Jimmy Carter was on Larry King not long ago, getting a big, fat plug for his son, Jack. It seems that Jack Carter wants to be the U.S. senator from Nevada. He joined King and his father by telephone.
Jack has never held elective office – he’s in the investment business. And he arrived in Nevada only three years ago. But teamed up with a famous father who gets him serious airtime on national television, Jack Carter has become a leading Democratic contender for one of Nevada’s plum political jobs.
“Jack, we’ll be following the race closely,” King gushed. “Best of luck to you.”
Let’s cancel our subscriptions to Newsweek, The National Review and Congressional Quarterly: Roll them into People magazine. Celebrity – or what political operatives call “name recognition” – has taken over American politics. Movie stars, comics and sports heroes are joining politicians’ offspring in running for political office. People magazine does a fine job of covering them.
Lynn Swann, the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and TV sports analyst, is now running for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican. Humorist Al Franken seems poised to run for U.S. senator from Minnesota. And another wit, Kinky Friedman, is running as an independent for governor of Texas.
In New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean Jr., son of former Republican governor Thomas H. Kean, is running for the U.S. Senate. Half the people who might vote for the younger Kean probably wouldn’t know that he’s not his father. That’s probably the idea.
In our romantic, Capra-esque vision of American democracy, ordinary folk who have worked hard on school boards or other local government should have a good crack at higher political office. But who would try to get attention in a California gubernatorial race that may very well pit Warren Beatty, a former Hollywood hunk, against incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Hollywood hulk? California Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly say they, too, want to be their state’s governor. These Democrats are hardly unknowns. But before either can move into the governor’s mansion, he’d have to knock out the stars of both “Shampoo” and “Terminator 3.”
Where are the political journalists in all this? I speak of the pundits who like to quote the Founding Fathers on democracy, but then slobber at the prospect of some talk-show host running for high office. Or of Junior claiming Daddy’s seat in Congress. If they consulted their Thomas Paine, they would recall that elected office is not inherited in this country.
And it’s not just the children. Since 1923, 43 widows have taken a seat in Congress held by their late husbands. The most famous example has to be Mary Bono. She took over for Sonny Bono, who had himself parlayed his celebrity into political office.
And whatever one might think about Hillary and her likely candidacy for president, shouldn’t the Democrats – the party of the people – start looking at names other than Clinton, Kennedy and Cuomo? There’s something medieval about wanting to see the presidency alternate between the House of Bush and the House of Clinton.
What chance would Harry Truman have had against this kind of star power? Truman entered politics after working as a farmer and haberdasher. Before running for national office, he spent a decade in the trenches of Missouri politics, where, among other things, he amassed a fine record for building roads. Truman was tarred for his close ties to the Kansas City political machine run by Tom Pendergast. But he would have gotten nowhere without it.
Celebrities don’t need such help, and their records are unsullied by having participated in the give-and-take of real-world politics. The Hollywood heavyweights and relatives-of-the-famous come right off the shelves, glistening and ready to sell themselves as the name “you all know.”
Don’t expect the news media to show proper skepticism toward celebrity candidacies. Journalists also like getting close to the stars. That leaves the job of saving the democracy to the voters. It is a pale hope that they would give unglamorous contenders the same attention afforded people who appear in People. But our democracy would be better for it.
Froma Harrop can be reached at fharrop@projo.com.
