Making Sense with Alan Keyes

by Cliopatria

A few weeks ago, Eric Zorn, the Chicago Tribune political columnist whose blog is a great read on Illinois politics, spoke for all political reporters in the Land of Lincoln when he urged Alan Keyes to make the race, so as to spice up the life of journalists there.

Keyes is certainly living up to the bill. This arch-foe of carpetbagging senatorial candidates began his bid by ruminating that maybe, in August 2004, principles of federalism aren't all that important. Then he equated Barack Obama's pro-choice position with the ideology of pre-Civil War slaveholders. In a bizarre twist, a few days ago Keyes on came out in favor of reparations for slavery, although he hastened to add that he doesn't favor reparations that come out of the pockets of other Americans. (Huh?) And he has established common ground with Georgia's Democratic Senator Zell Miller, inendorsing returning to the practice of state legislatures electing United States Senators, as they did in Lincoln's and Douglas's day.

Speaking of Lincoln and Douglas, Keyes yesterday gave a variety of addresses at Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair, during which he compared himself to Lincoln and Barack Obama to Stephen Douglas. Perhaps we need a 19th century version of Lloyd Bentsen to arise, saying,"Mr. Keyes, I knew Abe Lincoln . . ."

In any case, the latest poll shows Obama ahead 67-28. It appears as if this election will reveal precisely the rock-bottom limit of a Republican statewide candidate in Illinois.

And lest anyone think that the Illinois GOP has any lock on political chicanery, take a look at this story by Carol Marin (a great journalist when she was on TV and now a Sun-Times columnist) regarding the"retirement" of Congressman Bill Linpinski. As I've written about before, it appears as if Lipinski not only orchestrated the nomination of his son, former University of Tennessee polisci prof Dan Lipinski, but he also managed to get a plant as the GOP nominee, Ryan Chlada. As Marin notes, it's pretty hard to locate the 26-year-old Chlada, not only on the campaign trail but, in fact, anywhere at all:"I know because I've called him at his office, on his cell phone, even at the bar in Berwyn he appears to operate." I suppose if you're going to get a sure loser, you might as well go all out!

All of this almost makes New Jersey politics look like an ideal in civics . . .

Thanks to Ralph Luker for some of the cites.

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Oscar Chamberlain - 8/23/2004

My mother and I had unfortunately frequent political arguments when I was a young adult. At one point, she used an old southern phrase and called me a "yellow dog Democrat."

For those not up on southern imagery, the paraphase is that I would vote for a yellow dog if he (or she) was on the Democratic ticket.

At the time that may have been reasonably accurate. Since then I have occasionally branched out into third and fourth parties, and even voted for two Republicans, but the bulk of the time I do vote Democrat.

To be fair to the hardcore Republicans of Illnois, the current situation would be a real bummer. If you sit on your hands, you end up helping make a new bright star in the Democratic party. If you vote for Keyes, you are true to yourself ideologically, at the cost of encouraging carptetbagging.

Robert KC Johnson - 8/21/2004

We're now down to 24%, in a Chicago Trib poll just released:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-040820senate,1,2768892.story?coll=chi-news-hed

The most amazing figure: Keyes' 3% favorability rating among blacks.

I agree with Tim--perhaps the most interesting aspect of this race now is that it is a test case to determine exactly who in IL will vote Republican for Senate regardless, and why they'll vote as they do.

We had a similar scenario in Maine (my home state) a few years ago, in the 1998 gubernatorial election. The incumbent, Independent Angus King, was running for reelection, which it was clear he would win easily. No strong Dems ran, and the nomination ultimately went to a Portland lawyer known for wearing duck-billed caps (lawn signs for him had replicas of the caps) and who came across as slightly unstable on TV. The question was how many people could picture him commanding the state national guard. Ultimately he got 12%, which seems to be the base Dem support in Maine; for Repubs, it's 19%, the total received when the state party decided to run a Christian fundamentalist against George Mitchell in 1988.

Timothy James Burke - 8/20/2004

The fact that 28% are *for* Keyes is interesting. I think that shows that there is a 28% core of the electorate in Illinois--probably a number that rises or falls in other states--that would vote for a social conservative regardless of who the person was, or what their positions were, as long as those positions didn't actively contradict the core foundation of contemporary social and religious conservatism in America. E.g., that the qualifications, temperment, behavior or eccentric side views of such a person wouldn't matter in the slightest.

The same I think is largely true in the opposite direction, that there's a core liberal or Democratic vote that won't desert under almost any circumstances.

It's an interesting thing to consider: can we imagine a candidate who had the proper ideological credentials for one of two major parties who could poll under 15% if he/she were the nominee of that major party?

If not, then I think we have to acknowledge that we need a social and structural explanation for that particular voting bloc that doesn't turn at all on contingent political questions--understanding that 28% doesn't require us to pay any attention at all to a particular election or campaign theme or candidate, but to look at the predeterminations of party affiliation.

For swing voters--that 30+% in the middle--I do think particular campaigns, candidates, issues, and so on, are the major, crucial explanation of their political behavior. But for anyone who's going to vote for Alan Keyes, it seems to me that the explanation has to be something other than, "I really like Alan Keyes".