Ex-Politico boss: Save “Normal America” from “Establishment America” with coastal elites.https://t.co/VvQMtKWFbI pic.twitter.com/ywrHYDTQrv
— Benjamin Freed (@brfreed) April 26, 2016
Jim VandeHei, co-founder & former CEO of Politico, is very disappointed by the current Presidential choices on offer. And rather than use his own outlet, he turned to the (very sympathetic) Wall Street Journal to publish a sterling exemplar of why modern American “centrism” always seems to reduce to white men of means having a temper tantrum about no longer getting first place at the head of the table by right. Try Googling the title for a whole range of reactions to “Bring on A Third Party Candidate”:
I have spent the past two decades in the Washington, D.C., bubble—the heart of Establishment America—covering politics and building a company, Politico, focused solely on politics. But I’ve also spent a lot of time in my hometown of Oshkosh, Wis., and my adopted hometown of Lincoln, Maine, two blue-collar towns in the heart of Normal America.
Here are my two big takeaways: Normal America is right that Establishment America has grown fat, lazy, conventional and deserving of radical disruption. And the best, perhaps only way to disrupt the establishment is by stealing a lot of Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’s tricks and electing a third-party candidate.
Mr. Trump’s vulgar approach to politics is a terrific middle finger to the establishment but a terrible political and governing paradigm. Same goes for Sanders-style socialism. But if someone turned the critique, passion and disdain shared by the two movements into a new one, they could change the system in meaningful ways. Only an outside force can knock Washington out of its governing rut—and the presidency is the only place with the power to do it…
The candidate has to come from outside the political system. Voters are beaten down or bubbling with anger. They watched as the two parties chose selfish spats and rarely dared to do the right thing, or hard things or often anything. Mr. Trump has shown they want a true outsider, even a deeply flawed one. The way to win is to rail against Big—Big Business, Big Media, Big Government, Big Establishment…
…[F]orce the wealthy to forfeit their entitlement benefits. And everyone loves socking it to Congress. Mandate that lawmakers go home after serving instead of profiting off their service. Also force them to get outside of the D.C. bubble by holding months-long sessions in different sections of Normal America.
The ideal candidate would write a very specific agenda in normal, conversational language, not whatever nonsensical language today’s political class was taught to speak. He or she would engage voters daily on social media, with fun and flare. (Think Trump with impulse control and better spelling.) The candidate would inundate voters with transparency and specificity, even when it hurts. And exploit cable TV’s addiction to whatever is hot and new. Mr. Trump has shown how technology has made money less important in modern politics.
Exploit the fear factor. The candidate should be from the military or immediately announce someone with modern-warfare expertise or experience as running mate. People are scared. Terrorism is today’s World War and Americans want a theory for dealing with it. President Obama has established an intriguing precedent of using drone technology and intelligence to assassinate terrorists before they strike. A third-party candidate could build on death-by-drones by outlining the type of modern weapons, troops and war powers needed to keep America safe. And make plain when he or she will use said power. Do it with very muscular language—there is no market for nuance in the terror debate…
I will even throw out a possible name for the movement: The Innovation Party. Who is against innovation, especially when winning campaigns are almost always about the future?…
He wants a brave man, he wants a cave man… He wants a strong man on a white horse. Or a white man who’s a horse’s arse. As long as it’s not some “Establishment” fella who’ll go all flaccid when it comes to gutting Social Security and bombing filthy foreigners. Someone like Donald Trump (rich old white guy) or Bernie Sanders (shouty old white guy), but more… polished.
Being as this is a Politico founder, it’s quite possible he honestly doesn’t intend to dismiss the majority of Americans/American voters as mere lazy puppets of the “Establishment”. He just wants a more entertaining horse race, for the clicks! But when you start talking about hard choices and disenfranchising normal Americans, you’re gonna end up sounding a lot like, well…
Pop DC: 700k
Pop Lincoln, Maine: 5k.
