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Llewellyn King is the executive producer and anchor of “White House Chronicle” on PBS. Wrote this for InsideSources.com.
I am often asked why, in a country of so much talent and imagination, the US political class is so weak. Why are our politicians so uninspiring, not to mention ignorant and oafish?
The short answer is because political life is horrible, and potential candidates have to weigh the effect on their families plus the wear and tear of running, let alone winning.
I would say three barriers keep good people out of politics: money, the primary system, and media scrutiny.
If you have these in order, you must have access to huge funding to be a candidate. Mr. Smith, the character in the 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” was nominated. He did not have to submit his righteousness to the electoral process.
A candidate for Congress must secure substantial funding early on and be prepared to spend much of their career raising money, which often means bending your judgment to the will of donors. Yes, Mr. Smith, to some extent, the system is inherently corrupt.
I asked a prominent political consultant what he asks of a candidate before going to work for him or her. The first is money: do you have your own or can you raise it? Second are the skeletons in the closet: have you been arrested for indecent exposure or drunk driving offenses?
Finally, the consultant told me, he asks a candidate: What do you represent? Ultimately, the mechanisms of politics triumph over principles. A member of the House once told me that he spends much of his time meeting with donors and attending fundraisers. “You have to,” he said.
In the era of rooms full of smoke (there really was a lot of smoke), the party – the professionals – prevailed. In the primary system, the odds are with those who are extreme and appeal to the fringes of their party ideology. Party does not shape today’s candidates; form the party
Look at the Republicans, hardly recognizable from the party of old; the party that New England stalwarts kept under control. Or watch the Democrats struggle to avoid falling into the abyss of the far left. The Democrats were once controlled by labor, which gave the party an institutional center.
To begin with, the primary system favors grassroots democracy and the individual. In fact, it favors those with rich friends who will cough.
Finally, there is media scrutiny. If you want to run for office, you become a public game. Everything you have written or said can and will be dredged up.
Opposition investigators will interview old lovers; check what you wrote in the school yearbook; track your social media posts; and that unfortunate slip of the tongue in a local television interview years ago will be repeated on the afternoon news. You have a target on your back and it will be there every day you are in office.
Delving into every corner of life is a huge barrier that keeps a lot of talent out of politics. Anyone who has ever had a contested negotiation, a DUI arrest (not even a conviction), or a messy divorce is advised to give up on a political career, however talented and experienced Mr. Smith can contribute to the state or Congress.
Run for political office and risk your family, your privacy, and after you’ve been hanged, you might not even win.
These are some of the factors that could explain why Congress is so laughable and why such outrageous people are now in high office.
Having observed politics on three continents, I firmly believe that it needs strong institutions in the form of local political associations and party structure, and candidates should be judged on the body of their work, not on a slip or an indiscretion.
However, selecting candidates is always a tough call. If parties have too much control over the system, party pirates are favored and new and quality candidates are left out.
If the primaries continue as they have, the fringes win. Just look at Congress – a hodgepodge of craziness.
