"Any American can become President" reinforces the "national delusion...popular democracy exists"

[marmar]

from Democracy Now!:



Rick MacArthur: “You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America”
As the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, we speak to Harper’s publisher Rick MacArthur on his new book You Can’t Be President. MacArthur says that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the “destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America.” To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists.

Guest:

John "Rick" MacArthur, Publisher and president of Harper’s magazine. He is an award-winning journalist and author of The Selling of Free Trade: NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy and Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. His latest book is out next month. It’s called You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America.

AMY GOODMAN: As we talk about the elections and continue to break with convention, we now turn to a question at the core of the American political process: Just who can become president of this country, and just how deep is the American love for a democracy?

Most of us have been brought up on the idea any deserving US citizen can technically reach the White House one day. We have also been reared on the belief that Americans are duty-bound to maintaining the democratic values of our country.

But award-winning journalist, author, publisher and president of Harper’s magazine, John MacArthur, begs to differ. His latest book, which comes out next month, is called You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. MacArthur says the popular notion any American can become president only reinforces the “destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America.” To assume that, he says, is equal to believing Santa Claus exists.

John MacArthur, who is called actually “Rick” MacArthur, joins us now from our firehouse studio in New York. This is his first interview about his forthcoming book, You Can’t Be President.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Rick MacArthur. Why don’t you start off by explaining, why can’t anyone in this country who’s an American citizen be president?

We seem to be having a microphone problem. Again, we’re going to be going to Rick MacArthur. His book is You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America.

And, by the way, Democracy Now! is expanding its coverage to two hours for this two weeks, this week in Denver and next week in St. Paul. If your station is not broadcasting the full two hours, you can go to our website at democracynow.org. There, you will see the video, you can listen to the audio, and the full transcripts will be available for both hours. In fact, we are looking for transcribers helping us with this mammoth project, and you can just email us at [e-mail] if you’re interested.

But we’re going to turn right now back to Rick MacArthur with the central question: why can’t anyone become president in the United States, Rick MacArthur?

RICK MacARTHUR: Well, one reason you can’t be president is because not everyone could get slated by the Cook County Democratic machine the way Barack Obama was on several occasions when he was an Illinois politician. One of the paradoxes about Barack Obama and the notion that he represents the American ideal that anyone can become president is that he is sponsored by the political organization that epitomizes one-party rule in this country, the Cook County Democratic machine run by Richard Daley, which previously was run by his father. I mean, this is a dynasty, a political dynasty of fifty years, sixty years standing, that doesn’t allow people to run just because they feel like it or because they think they have a bright, fresh new idea. So the idea that Barack Obama represents this ideal or epitomizes this ideal is preposterous.

I am more interested now than ever in party politics and the barriers that the Democratic Party and Republican Party put up to prevent independence, prevent insurgents, prevent people with differing points of view from entering the political process. So, putting aside all the obvious problems in the electoral system—money, the fact that you can’t run without $300 million in the case of Obama, maybe $10, $15, $20 million if you want to run for the Senate in South Dakota; the electoral college system, the fact we don’t have direct popular vote for president—people have to look at the origins of most of these candidates. So when we talk about Barack Obama, we have to talk about his political origins in Illinois, and they are very interesting.

One of the chapters that I am proudest of in my book is the one about the big box minimum wage fight in Chicago. When the argument began about whether to let Wal-Mart come into Chicago, Mayor Daley wanted very badly to let Wal-Mart come in. Some aldermen in Chicago didn’t want Wal-Mart to come in, and there was a tremendous fight. Finally, they decided to allow one Wal-Mart into the black ghetto on the west side of Chicago, and a few alderman—actually a majority of aldermen—finally came around to the notion that, well, if we’re going to let Wal-Mart in, we should at least force them to pay a decent wage, a minimum wage above the ordinary minimum wage, because Chicago, like every other industrial city or former industrial city in the country, is suffering from deindustrialization. People are desperate for work. Barack Obama never took a position on the big box minimum wage bill, because that’s not something that would have pleased his political sponsor, who is Mayor Daley. So this is the sort of thing that I focus on in the book. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/25/rick_macarthur_you_cant_be_president

[TahitiNut]

1. Indeed. There's a reason Barack and Michelle are regarded as exceptional.

Rules are often proven by exceptions.