But apparently that's "Normal America." https://t.co/q01rSY5SBL pic.twitter.com/KumX5k35lm
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) April 26, 2016
@joeciarallo @fmanjoo He's wrong anyway. pic.twitter.com/IdTMoEVyDx
— Reed Miller (@ClinicaReed) April 26, 2016
Marc Andreessen as Secretary of Innovation and Elizabeth Holmes as Surgeon-General in my dream Cabinet of Disrupters https://t.co/EOsC5nfvtU
— Carl Diggler (@carl_diggler) April 26, 2016
Luthe
Fuck the “disruptors.” As far as I can tell, all their “disruptions” do are make things better for the upper-class and suckier for the rest.
Also, I don’t want a candidate for “Normal America.” Half of America is dumber than average. I want a candidate who is smart.
piratedan
aren’t these guys are the same ones who thought Evan Byah was a good idea? I’m sure that they have Jim Webb on speed dial.
When these miserable fucks actually start to give a fuck about policy and clearly stating what a policy position is so that Mr. and Mrs Dancing with the Stars can understand it, it would be a grand beginning instead of treating our politics like a fucking episode of Survivor where they vicariously root for the evil fucker because chances are, it won’t really matter to them inside their gilded bubble, so they can just enjoy the drama, as if real lives don’t actually matter.
Son of a bitch VandeHei needs to work at a customer support job for a couple of years to appreciate what dealing with real people with real problems is like. Or maybe go into waste management, but actually deal with shit and do something about it.
Candyass fuck.
JGabriel
Jim VandeHei:
In other words, Normal America, or at least VandeHei’s version of it, is shocked – after years of voting for a guy they wanna have a beer with – that Establishment America is just like them.
I mean, I’m sensing an awful lot of projection here.
agorabum
Christ, what an asshole. His solution to the problems of America are “term limits.” As if what the world cries out for is less expertise – and nothing else.
dollared
VandeHei is a perfect demonstration of the Village idiocy. Remember – he’s a multimillionaire based on the idea that he knows more about politics than most people?
RM
Ugh. I’m embarrassed to share a home town with this clown.
NotMax
White Horse Prophecy.
It’s not just for Mormons anymore.
Cat48
Zuckerburg is only 31, but gets a waiver bc he is rich & white?! Vandehei is being fired or leaving to start “a new exciting business.” He & Mike Allen leave after the election.
NotMax
No voting without proof of recent eating at an Applebee’s salad bar.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Villago Delenda Est
VandeHei would be one of the first of the Villagers to take a tumbrel ride. Very few would precede him. If that motherfucker Broder were still living, he’d be one of them.
JGabriel
Jim VandeHei:
Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a goddamned pogo stick.
I’m sure the Scandinavian governments of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, along with the Netherlands, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, and sundry other governments throughout the world will be rather surprised to learn that their Social Democracies are “a terrible political and governing paradigm.”
Could someone please wire VandeHei’s brain to a nuclear generator and throw the switch – I don’t think it would be possible to shock some sense into his head with any voltage less than a full power station. Although, honestly, that’s the worst case scenario in the wiring VandeHei to a nuclear reactor paradigm. If we’re really lucky, it’ll just fry his brain to coffin-worthy crisp.
JGabriel
Jim VandeHei:
No, VandeHei, Trump has shown that the plurality of the Republican base wants a narcissistic bullying racist, just like them – but richer – to run the country. All it shows is that they want more of the same: fat, lazy, conventional and deserving of radical disruption.
Elizabelle
Win the morning!
VandeHei, VandeHo
His prime audience is Morning Joe.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: You channeling Rev Al* this morning? You’re right this will be front and center on Morning Joe in a hour.
*SNL did a routine with the actor playing Rev. Al mangling VandeHei’s name in various different ways.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Oshkosh, Wis.
90.5% White
3.1% Black
2.7% Hispanic
Lincoln, Maine
98.35% White
0.10% Black
0.36% Hispanic
Yup, what the political press considers “normal” america. (broder would be so proud)
Actual America
63.7% White
12.2% Black
16.3% Hispanic
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Good morning.
Had no idea. Have watched no TV since the sad news of Prince’s untimely demise last week. (Actually would have liked to have seen SNL this week.)
Clip, please, if you can find one.
Elizabelle
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Good catch.
