Elections 2012_Oct 02
· 4 min read
The 2012 Election in Historical Perspective
Confession of a Stanford Sloan Fellow Series EP16
The 2012 Election in Historical Perspective
Presentation by David Kennedy, moderated by Stanford Professor Rob Reich and Jim Steyer
- US' political system (electorate college) was designed (in 1780) to limit the power of US President, which explains why we often see US President's.
- US Constitution's invitation to conflicts: only Congress has the power to declare wars, but President is the commander-in-chief of the army.
- James Wilson, one of US' founding fathers, predicted the weak power of US President.
- Herbert Hoover (who gave his presidential acceptance speech in 1928 in Stanford) was a pioneering politician who used primary election ("beauty contest") as the vehicle to run for US President.
- The phrase "fireside chats" (via radio) came from FDR, who was a big fan of press conference and a master of media (I first heard about this term from Michael Arrington's panel discussions on TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 SF). FDR's fireside chats became a huge hit and set up a precedent for all future US Presidents on how to make direct contact with ordinary people.
- FDR's funeral lore: a man at FDR's funeral was asked if he knew FDR. He said: I don't know him, but he knows me.
- "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" . This famous quote from Ronald Reagan reminds me of another famous quote by the late lead singer of Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, "Drugs are not the problem; other stuff is the problem".
- David closed his presentation with the legendary quotation from one of the most influential Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine:
- "Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
- Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."
- Why was there never a third party in US politics?
- US' political system (winner takes all) makes it very difficult for any third party to amass enough support.
- A worker's party representing America's working class never managed to emerge in US (in other words, why no socialism in US), which was a mystery and significant failure of US political system.
- How about the tea party today?
- Not even sure what Tea Party is about
- Is Republican party running Romney or Romney is running Republican party?
- US Presidential candidate nowadays is almost an independent actor
- The newly adopted primary system in the 70s paved the way for party candidate to raise money largely on his own, thus breaking away from the influence/control of the party leaders
- JFK was a good case. He didn't have the full support from Democrat Party's leaders' support. So he used his successes in the primary elections to force the party leaders to accept his nomination.
- Do presidential debates have any effect to elections at all?
- Only three US presidential debates are thought to have real consequences
- Reagan vs Carter (the famous "government" remark)
- Nixon vs JFK (TV vs Radio)
- Bush Sr vs Clinton ("the watch" fiasco)
Trivia:
- Course instructor Jim Steyer was a student of David Kennedy, though Jim looked older than David.
- Last week when I heard about David Kennedy was coming to this session, I thought he might come from some Kennedy family lineage. He is not (guess there are many David Kennedys around), but he's apparently extremely famous (for writing US high school's history textbook) and a highly decorated intellectual giant.
- Rob asked the audience who are voters for the 2012 election. Almost everyone in the auditorium raised his/her hands except us. Well, it appeared that we were two of the few foreigners who are taking this very US-centric course.