In JFK Airport, en route to Salt Lake City: Two decisions regarding<\/p>\n
the Dean presidential campaign appear imminent. Gov.<\/p>\n
Dean is likely to refuse federal funding (thus gaining the freedom to<\/p>\n
spend unlimited private money); and he is expected to receive the endorsement<\/p>\n
of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU, pronounced "see<\/p>\n
you"). These events are symptomatic of the collapse of a set of<\/p>\n
institutions that, 20 years ago, amplified the political voice of ordinary<\/p>\n
people. In those days, federal funding for presidential campaigns was<\/p>\n
adequate to replace private money, so there were no big donors in presidential<\/p>\n
politics. Everyone counted the same under the presidential campaign<\/p>\n
finance system. As for major unions, they had a powerful influence on<\/p>\n
the institutional Democratic party and supported candidates with whom<\/p>\n
they had lasting relationships—politicians who had risen through<\/p>\n
the political ranks mainly because of organized labor. Today, SEIU evidently<\/p>\n
thinks that it cannot afford to support the man who best fits that description,<\/p>\n
Dick Gephardt, because his chances of winning the presidency are too<\/p>\n
low. Instead, they are backing someone who owes them nothing, who has<\/p>\n
never had much to do with them, but who has harnessed mostly white-collar<\/p>\n
support through clever use of the Internet and a strong anti-War stance.<\/p>\n
Evidently, they think Gov. Dean has the best chance of winning and they<\/p>\n
want to have some leverage over him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two immediate results are likely: the demise of the whole public financing<\/p>\n
system (since neither party will use it), and the defeat of Rep. Gephardt,<\/p>\n
who is now blocked from receiving the AFL-CIO’s collective endorsement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many people believe that the Dean campaign represents a new form of<\/p>\n
citizen influence. But we have to ask whom<\/em> this new system<\/p>\n benefits. Dean supporters have a political ideology and an identity<\/p>\n as active citizens. Polls show that most Americans lack both of these<\/p>\n characteristics. Dean supporters also have the means to contribute to<\/p>\n his campaign, and they are early adapters of the latest technologies<\/p>\n (blogs and Meetup.com this year; something else in 2008). In contrast,<\/p>\n unions like SEIU traditionally gave <\/em>people political ideologies<\/p>\n and identities, collected modest dues to produce substantial political<\/p>\n donations, and used tools (such as phone banks) that were familiar to<\/p>\n blue-collar workers. I don’t hold Gov. Dean’s success against him, but<\/p>\n I think it spells deep trouble for working-class politics in<\/p>\n America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In JFK Airport, en route to Salt Lake City: Two decisions regarding the Dean presidential campaign appear imminent. Gov. Dean is likely to refuse federal funding (thus gaining the freedom to spend unlimited private money); and he is expected to receive the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU, pronounced "see you"). These events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revitalizing-the-left"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}