Democracy
for Hire: A
History of American Political Consulting is a candid look
into the world of
consulting in political campaigns. Dennis W. Johnson’s work
details the rise of
political consultants, pollsters, and campaign operatives, and how
political
campaigns and politicians have been transformed because of their
impact. The
author provides tremendous insight into all of the facets of a
campaign that
many of us claim to hate: negative commercials, direct mail, and
campaign
calling. He also discusses how campaigns have utilized more and more of our
consumer data to
help craft advertising and approaches geared toward demographics,
neighborhoods,
and even preferred Pandora stations.
When I was through, I felt like I needed to take a shower simply from
learning more about the inside working of politics at a level
that will make
many stomachs turn and simply leave many others exasperated with
the political
process. However, politics in this country is big business; over
$6 billion
(with a B) was spent on the 2012 elections and a higher amount
is likely to
have been spent on this most recent election once all is said
and done. There are
third world and tropical countries with lower gross domestic products than our
electioneering
process. Johnson argues that business is continuing to boom for
campaigns and
politicians, fueled in large part by money pouring in from
mega-wealthy
interests that will wage issue-oriented campaigns or set up
organizations that
are for or against candidates.
After trying to wash
the stench of
political consultancy off, I looked for glimmers of reform and
hoped that Johnson
could come up with some salient suggestions on how to bring some
sanity to the
spending. The author advises caution and vigilance on our part to avoid
falling into the "faux news trap" (his words, as opposed to
the more viral “fake
news” term that’s trending now) and wishing we would see through the
noise to select
the best possible candidates. Those are good places to start, but
they won’t
change the reality that elections are becoming ever less
substantive and
ever more
divisive, and consultants are making a boatload in the process
through their
roles in shaping that reality.
MY RATING - 3
