Nobody thought Jerry Brown would prevail.
/The Boston Herald
Beverly Beckham
"Some of you are saying to yourselves that there is not much that one person can do. But I tell you that together, we can prevail." - Jerry Brown, Oct. 21, 1991, announcement speech.
Politicians dismissed him. The press disparaged him. The pundits - the self-acclaimed experts who make their living telling us what we've just heard and what we should think - totally disregarded him.
He's blue jeans at a dinner party, the odd man out, a rebel with a long, lost cause.
"Our cause is clear...First and overriding is the priority to restore to the people what is rightfully ours - the power of democracy. In corrupted hands it is lifeless; in the people's hands it possesses an irrepressible magic."
The people's hands have been making magic because Brown wasn't supposed to have had a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving the primaries - that's what everyone said - never mind winning any. Connecticut was a stunner.
Jerry Brown wasn't even a long shot a month ago. He was a nothing, a "fringe candidate" just foolish enough to believe that he could run a campaign with the paltry nickels and dimes of ordinary people, without PACs and pollsters, without media consultants and speech writers, travelling not in style but in cars and vans driven by volunteers, staying not in hotels, but in his supporters' homes.
He listened not to the experts interpret what the people said, but to the people themselves.
And now he has sent the political process reeling.
"When our leaders fail to do their job and betray the people's confidence, then it is our inalienable right to strip them of their power through the great engine of democracy."
The engine of democracy is picking up speed. And it's happening despite the foot dragging of the American press, which has buffered Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and largely ignored Brown. (Latest example: the cover of Newsweek which features Clinton and the question "Can He Beat Bush?" as if Brown doesn't even exist.)
The win in Connecticut, however, like everything else Brown has accomplished, is being underplayed. It's being interpreted (There's that word again. We Americans are obviously too dumb to figure things out for ourselves) as an aberration, a vote against Clinton, not a vote for Brown. And Democratic Party insiders - more people who tell us what to think - continue to insist that Brown is too much of a "lightweight" to secure the party's nomination.
But they have to say that. They have to say it and hope it and believe it, because if this "lightweight" ever gets to the White House he will tear down their political house of cards.
"This election is not simply about changing elected officials. It's about changing the country...This candidacy is not simply about me. It's about us. Indeed, when 200 years ago Jefferson started the Democratic Party, he proclaimed its purpose: `We must put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many."'
Bill Clinton has spent close to $10 million toward getting himself elected. At present his campaign is $1.8 million in debt. But he owes far more than money. He owes his allegiance to all the special interest groups that have contributed big bucks to his campaign.
Jerry Brown owes his allegiance to no one but the American people, for only the people have financed his campaign.
"No normal presidential campaign could hope to survive on $100 contributions. Thus this candidacy will only succeed if millions of Americans claim it as their own and carry it on their shoulders."
Millions of Americans are carrying and will continue to carry Jerry Brown. That's the beauty of Brown, and that's the thing that all the pundits and all pontificators and all the experts are missing. Brown is where he is, not because he bought support, but because he earned it.
"You and I must make our voice heard. You and I, each in our small way, must stand up to forces that overwhelm us. You and I must deliver a message to those who run the United States of America like a private club that we are going to work to change."
Newsweek predicts that "if another `high heel' doesn't drop on him {Clinton}, he might just give Bush the boot." As for Brown, the magazine totally dismisses him. "Gonzo candidate may win several late primaries, just as he did in '76. But so what?"
So what?
So nothing will change. So life will go on as it is. So the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.
"The entrenched political establishment and their media allies believe that our country is on the right track."
But the people don't believe this. That's what Connecticut proved.