One Party Country? Not Without A Fight!

I've just added Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten's One Party Country : The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century to my Amazon Wish List yet I have a preview via the LA Times for us all. Tom Hamburger, who covers national politics for the LA Times, and Petter Wallsten delivered an op-ed this past Sunday entitled "The GOP knows you don't like anchovies : Unpopular Republicans still own the art of politicking." that in part focused on the recent Special Election for the US House of Representatives District covering the San Diego area.

This was of course the seat held by Randy "Duke" Cunningham and is considered a solid GOP district. Worried about the Busby threat, which is telling I think, the Republican's "Voter Vault" database was rolled into action. By the way the database was largely developed in India! The GOP is outsourcing everything it seems. To hold this seat the GOP also ...

This is a good op-ed piece and makes me think the book might even be better. But this op-ed, even though little of the basics disclosed here is new news to me, both scares and frustrates me. The good news is that if folks begin to understand, if we can get them away from American Idol and thumping Bibles (and gays!) and sports and ..., the sophistication of the GOP political machine, then perhaps Lefty Progressives can begin to break through on quaint concepts like ideas and solutions and cooperation and ... I do however know that in the meantime the Democrats, and by that I mean real Democrats and not the centrist sell outs, have to fight back with every tool we've got. Our real advantage is authenticity and ideas/solutions yet some tech can't hurt to bolster our cause.

Here's a portion of the op-ed:

... The results in the 50th Congressional District did not merely illustrate the potential inadequacy of the Democratic strategy for the November elections; they foreshadowed a much bigger and more startling story line: That even in the face of Republican scandals, sour approval ratings, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and growing public rejection of President Bush's policies in Iraq, the Republican Party still holds the lead in the art and science of obtaining power — and keeping it.

The fact is that over two or three decades, the GOP has painstakingly built up a series of structural advantages that make the party increasingly difficult to beat. And in the last five years, it has strengthened its hold under President Bush and his political guru, Karl Rove.

Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to take power. And Republicans may well suffer some setbacks. But if the GOP retains control of Congress despite such a gloomy political climate — or even if it keeps control of just one chamber and narrowly loses the other — party leaders can rightfully argue that their long-term goal of constructing a lasting political majority remains viable.

The Republican fortress has many underpinnings, such as gerrymandered congressional districts that favor the GOP, an intellectual infrastructure that churns ideas through conservative think tanks and media, an ever-stronger political and policy-based alliance with corporate America, and the most sophisticated vote-tracking technology around.

Some of the GOP advantages are recent developments, such as the database called Voter Vault, which was used to precision in the San Diego County special election. The program allows ground-level party activists to track voters by personal hobbies, professional interests, geography — even by their favorite brands of toothpaste and soda and which gym they belong to.

Both parties can identify voters by precinct, address, party affiliation and, often, their views on hot-button issues. Democrats also use marketing data, but Voter Vault includes far more information culled from marketing sources — including retailers, magazine subscription services, even auto dealers — giving Republicans a high-tech edge in the kind of grass-roots politics that has long been the touchstone of Democratic activists.

As a result, Republicans have moved well ahead of Democrats nationally in their ability to find previously unaffiliated voters or even wavering Democrats and to target them with specially tailored messages. Voter Vault, although it is a closely guarded GOP trade secret, is nevertheless easily accessible to on-the-ground campaign workers and operatives should they need to mobilize votes in a hurry.

Other segments will get space as well, just in case you don't read the whole op-ed, as they need to be understood as well. Here are other portions of the piece:

... The new-and-improved GOP database helped Republicans begin to peel away select pieces of the old Democratic base, such as politically conservative and pro-Israel Jews, as well as socially conservative blacks, Latinos and blue-collar workers. In Cleveland, Republicans in 2004 compiled a list of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants who they knew backed Bush's stance against Islamic terrorism, then organized a rally entirely in Russian on the Sunday before the election. ...

... Bush and other Republicans have also sought support from highly influential African American pastors, who are gaining power in swaying votes. The courtship of the pastors has come in part through a special office in the White House devoted to funneling government money to church-based social service organizations — a program that has drawn enthusiastic support from black churches that have, in turn, provided GOP candidates entree into terrain long dominated by Democrats.