Also, Ten Minutes from Normal.
Anyone remember that one?
BillinGlendaleCA
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Actual America
There ya go skewing the numbers by adding in the coasts, Jim VandeHeiDeeHiDeeHoo was talking about Real America.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: At your service Rev. Al.
BTW: The real Rev. thought it was really funny.
Central Planning
No, they couldn’t. One of those movements is based on hatred. While passion could start a movement, hatred, “critique”, and disdain are not going to be able to sustain it. Hate is exhausting.
@Luthe:
<math pedant>I suspect it’s more than that. Half are dumber than the median. </math pedant>
BillinGlendaleCA
@Central Planning:
You left out Bat Shit Crazy.
Central Planning
@BillinGlendaleCA: Crap. Too late to go back and edit it.
Tokyokie
Gesù Cristo su una bicicletta, my interpretation of his dimwitted prose is that he wants somebody from outside the two-party system to become president in order to maintain a status quo in which schmucks like himself thrive. I mean, how many folks are sufficiently privileged to live in D.C. and claim some hamlet near Canada where they have a vacation cabin as a second hometown? And the only policy about which he can go into detail is killing more brown people. He needs to spend a few years working 12-hour shifts getting patients on and off bedpans at Walter Reed and living on what he makes working there, then let’s see if he remains blessed with such “insight.” (But then, that sort of job isn’t performed by privileged white men, especially not by those so deeply ensconced in such privilege that they cannot see beyond it.)
amk
@Tokyokie:
This. Outside the bw, the ratfuckers of his ilk can’t get a honest job.
Chris
@JGabriel:
Seriously. What the hell is it with Official Washington that every last person in it thinks everyone else like them is a big poopyhead, but they’re the one special snowflake with a direct line to the Voice Of The People? I get why politicians do it – they’re trying to get elected. What’s people like this’ excuse? All of them come off like that awkward insecure kid in middle school trying to win the Kool Kidz’ approval by dissing all the other nerds and geeks.
Also a tip: if you’re trying to be in touch with “normal people,” your first step is to realize that 90% of the people in your city are those normal people you fetishize – people who are just trying to pay the bills, raise a family, and other cliches, and couldn’t care less what the high and mighty of this city think. Just like the average New Yorker doesn’t work for or really care about Wall Street, and the average Bostonian doesn’t go to Hahhvahd. Ever think of wandering the streets of your own city and discovering what these normal people look like? No, of course not. That would mean mingling with the commoners, and despite your claims to be better than everyone else in the Village, you don’t do that either.
Elmo
@Chris: Don’t be ridiculous. He lives in DC. There aren’t any “normal people” there – most of the population is black and the rest work for the Government!
(Do I need to add the /s?)
MomSense
I’m tempted to drive over to Lincoln and give him a piece of my mind but it’s a really long drive on shitty, back country roads because we don’t need no stinkin pavement or modern highways in real America.
Aimai
@Elizabelle: thanks??????for reminding me. Someone should have a dead politicians remainder blog where they conserve these things to remind us all of the horror.
cminus
This sentiment is not wholly wrong, as evinced by the fact the Wall Street Journal is publishing things by Jim VandeHei, the poster boy for fat, lazy, and conventional Establishment America.
Elizabelle
@Aimai: isn’t it lovely to have not thought of Karen Hughes for months or years? Bonus: Scalia is still dead, too.
Michael Bersin
@MomSense:
Not a problem for the 0.1%, it keeps the great unwashed away and the access for multiple vacation home owners isn’t an issue as long as the landscape staff keeps the helipad clear of leaves…
PPCLI
He or she would engage voters daily on social media, with fun and flare. (Think Trump with impulse control and better spelling.)
Advice to Mr. VandeHei: Purported professional writer-type-guys who want to mock someone’s spelling should try not to commit a howler in the previous sentence.
flare fler/ noun 1. a sudden brief burst of bright flame or light. “the flare of the match lit up his face” synonyms: blaze, flash, dazzle, burst, flicker “the flare of the match” 2. a gradual widening, especially of a skirt or pants. “as you knit, add a flare or curve a hem”
flair fler/ noun 1. a special or instinctive aptitude or ability for doing something well.
