The Little Brown Reader

Fineman: Recall Lessons for the President

The important part of this article, for me, was this:

There is a straight line of voter protest running from Ross Perot through John McCain and on to the Internet-based campaigns of Wesley Clark and even Howard Dean. To some extent, all were or are powered by a sense of voter alienation from the centers of authority in government politics—whether those center are in Sacramento or Washington, D.C. The bigger and more remote the government, the more ignored and misunderstood the voters feel.

He left out Jesse Ventura, but the point remains. That point -- that voters are super-willing to embrace the an 'outsider' candidate who has momentum -- is one of the driving factors that inspired me to run for president so long ago.

Recall Lessons for the President
Voter alienation will not stop at voting booths in California
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek

Tuesday 07 October 2003

It would be nice to think that the ending of Election Day here will bring peace to the politics of California, and to the country. It would be nice, but wrong. Don't expect an end to partisan rancor, voter anger and alienation, here or elsewhere. This state's political warfare will resume long before Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger actually takes office. And the same forces that are shaking Sacramento could materialize on the doorstep of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

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