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Passing The Political Party Torch
Conventions Mark Transitions Not Seen For Nearly Two Decades
The real story in Denver is the remaking of the Democratic Party -- to be followed next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul by the remaking of the Republican Party. The battle between the Clintons and the Bushes has defined American politics since 1992. And it's coming to an end.
The Democratic Party has been the Clinton party for 16 years. Now it's turning into the Obama party. The process started just after Barack Obama claimed the nomination. He moved major party operations from Washington to Chicago, where his campaign is headquartered. He ordered the party to stop accepting contributions from groups that lobby the federal government.
In this country, political parties are diverse coalitions united by one thing: the desire to get the party's candidates elected. Coalitions are held together by calculation and strategy. The Clintons were extremely good at calculation and strategy. Remember "triangulation"? And they were winners -- until this year. This year, Hillary Rodham Clinton was defeated by something the Clintons didn't see coming: a political movement.
This year’s Democratic convention marks the ascendancy of the Obama movement.
A movement is held together by more than calculation and strategy. It is held together by belief and belonging. People support a campaign; people belong to a movement. Movements can be difficult to elect because they alienate "nonbelievers" who don't feel they belong.
What are the telltale signs of a political movement? The ability to attract new voters, the ability to raise large amounts of money in small contributions from passionate supporters, and a commitment to reinventing politics.
The last time we saw a political movement was 1980, when Ronald Reagan ran for president. Turnout went up. Contributions came pouring in from small donors. And for conservatives, 1980 was year one, the time when, after decades of struggle, the conservative movement took over the Republican Party.
This year's Democratic convention marks the ascendancy of the Obama movement. The Clinton dynasty is being forced to cede power to it in a transition facilitated by the Kennedy dynasty. Being endorsed by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy back in January was a crucial breakthrough for Obama.
In 1992, Bill Clinton assumed the Kennedy mantle by showing photographs of himself as a young man shaking hands with President Kennedy. Now the mantle has been bestowed on Obama. "This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans," Sen. Kennedy told the gathering on Monday night.
If the Democratic convention marks the end of the Clinton era, next week's Republican convention will mark the end of the Bush era. But instead of a movement coming to power, the Republican convention will see a movement conceding power. In 2000, the conservative movement nominated George W. Bush and rejected John McCain. Now the McCain campaign wants to remake the GOP, turning a Bush party into a McCain party. That means limiting the influence of movement conservatives who have controlled the party for nearly 30 years.
One telling sign: The McCain campaign is having trouble raising money from small contributors. But the Republican Party regularly outraises the Democratic Party, mostly in small contributions. The GOP is identified with the conservative movement; the McCain campaign is not.
McCain wants the Republican Party to be a party of reform, not just conservatism -- that way he can look like a candidate of change instead of someone running for George W. Bush's third term. That's a calculation and a strategy. It's also a challenge to conservatives.
Conservative activists are determined to write a Republican platform that limits McCain's influence -- that is, one with no federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, no attack on global warming, no campaign finance reform, and no comprehensive immigration reform.
McCain will try to remake the Republican Party in his image. But conservatives are likely to resist. That will provide much of the drama --and the news -- at the Republican convention in the Twin Cities.
