February 15, 2006
Our Celebrity Candidates
By Froma
Harrop
Jimmy Carter was
on Larry King not long ago, getting a big, fat plug for his son,
Jack. It seems that Jack Carter wants to be the U.S. senator from
Nevada. He joined King and his father by telephone.
Jack has never held
elective office -- he's in the investment business. And he arrived
in Nevada only three years ago. But teamed up with a famous father
who gets him serious airtime on national television, Jack Carter
has become a leading Democratic contender for one of Nevada's
plum political jobs.
"Jack, we'll
be following the race closely," King gushed. "Best of
luck to you."
Let's cancel
our subscriptions to Newsweek, The National Review
and Congressional Quarterly: Roll them into People
magazine. Celebrity -- or what political operatives call "name
recognition" -- has taken over American politics. Movie stars,
comics and sports heroes are joining politicians' offspring in
running for political office. People magazine does a
fine job of covering them.
Lynn Swann, the legendary
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and TV sports analyst, is now running
for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican. Humorist Al Franken
seems poised to run for U.S. senator from Minnesota. And another
wit, Kinky Friedman, is running as an independent for governor
of Texas.
In New Jersey, Thomas
H. Kean Jr., son of former Republican governor Thomas H. Kean,
is running for the U.S. Senate. Half the people who might vote
for the younger Kean probably wouldn't know that he's not his
father. That's probably the idea.
In our romantic,
Capra-esque vision of American democracy, ordinary folk who have
worked hard on school boards or other local government should
have a good crack at higher political office. But who would try
to get attention in a California gubernatorial race that may very
well pit Warren Beatty, a former Hollywood hunk, against incumbent
Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Hollywood hulk?
California Treasurer
Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly say they, too, want
to be their state's governor. These Democrats are hardly unknowns.
But before either can move into the governor's mansion, he'd have
to knock out the stars of both "Shampoo" and "Terminator
3."
Where are the political
journalists in all this? I speak of the pundits who like to quote
the Founding Fathers on democracy, but then slobber at the prospect
of some talk-show host running for high office. Or of Junior claiming
Daddy's seat in Congress. If they consulted their Thomas Paine,
they would recall that elected office is not inherited in this
country.
And it's not just
the children. Since 1923, 43 widows have taken a seat in Congress
held by their late husbands. The most famous example has to be
Mary Bono. She took over for Sonny Bono, who had himself parlayed
his celebrity into political office.
And whatever one
might think about Hillary and her likely candidacy for president,
shouldn't the Democrats -- the party of the people -- start looking
at names other than Clinton, Kennedy and Cuomo? There's something
medieval about wanting to see the presidency alternate between
the House of Bush and the House of Clinton.
What chance would
Harry Truman have had against this kind of star power? Truman
entered politics after working as a farmer and haberdasher. Before
running for national office, he spent a decade in the trenches
of Missouri politics, where, among other things, he amassed a
fine record for building roads.
Truman was tarred
for his close ties to the Kansas City political machine run by
Tom Pendergast. But he would have gotten nowhere without it. Celebrities
don't need such help, and their records are unsullied by having
participated in the give-and-take of real-world politics. The
Hollywood heavyweights and relatives-of-the-famous come right
off the shelves, glistening and ready to sell themselves as the
name "you all know."
Don't expect
the news media to show proper skepticism toward celebrity candidacies.
Journalists also like getting close to the stars. That leaves
the job of saving the democracy to the voters. It is a pale hope
that they would give unglamorous contenders the same attention
afforded people who appear in People. But our democracy
would be better for it.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