Although Bush's national performance among blacks did not increase by much between 2000 and 2004, there were significant increases in key areas. In Ohio, a 7-percentage-point rise among black voters for Bush created the cushion he needed to carry that pivotal state and secure reelection.

Perhaps more than any other administration, the White House of George W. Bush has mastered the art of mixing politics and policy and keeping track of how federal government decisions can affect even obscure local elections. Rove, with a broad portfolio and extraordinary influence, introduced a new political doctrine, effectively putting the federal bureaucracy and the bully pulpit of the White House in the service of GOP political ends.

All administrations are political, of course. But never before has the White House inserted electoral priorities into Cabinet agencies with such regularity and deliberation. Before the 2002 midterm elections, for instance, Rove or Mehlman visited with the managers of many federal agencies to share polling information and discuss how policy decisions might affect key races. ...

Other pieces of the plan preceded Bush and Rove. The legendary political genius Lee Atwater masterminded a long-term campaign to redraw congressional district lines, which has given Republicans a long-term edge in House elections that is difficult to reverse.

Some Democrats unwittingly lent a helping hand to this strategy. Incumbent Democratic members of Congress, along with African American and Latino politicians at the local level, put their party at risk by cooperating in the early 1990s with Republican efforts to redraw the boundaries of electoral districts across the country. Individual Democrats and black and Latino politicians benefited by winning elections, but the overall result was a stronger Republican grip on legislative seats at all levels. With Democratic voters packed into urban minority districts, adjacent suburban and exurban districts sent more white conservatives to Washington.

These changes, along with gerrymandering by both parties on the state level, were so pervasive that they left only about two dozen of the 435 seats in the House competitive in any typical election.

When I was teaching Civics this past year I was amazed at how little my kids understood about government yet I also felt at times that much of the stuff I was teaching them about the intentions of the Founding Fathers had long since passed into the dustbins of history. The House is supposed to be the closest to the people. Two year terms and hardly polite and deliberative, as is the Senate ... at least in theory, the House ought to be where the people's voice can best be heard. To have two dozen or so competitive seats is hardly the ideal is it? Gerrymandering has to be addressed yet neither party likely wants to give ground it seems.

The above is hardly Democracy yet I don't blame those using the information tools. Rather I blame the unsophisticated voters that will fall for this foolishness. Yet and still, it is not all the fault of the citizen that they've become so devoid of capacity to engage and think. Bread and games ("panem et cirsenses" in the Latin) to an extent is to blame yet the system is hardly serving the interests of the average American anymore. This is especially so when one considers Gerrymandering. I for one seldom if ever have a candidate that I can help settled here in one of the reddest of Red States. My Congressional District nearly sent a Democrat to DC a couple of cycles back, despite the national party giving him little if any help, yet it is rare that anyone, not just the candidates even though I have a bumper sticker, is even willing to claim they are a "Liberal". I think Governor Dean hopes to use a 50 state strategy now and it is about time. I hope Governor Dean also has a fifty data point strategy as well though for those tight races as the good guys need some wins now rather than later.

What's a Progressive to do? As always, seek the better. Reforms to the processes seem like a good start. Better education. Publicly funded campaigns? Better journalism. ... Peace ...or War!

UPDATE - 9:30ish in the AM - Push Campaigning: Datamart, the Voter Vault, and you by Jon Garfunkel on Civilities is worth a look as well. This is the best part: " ... the public debates lack content and the real election happens in the privacy of these mailings. The candidate knows everything about the voter, but the media and the public know nothing about what the candidate really believes. It is, in effect, a nearly perfect perversion of the political process." In the local Benefield-Dial race I got push polls and robo calls several times from Gerald "Dino" Dial via a phone number out of Braddock, Virginia. They didn't strike me as that sophisticated so perhaps Dino didn't have tons of data or the orgainization that the RNC has ... yet. If the Progressive States Network is correct, and I think they are, about the fallback position for the Big Mules being to govern the nation via the Statehouses then this might be a foretelling of state races to come I fear. Perversion indeed! Peace ... or War!