Incumbency and Anger

Students and academicians, media voices and pundits alike are watching it with fascination and talking about a unique historical dynamic in this year 2010's political landscape. And what they are saying with one voice is "Incumbents, BEWARE!"

The primary season varies widely from state to state, going from the early Febuary winter bad dream in Illinois to late August and even September in other states. But we are in it now. And all around us we are seeing that the academicians and pundits are right . . . incumbents are being turned out in record numbers -- in both parties.

While incumbency is still the biggest advantage in town, and many retain their seats, already hundreds of incumbents, in record numbers, from the highest-level federal races to the grassroots municipal and county races, are not even winning their primaries back in long-held seats. And the distinctive feature of this amazing change is that it does not fall along party lines. It is happening at every level of office in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Insiders and incumbents are being thrown out by voters, even this week in major national primaries.

I am a historian by profession and training. These meta-trends that show the pendulum of history swinging back and forth, seeking equilibrium, are fascinating to me -- even more so now that I am a first-time candidate seeking to unseat a long-standing incumbent in the 14th District Cook County Board. When we analyze trends, we must look at the evidence before we draw our conclusions. Pundits of one point of view or another might be quick to blame this turning out of incumbents on whatever party is in power. But actually, the evidence is quite clear. This trend in 2010 is not about party. It's about incumbency.

Another feature of this year's electoral dynamics that is often talked about is anger. I don't like to stoke the fire of anger, a decidedly negative emotion that crowds out rationality, by giving it more credence than it is due by mainstreaming it.

But I do know anger when I see it.

For example, I attended several rallies about health care reform this year in front of Congresswoman Melissa Bean's office that were equally well attended both by forces in favor of the health insurance corporate reforms for the tens of millions of uninsured Americans and by the forces of the "Tea Party" movement. The groups of Tea Party protestors I met were funded by AFP (Americans for Prosperity), paid for by the Koch family of oil billionaire fame. They had buses, professional costumes, their own paid videographers, and even paid crowd harassers. It was historically reminiscent of the paid union busters of a century ago right here in Cook County.

One person in the crowd that I saw who was genuinely angry was actually being paid to be so. She was one of the organizers of the Tea Party group attending there. She was being paid to walk around to those supporting health insurance reform and yell intimidating things at them. One middle-aged woman that was carrying a handmade sign calling for reform was told that she needed to get herself "f___d." The professional harasser shouted, "When was the last time you got some?!"

Everyone else there was pretty well-behaved, each chanting passionately for their side and respecting the territories they had staked out for their group.

I tried to watch dispassionately while also talking to as many people as I could on the more friendly side supporting reform. I did conclude that day that democracy was alive and well, and that the biggest threat to our peace and prosperity is massive infusions of corporate monies to oppose any limits on their unbridled power . . . an unregulated power that had sunk us into the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

So whatever anger there is out there, I suspect that it is mostly justified, especially when aimed at incumbents who allowed us to get into this mess. My sincere hope is that this anger will serve as a motivator to turn people out to vote on November 2.

The enemy of democracy is apathy.

As a murder victim's family member educated in psychology and as a nationally recognized expert in issues of victimization, criminal justice, and trauma, I have taught workshops all over the country on anger.

What we know about anger is that it is a legitimate emotional response to many situations, but that it is meant to be a TRANSITION emotion. Think about the times you get angry -- it is when something new that changes your comfortable status quo is thrown at you. You are driving along happily one day, and someone runs a red light and wrecks your perfectly good car. You are angry. You have to transition to this new reality. Anger is good for that and serves a functional and motivating psychological purpose.

But another thing we know is that to live in anger for long periods of time actually causes physical stress to the body and results in negative health side effects. Anger is not meant to be lived in or hung onto. It is meant to move us, to push and transition us to a new reality, from which we must launch our new normal and move forward in a healthy way.

People are angry at the leaders that let us get into this mess. I won't even focus on the national political races in this context -- let's just talk about Cook County. People are angry at the leaders in Cook County: incumbents, party notwithstanding, that have said and done little to stop us from being where we are now.

By the way, a bit of this "anger" is part of what first motivated me to run for Cook County Board . . . anger, in my case, as a motivator for something positive. I am not now walking around angry about how badly Cook County has been run in the past -- I am doing something about it. But the idea first came to me when I attended a County Board meeting and met the current incumbent Commissioner from the 14th District in which I live. I learned how little he has done on this Board. I saw his long string of support, even as a Republican, for Todd Stroger's administration.

I have been working at the ground level of some vital programs in Cook County, attempting to stem the tide of costly violent crime that drains our pocketbooks and hurts our communities so much. I saw that our incumbent was not doing one single thing about it. And he was also doing nothing to stop the bloat, patronage, conflict of interest, and all the other structural problems in Cook County. When no one seemed to be able to do anything about all this, I got a little angry, just long enough to think about running myself.

Incumbents, BEWARE!