Howard Dean humanizes politics
seattlepi.nwsource.com
By CHI-DOOH LI
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Two weeks ago, Iowa's caucuses showed us that the shiny
crown previously placed on Howard Dean's noggin by
pollsters and the news media, emblematic of the
Democratic Party's anointed champion to oust George W.
Bush from the White House, turned out to be a Toys R Us
99-cent special.
Two days ago, New Hampshire voters confirmed that Dean's
supposed coronation, before any votes had been cast, was
indeed premature.
Thus the Democratic primary season promises us fun and
surprises by the boatload, which is the way it ought to be,
and the reason why presidential politics will always be a
fascinating subject.
I am grateful for Dean's frenzied outburst on the night of
the Iowa caucuses. He may have scared the living daylights
out of a whole lot of voters and done major damage to his
own campaign, but he did the American political system an
enormous favor.
Simply put, he brought the human element back into
politics.
Dean reminded us, in an age when technologically savvy
managers and handlers dictate to candidates how they
should think, what they should say and how they should
dress, that politics is still very much a human endeavor and
thus entirely unpredictable.
Political science is a misnomer and oxymoron if ever there
was one.
Politics is as far from being a science as I am from being
Albert Einstein.
For the past 40 years or so, beginning in the ivied halls of
academia, very bright and just as misguided men and
women have systematically attempted to steal the soul from
American politics.
Obsessed with making politics into something measurable,
they have steadily injected it with increasingly strong doses
of statistical methods and quantitative analysis. The holy
grail of this endeavor is to devise models that can predict
human political behavior and thereby convert politics into a
true science.
When politics becomes a science, practitioners will be able
to control what was previously uncontrollable. Nothing
need be left to chance.
Skilled professionals would call the shots, and run a
campaign (and a candidate) by precise formulas.
Polls and focus groups, census tract statistics and past
elections records will yield all the information needed to
formulate the exact plan of action needed to win an
election. Provided the money can be raised to implement
the plan, success is certifiable.
Forget about vision. Humbug on deep personal conviction.
Experience matters not a whit (see case study on Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger). When politics becomes a science,
you can take a warm body off the street, create a political
persona and produce a winning candidate.
If you're anything like me, and rebel against the increasing
technological control and manipulation of our lives, you will
find the notion repugnant that pseudo-scientists, armed
with signed integers and computer models, presume to
predict the choices you and I will make in the ballot box.
You will chafe, like I do, at high-priced campaign
consultants who remake a candidate into the image that
fits the computer model for a successful race.
Such efforts range from dressing a candidate in sweaters of
a certain color to "warm up" a naturally aloof demeanor, to
dictating a change in a candidate's position on issues to
come across more politically acceptable to a greater number
of voters.
Better to know the real person behind that expert-designed
façade during the campaign and not be in for an
unpleasant surprise after the candidate is elected.
Pundits, political writers and cartoonists mercilessly have
pounded on Dean for his Iowa post-caucus speech. Some
question whether he can recover from this supposed
mother of all gaffes. His own staff members even look on it
as a huge mistake.
Mine may be a lonely voice but I find it refreshing that
Dean cut loose and spoke his mind that night, much like
John McCain did four years ago. I appreciate that these
men show us what they're really made of. Whether either
would make a good president should have nothing to do
with something so thoroughly human as outbursts of
emotion and candor.
We ought to welcome more honesty and emotion in political
campaigns, not less. The candidates I fear, and will never
vote for, are the chameleons who always say what they
think I want to hear and whose exteriors are made of an
impenetrable veneer that will not show us what is inside.
Let's get off Howard Dean's back and praise him instead of
ridiculing him for showing us his real persona.
Let's welcome foibles, as well as strengths, back into
political campaigns.
Let's put the soul back into politics.
Chi-Dooh Li is a Seattle attorney. E- mail: cli@elmlaw.com |
