Is it the Party Elite and apparatchik that are the “life of the Party” or is it the actual candidates, their supporters, and the voters that are the most important?
I found this rather interesting from NHPR: New Players Shake Up The Campaign Ground Game In N.H. It goes into Big Data Democratization that is going on as a continuation of the Disruptive Technology that the Internet has become – no longer is data the monopoly domain of the two big Parties. Anyone that is clever, technically oriented, and attract like minded political folks can be their own folks. Decentralization, like a lot of other areas of our lives, has been making inroads into the political process. And down near the end is this (reformatted, emphasis mine):
…“These groups have an interest in New Hampshire because of our unique role in the presidential primary,” said Karen Hicks, a Democratic strategist who helped pioneer the modern-era of data-driven voter contact when she directed Howard Dean’s New Hampshire primary campaign in 2004. She says the outside groups can be most effective in motivating slices of the electorate that really matter in mid-term elections, and in crowded presidential primaries.
“Because if Americans for Prosperity or any of these other groups can help even at a marginal level being influential with three, four, five percent of the vote that makes a big difference when nobody’s walking out of here with more than 22 percent or something like that,” she said.
Years ago, my GraniteGrok co-founder said that there would come a time when the smaller outside-the-Parties groups would come to either hold the power, or be the bloc that would become a power broker. He was prescient – it only took 5 years after he said it that the effort of all of the small groups in the NH TEA Party Coalition swept the Republican Party into power (and then let them slide right out again as the Republicans decided that they didn’t need or want them). Now we are seeing the process again – outside entities replacing the Party’s efforts. Why?
The trend is being facilitated by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which opened the gates for unregulated donations to third-party groups – the Super PACs. At the same time, limits in direct contributions to the traditional parties remain in place. Americans for Prosperity’s Corey Lewandowski says his group, and environmentalist Tom Steyer’s for that matter, are gaining clout, and the traditional parties are losing it.
“What that does is it makes the parties less effective… And that’s a good thing.”
YES! OK, I’ll take the opportunity to micro-rant again: It IS A GOOD THING as long as the Repub elected officials keep advancing the, you know, Democrat agenda of Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion and taxes and silencing dissent. They have made us not to care. It HAS, however, made the emphasis on individual candidates even more important – and it completes the circle. Think about it:
Is it the Party Elite and apparatchik that are the “life of the Party” or is it the actual candidates, their supporters, and the voters that are the most important?
The post goes on:
Party operatives on both sides downplay the outside groups’ influence, and point to fizzled efforts in past presidential elections. And for now, at least, some of the most traditional party activities are going full.
Well, of COURSE! They said that back in 2010, too. And never forget to follow the money – there’s much money to be made in them thar hills of mailings, postings, and high brow “consulting”. Yet, the decentralization process will continue apace, pushing the process forward and flattening that pyramid to eliminate the middle guys.
