Posted 13:18 by Evan

Remember: The Tortoise Won

My friend Mike Taht notes that it's time to register for the California primaries, and urges politically-minded bloggers to do so.

For a mere 990 dollars - or 1500 signatures - anyone can run in the primaries for assembly under the flag of any party. For 3000 signatures you can run for state senate. Both are fairly high paying jobs, if you care about that part, and the money you donate to your own campaign is tax deductable (I think) - so why not run for one of these positions? Make a difference!

Want to fix your state government? Run for state office! Want to change the democratic party? Run from within! Same for the Republicans? Run from within! Can't stand those parties? Run as an independent!

Respectfully, I think he's wrong. Getting involved in the political process is a great thing, but people who come out of nowhere with no political background or connections and randomly decide to pay a filing fee and put their names on the ballot very, very rarely win. Pursuing that as a means to political influence is like buying lottery tickets instead of putting your money in an interest-bearing account: You've got an infinitesimal chance of a big payoff, versus a certainty of a small payoff. You might wind up with an influential job (which, by the way, it's your oath-sworn duty to do as well as you can for at least two years; no slacking off if you lose interest, so you'd better be sure it's your passion). But more likely you'll get nothing, unless you have the support of a well-organized political network that's willing to work hard on your behalf--and to get that you need to pay your dues first, or at least have celebrity and/or big money going for you.

On the other hand, instead of running fruitlessly for office, you could just pay those dues. Don't try to enlist as a colonel--start out as a private. Pick out one of those local political networks that you agree with more often than not, or a statewide or national candidate you want to work for (I'll just put in a plug for my man Howard here), and get involved as a low-level volunteer grunt. Go to meetings and listen. Learn how the system works. Volunteer to bring the coffee and treats. Help out. Walk precincts. Stuff envelopes. Make phone calls. Hand out flyers and buttons at public events. Pretty soon, the like-minded politically active people in your community all know your name and your face, and you get opportunities to introduce your ideas into the mix. These being exactly the people that the local candidates and officeholders need to help them win elections, pretty soon you'll have opportunities to meet those folks, too, and they too will learn your name and face, and listen respectfully when you talk. Your friends and neighbors, knowing that you've actually met some of the candidates and might have some inkling about what they're like and where the bodies are buried, start asking you for a bit of advice on how to vote, and then, baby, you have arrived.

Maybe eventually you've paid enough dues that someone floats your name as a candidate, too. But long before that, you will have gained some measure of political influence in your community. Not a lot--but more than none. More than you'd have gotten by running as a crank candidate in a system you haven't really taken the time to learn about from the inside.

I'm just doing the merest fragment of this kind of volunteer work in the local Dean campaign, but already I find myself connected to local politics in ways I never was before. Next week, I'm attending a reception for my Assemblyman, to which I'm certain I would not, last year, have been invited. It's a small thing, but it's a step up from nothing. And these small things are what representative democracy is made of.

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Posted 11:33 by Evan

The People Have Spoken

And they have said "Duhhhhhh...."

To be honest, the election results had little power to depress me further; it would have been almost equally dispiriting if Schwarzenegger had come in second. Either result would have been equally compelling evidence that millions of Californians think government is of absolutely no importance--knowing specifically how many Californians think so doesn't make it that much worse.

California is not a trivial state, contrary to its apparent self-regard. If it seceded from the rest of the United States, it would be the fifth richest country in the world, all by itself, and the 30th most populous, roughly tied with Poland and Spain. It leads the world in technology, culture and entertainment, has vast agricultural resources, timber, oil. Bitterly divided between the liberal coast and conservative central and southern areas, it has a government of extremes: though dominated by democrats at the moment, its political structure (requiring, for example, a two thirds vote in the legislature to pass any budget, and a two thirds vote of the electorate to increase most taxes), ensures that the republican minority will continue to wield considerable power. It takes phenomenal executive skill to manage a state like this effectively.

And Gray Davis has, on the whole, done an okay job at it. So we dumped him for a man with absolutely no executive experience whatsoever, who refused to answer a single policy question substantively and wouldn't even debate his opponents unless he could prepare scripted answers to questions submitted in advance. A man with a history of gross sexual harassment, and a "playful" enjoyment of humiliating those who are less powerful than he is. A man who, as the pampered multimillion-dollar-per-picture star, has always been given absolutely everything he wanted, and is reputed to throw temper tantrums when he isn't. Shit howdy, I can't imagine anyone better suited to assume the mantle of leadership in Sacramento, can you?

It's not like politics requires a person to know what the hell he's doing or anything, right? Or to be able to win people over by the power of ideas, build consensus when possible and compromise when necessary. Or to understand different perspectives. Shoot, you can get anything done in government if you just look and act really tough. Just ask the people of Minnesota how well their little experiment with Jesse Ventura turned out.

Okay, enough with the sarcasm. The simple fact is, most voters didn't care whether Schwarzenegger had any of the background or qualities necessary to make him an effective political leader--not enough to look beyond the surface. And that is very discouraging.

I take a little black comfort in the knowledge that they'll regret it, after he drives the state into a brick wall--but not much, because it's my state, too. But at least we can feebly hope that after the inevitable disastrous failure of Schwarzenegger's governorship, Californians will (however temporarily) learn a lesson about what sort of skills a person should have before they hire him to take care of their money, police, fire departments, highways, schools, libraries, universities, etc, etc, etc.

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