in politics today.\u00a0 With the advent of the \u201creality show\u201d Presidency, where the \u201cgood guys\u201d and \u201cbad guys\u201d are called out and challenged, and the issues simplified to basics; should the Democrats find a \u201creality show\u201d candidate?<\/p>\n I admit, I\u2019m not a fan of reality shows.\u00a0 But I have watched enough World Wrestling to understand the concept.\u00a0 There are good guy competitors and bad; the crowd cheers for the good guys, boos the bad guys, and fully expect the bad guys to cheat and sometimes even win.\u00a0 And while everyone in the stands recognizes that the outcome of the \u201cmatches\u201d is pre-determined, a rehearsed show, it doesn\u2019t slow down their enthusiasm.<\/p>\n There is a good reason that Linda McMahon, a former CEO of World Wrestling, was appointed by President Trump as the head of the Small Business Administration.\u00a0 Trump learned to reach people through her business model.<\/p>\n So Democrats are faced with a conundrum:\u00a0 join the reality show or follow a more traditional model.\u00a0 Michelle Obama gave her answer to this question in the 2016 campaign:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026when they go low, we go high!\u201d\u00a0 But former Attorney General Eric Holder, a potential 2020 Presidential candidate, this week modified her statement by saying, \u201cwhen they go low, kick \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorney Michael Avenatti, also eyeing a Presidential run, has taken this to it\u2019s logical extreme, challenging Donald Trump Jr. to a mixed martial arts match (for charity) to resolve the ongoing Twitter insults they have exchanged.<\/p>\n The Obama\u2019s had enormous political success staying out of the fray.\u00a0 Perhaps the greatest contrast of our age is the \u201ccool class\u201d of Barack Obama, and the \u201ccrass braggadocio\u201d of Donald Trump.\u00a0 And we all saw the sad spectacle of Republican candidates trying to match Trump\u2019s crudeness; the sweaty discomfort of Marco Rubio making penis size comments is still a national embarrassment.<\/p>\n There needs to be a larger discussion of what we want America to be.\u00a0 Are we now the \u201creality show\u201d nation, with campaigns a series of insults and unbelievable statements with the crowds cheering \u201clock her up?\u201d\u00a0Or are we going to determine the future of our nation in a more serious conversation, where intent and intelligent folks put forth their vision?\u00a0 It\u2019s not just up to us, it\u2019s up to America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"