The Rise of Micro Parties
I read a Facebook post recently complaining of how they were tired of the same old (literally) names being trotted out on CNN and other media outlets. It got me thinking. Maybe the concept of a national party is dead, completely utterly, thankfully, dead. And we can see how dead parties are by looking at lack of engagement by activists. There is a jockeying of various micro interest groups, and political organizations as they attempt to the get the attention of the Big Two who frankly don’t care because listening to average people is not their purpose. It never was the purpose. The purpose of a national party is to sit and wait. Wait for the next presidential cycle to provide the candidate with the most money and the most clout the keys to castle for next 18 months.
We clearly saw this with the last sets of elections. Without exception the eventual nominees(or the first person with means to wrest control?) inherits a vast system of staff, technology, fundraisers, and media specialists to run their campaign and keep the juggernaut moving. The candidate rather than voicing a message spends the bulk of their time “reaching out” to people of influence “read money” to help spread the message.
As for you and I? Well the parties really don’t care about us. Our role is to watch TV and repeat the simplistic messages and get in line. Problem is voters don’t want to heard anymore. If the last election told the parties anything it was this. Voters want to be listened to and evenmore responded to at the local level just like how rich donors are. And as Clinton learned the hard way especially with minority voters that if you don’t excite the masses and don’t at least give lip service to their pain you will be going home after November.
Trump got this….biggly. Trump turned boing campaign events into well events again. He wasn’t doing anything new either. Caesar was smart enough to host games and literally bribe the masses to keep them happy. Early American campaigns were raucous events with music and speeches and food. But they were local. Trump got this. Instead of a traditional campaign waged by Clinton, Trump basically copied every rock band and went on tour with bands, and vendors. Clinton was fundraising. Trump was selling. Clinton was giving policy speeches. Trump was entertaining and following the Fox News model of infotainment. At some point you would have thought that the Clinton campaign staff would have looked around saw how boring the events were, and how small they were and copied him.
Now a traditional President would win, go to the White House and use the formula for success. You get early policy wins, you fundraise, after a month or so you get out and give a few policy speeches and prepare for first foreign foray. Trump realized one big thing. campaigns can win themselves when he actually decided to do what the voters wanted party be damned! Now we don’t know long term if this will work out. But what we do know based on the polling is that the base that brought him to the house is set on keeping him there. However, what is hurting him is what has hurt the GOP for years. He can’t get weekly wins on mainstreet and that is bad for business if your job is President of the United States. Say what you will about the New Deal, there was no doubt that every week in rural and urban America that something was being done that impacted them locally. There was no doubt the president and congress understood their pain and were quick to address the needs. It seems that success is bad because both parties have been running from this strategy since.
Which brings us to the solution. The thing that is hurting this country is the lack of any kind of unity. The country seems riven with many micro groups and parties seeking to have their issues heard. Sometimes a candidate can scrap them together. But for the most part they are ignored. That may be coming to an end. The parties being broken and frankly beyond repair requires for next election cycle a very very local organization. Micro parties know the turf, and know the issues and generally are a good representation of the little areas where they hold court. In lieu of running massive themes and bringing a large organization to bear it may be time for all candidates to embrace the micro party.
So what can micro parties do to hasten the change? Well one they can get organized like a normal party. If a group of farmers in Kannebec county for example were to get together, and run their own candidate under their label now it forces the parties to fight for their votes and frankly for their business as these micro organizations will need local help to organize THEIR local party. Imagine a major Democratic candidate being sponsored locally by the Kannebec Farmers Party! It gives local control and the candidate has to speak to very local issues and has to accountable to a very local party that may or may not be loyal the next go around.
Micro parties already happen anyhow whether acknowledged by the National Parties or not. Take the turnover from Blue to Red of the Rust Belt states. This group acted as a micro party by responding en masse to Trump around a specific platform. (The question was whether Trump actually espoused this platform or whether they put the platform on him hoping he would adopt it…..he hasn’t)Or the ever so obvious Tea Party that briefly controlled the GOP mantle prior to losing out to the Trump Party. (Can we just call this a party now? ) So if we already have micro parties why not just give in and make them official. And the best way to do this is to deregulate them and get out of their way. Maybe then we’ll finally see our national government rebuild itself to serve local needs as well as the needs of the wealthy.
