March 14, 2012
The Ides of March: Politics in 2012--A Time for Cynicism? Optimism? The Ridiculous?
Ruth Mandel
Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University
The Ides of March: Politics in 2012--A Time for Cynicism? Optimism? The Ridiculous?
Ruth Mandel
Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University
Minutes of the 24th Meeting of the 70th Year
The meeting was called to order at 10:15 AM by President Bob Varrin. Don Edwards led the invocation. There were no visitors. Al Kaemmerlen read the minutes of the March 7 meeting which were written by Nick VanDyck. The attendance was 101.
Ruth Miller introduced the speaker, Ruth Mandel, whose presentation was titled “Politics in 2012 – A Time for Cynicism? Optimism? The Ridiculous?” Ruth Mandel is the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University where she is the Board of Governors Professor of Politics. She has written extensively about the roles of women in politics. In 1993, Mandel was appointed by President Clinton as co-chair of the Board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on which she served for 15 years. Her BA is from Brooklyn College followed by MA and PHD in English/American Literature from the University of Connecticut.
After acknowledging many friends and Rutgers colleagues in the audience, Ruth Mandel, in honor of the date, told us about the George Clooney movie “The Ides of March.” In this movie, an idealistic young member of Clooney’s presidential campaign learns the hard way that in politics, idealism is often sacrificed to pragmatism. As a reporter says, the candidate is a nice guy but sooner or later he will let you down. As predicted, the candidate does let down the idealistic staffer whose idealism is reduced to cynicism. The candidate is found guilty of a moral lapse often suffered by men, but not by women, yet. When there are enough women politicians, …….?
Ms Mandel is a self described optimist and assumes that most politicians are focused on doing the right thing. Success in working for the greater good for the largest number of people requires compromise. When your ideals as a voter are compromised, you tend to think your representative has caved. But compromise is not caving, it a necessary component of achieving progress. When Tea Party representatives in congress are ideologically consistent, eschewing any compromise, you have a situation in which Speaker Boehner loses control of his caucus.
In the current state of politics, there are reasons for deep dismay, or at least some cynicism. Six “triggers” that cause this cynicism are as follows:
First, because more and more women are getting involved and getting elected. As an example, she took her class on a field trip to Washington and there they met two women representatives from Alabama, one Republican, one Democrat, one white and one black. These two women, while differing on many issues, were respectful of each other, were friends and socialized with each other outside of politics. This is a good time for women in politics. They are standing together in opposition to some of the more extreme legislation affecting women’s health. And they are working together to get more women elected.
Second, because, the younger generation is much more active politically than it used to be, a good sign for the health of our democracy. The youth are becoming more engaged in the issues and taking a pragmatic approach to getting things done.
During the question and answer period, we learned that Mandel thinks it is unlikely that congress will repeal the Citizens United decision legislatively, that she favors televising congressional sessions in the interest of transparency and that prospects for a third party are not good, although she acknowledged that the Republican party is so fractured that it may split in two, thus forming three parties.
Respectfully submitted,
Anthony S. Glockler
Ruth Miller introduced the speaker, Ruth Mandel, whose presentation was titled “Politics in 2012 – A Time for Cynicism? Optimism? The Ridiculous?” Ruth Mandel is the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University where she is the Board of Governors Professor of Politics. She has written extensively about the roles of women in politics. In 1993, Mandel was appointed by President Clinton as co-chair of the Board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on which she served for 15 years. Her BA is from Brooklyn College followed by MA and PHD in English/American Literature from the University of Connecticut.
After acknowledging many friends and Rutgers colleagues in the audience, Ruth Mandel, in honor of the date, told us about the George Clooney movie “The Ides of March.” In this movie, an idealistic young member of Clooney’s presidential campaign learns the hard way that in politics, idealism is often sacrificed to pragmatism. As a reporter says, the candidate is a nice guy but sooner or later he will let you down. As predicted, the candidate does let down the idealistic staffer whose idealism is reduced to cynicism. The candidate is found guilty of a moral lapse often suffered by men, but not by women, yet. When there are enough women politicians, …….?
Ms Mandel is a self described optimist and assumes that most politicians are focused on doing the right thing. Success in working for the greater good for the largest number of people requires compromise. When your ideals as a voter are compromised, you tend to think your representative has caved. But compromise is not caving, it a necessary component of achieving progress. When Tea Party representatives in congress are ideologically consistent, eschewing any compromise, you have a situation in which Speaker Boehner loses control of his caucus.
In the current state of politics, there are reasons for deep dismay, or at least some cynicism. Six “triggers” that cause this cynicism are as follows:
- Money – The Citizens United decision and its consequences have yielded non-profits and SuperPacs which together have given money an excessive influence on campaigns. The non-profits are limited to addressing issues, not campaigns or candidates directly. The SuperPacs may get involved in politics directly but may not have a direct connection to any particular campaign. The very large amounts of money, the secrecy surrounding the donors and the grey area between election law and tax law has made us cynical about the corrupting effects of money in politics.
- The Republican Nominating campaigns - Twenty debates were held with candidates espousing extreme positions to loud applause. Candidates have been the leader du jour without a comprehensive platform nor the stature and experience to move into the oval office. Voters can’t believe what they see.
- Congress – Congress’ approval ratings are down to the single digits. Speaker Boehner has said that there a lot of very smart people in Congress and also some of the dumbest. As has been noted, he has lost control of his caucus thus making it very difficult to pass any legislation.
- Voters don’t understand the issues – Health care reform has been an important topic and desire of voters for many years. Today, most voters do not understand the health care bill but oppose it anyway. Another example is voters insisting that the government keep their hands off of the voter’s Social Security and Medicare. Polls indicate that voters want “change” but they have no idea of what changes they want or what changes a particular candidate will deliver.
- The absence of civility and public displays of anger – We see ugly campaign advertisements with personal attacks on opponents. Increasing threats have required increased security precautions. Talk radio e.g., Rush Limbaugh, has fanned the flames with incendiary commentary.
- Regression to ideological extremes – This trend has been going on for some time but is now pervasive. A consequence of this regression is a focus on relatively trivial issues of interest to the extremes while important issues remain unaddressed, e.g., the economy, two wars, climate change, etc.. Many of the trivial issues have direct effect on women, specifically women’s health, e.g., abortion, banning funding for birth control, etc. Some women legislators have introduced bills that affect men’s health, e.g., banning funding for Viagra, or banning insurance coverage of vasectomies.
First, because more and more women are getting involved and getting elected. As an example, she took her class on a field trip to Washington and there they met two women representatives from Alabama, one Republican, one Democrat, one white and one black. These two women, while differing on many issues, were respectful of each other, were friends and socialized with each other outside of politics. This is a good time for women in politics. They are standing together in opposition to some of the more extreme legislation affecting women’s health. And they are working together to get more women elected.
Second, because, the younger generation is much more active politically than it used to be, a good sign for the health of our democracy. The youth are becoming more engaged in the issues and taking a pragmatic approach to getting things done.
During the question and answer period, we learned that Mandel thinks it is unlikely that congress will repeal the Citizens United decision legislatively, that she favors televising congressional sessions in the interest of transparency and that prospects for a third party are not good, although she acknowledged that the Republican party is so fractured that it may split in two, thus forming three parties.
Respectfully submitted,
Anthony S. Glockler