In the early 1990s, I served as the upstate coordinator for the South Carolina’s Clinton and Gore campaign. Sounds like an important position until you realize that in reality it meant that I coordinated the activities of the 40 or so Democrats living and voting in upstate South Carolina at the time. We knew Clinton wouldn’t win South Carolina, but that didn’t matter. We were excited by his potential and we wanted to do something. Although there weren’t many of us, we did enjoy creating a ruckus. We attended whistle-stop speech by then President Bush and held up Clinton and Gore signs. This silent and respectful protest garnered the attention of the media, which pissed off a number of the seriously hard-core Republicans standing near us including an eight year-old girl who jabbed me with the tip of an American flag throughout the President’s appearance. Her parents thought this was hilarious and egged her on. After the rally, we were escorted to our cars by a couple of state troopers who told us that while they respected our rights, “we were stupid” for exercising them.
During this campaign, I learned a lot about state politics. And out of the corner of my eye, I began watching another political newcomer, Lindsey Graham. Graham’s political rising was nothing short of meteoric. He came literally out of nowhere to run for a South Carolina House seat, which he won. He ran a really effective campaign and although he seemed to have a lot of strikes against him – he wasn’t married, stories about him living with his mother circulated around South Carolina even though his mother had died years earlier, there rumors that he was gay, and he was a fairly moderate Republican, at a time when Republicans were increasingly leaning away from moderation – he won his seat.
When he mounted his campaign for national office, I warned South Carolina party officials that Graham was dangerous. I encouraged them to take him seriously and to see that he could be a real threat if he made it to Washington. During the Clinton/Gore campaign, I made a few contacts in the DNC and I sounded the same warnings hoping someone would listen. Without any support from the DNC or the South Carolina Democratic party, Graham easily won a seat in the House of Representative and well you know the rest of the story.
So what does this have to do with Wisconsin politics? A few days ago, I read a diary by PvtJarHead called Who Can Stop Paul Ryan? Rob Zerban! With only 11 comments, the diary was fairly overlooked. But, the message of the diary, which may seem like a story that only people in Wisconsin should pay attention to, goes far beyond Wisconsin. Paul Ryan and his plan impacts all of us. Paul Ryan, a once wonky, not very likeable, Wisconsin Republican easily won office in Wisconsin, because the Democrats there, like the Democrats in South Carolina twenty-five years ago, were complacent in 2010.
What PvtJarHead points out and what we all need to clearly understand is that every election has consequences. By not supporting Zerban and accepting the Ryan election as a fait accompi in 2010, the Democratic party aided the Paul Ryan budget. And, if we assume in 2011 and 2012 that politics are local and we ignore the pleas of PvtJarHead, we all encourage Ryan’s actions.
Before Karl Rove, before the Koch brothers, before the Tea Party, and before the protests in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan the old adage “politics are local” might have been true.
What Wisconsin has taught us is that we are all responsible for each other. We have to be aware of what is going on in politics across the country. And diaries like those of PvtJarHead make it possible.
Even though I live in Arizona, I have given to the recall efforts in Wisconsin. I will support Democratic candidates in Wisconsin. Because not doing so, means that the Lindsey Grahams and Paul Ryans continue to win.