“she had a flair for languages” synonyms: aptitude, talent, gift, instinct, (natural) ability, facility, skill, bent, feel, knack “a flair for publicity” 2. stylishness and originality. “she dressed with flair” synonyms: style, stylishness, panache, dash, elan, poise, elegance; More
Chris
@Elmo:
I recline corrected.
Barbara
Where in his screed did he propose anything that would actually help people in Lincoln, Maine or Oshkosh, Wisconsin? Rather, he just gave us more calculated proposals for hurting other people — whether domestic or foreign. The glee he feels when he considers taking people out with drones comes through loud and clear. Fucking sociopath. Yesterday my brother called a clinic and told them he didn’t want to live anymore. His own physical and mental health problems have combined with the malaise of the rust belt to make things seem unbearable for him, and for the life of me, I don’t see how anything Mr. Politico wrote would make his life better. I don’t think words have been invented to express how much I hate people like Vander Hei.
rikyrah
@piratedan:
Tell me how you really feel..LOL
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Here is one SNL Clip
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Here is another clip
Edmunddantes
@MomSense: there are paved roads to Lincoln.
I grew up there. What Lincoln needs more than anything right now is an answer to the mill permanently closing down and the rural drug problem. Nothing this guy is peddling will help them in the least.
SiubhanDuinne
@Barbara:
Good thoughts to your brother. I hope he’s able to get the support he needs.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Thank you! Will check them out.
Just had a scare with the lil vintage MacBook — grey screen! — but Apple support via phone got me up and running again. (Powered computer off; let it sit maybe 3 minutes, then turned it on again while holding the apple key and R with left hand and apple key and P with right. Hello MacBook. Whew.)
Stella
What’s VandeHei talking about? I grew up outside of DC and a bunch of congressmen lived in our neighborhood, flying “home” when Congress was not in session. Nowdays they don’t live there because they all bail out of Washington on Thursday night, fly home to “normal America”, and do fundraisers and “townhalls” in their districts. They’ve been spending half the week in “real America” since Newt Gingrich was the speaker — at least if they want to be reelected. How has that worked out?
Instead of promoting celebrities for President and talking up the swinging new ideas of Newt Gingrich, VandeHei needs to think about how to free Congress from incessant money raising.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you. I wish I could be more optimistic.
Lawrence
That map can’t be right. The shaded pip in New Mexico is part of the Albuquerque metro area, population 904K in 2014. Population in Maricopa county AZ is over 3 million in 2014, and it’s not shaded.
John M. Burt
Sounds like a platform that could win Big…. o_O
Elizabelle
@Stella: Well said.
Another of Saint Reagan’s legacies: speaking out against public financing of elections.
Because the congresscritters are allegedly public “servants.” Although they pretty much serve their financing sources. And chase them incessantly.
redshirt
Maine can’t win lately. Sure hope LePage chimes in on this serious issue.
The Lodger
If Mark or Sheryl don’t want to play, why not go all in with Whoopi Goldberg ? Dan Fogelberg/Tim Weisberg? Dr. Zoidberg?
MCA1
What a bunch of Grade A horseshit. Every time I read something like this I think it even more remarkable that Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann saw the light. Because they appear to literally be the only pundits in America who haven’t been completely sucked into the Both Sides vortex.
There is no logical connection between spending time in what you think is the “Normal America” and coming to the conclusion that “the best, perhaps only way to disrupt the establishment is by stealing a lot of Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’s tricks and electing a third-party candidate.” How does spending time in real ‘Murica with real ‘Muricans lead to a conclusion on electoral strategy?
And this: “The ideal candidate…would engage voters…on social media…inundate voters with transparency and specificity, even when it hurts.” sounds a whole helluva lot like OUR CURRENT F’ING PRESIDENT, who has been crucified for 8 years for the lack of sugarcoating you claim you so desire, you nitwit.
RM
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Dang, I think that’s marginally less white than it was when I lived there. (I got the fuck out eleven years ago, like most people I went to school with tried to.)
Technocrat
He can’t even do populist without sounding Randian.