The Activist Campaign

Posted by Freddie on March 19, 2007 under Uncategorized |

If I were a true political historian, what I’d be researching right now would be the activist campaign. My interest was piqued when Tom Vilsack [insert duck noise here] announced that his campaign was going carbon neutral (i.e., he would track electricity usage in his campaign and buy carbon offsets to ensure that his campaign was net zero). Sadly, Gov. Vilsack dropped out of the race. Impressively (surprisingly?), John Edwards announced that he, too, would run a carbon neutral campaign. He’s even using the same company (Native Energy) that Vilsack was using. (The fact that it’s in Vermont must make Howard Dean happy.)

A while back (after an experience with a get-out-the-vote effort in 2004, actually; I’ll probably write more about this at some point), I was pondering the notion of the use of political party structures to enact public policies rather than merely relying on the petri dishes of legislatures which produce sausage not resembling the meat in a party platform. For instance, what if Democratic party headquarters around a city, state, or country began maintaining records of living wages and then guaranteeing all party staff a living wage based on the location of their residences. Or what if Democrats began offering a health care plan of some sort (single-payer?) offered to registered Democrats.

And now these presidential campaigns are showing us the way on the issue of energy policy (which, in my opinion, is energy security). Will there be any more initiatives announced by other campaigns? And just how common is this trend historically? Have any past presidential campaigns engaged in policymaking while campaigning?

Nashville is currently considering an ordinance that would require a constrained subset of new Metro buildings to attain LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Several cities have adopted similar ordinances. Pittsburgh even has a LEED-certified convention center. Imagine if it became a campaign tactic to hold campaign events only in LEED-certified buildings. I imagine that would spur the private sector to unprecedented levels of intentional development.

I think walking the walk in this way is a remarkable way to use the bully pulpit of public life to effect real change. Who needs to read a 10-point platform when we can see the actual benefits of a campaign in action? I can’t say that I’d endorse a surge in Iraq or an attack on Iran by John McCain’s campaign staff, though…