Dana Blankenhorn

The Stupak Opportunity

Think of this as Volume 12, Number 45 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

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The Stupak Amendment, which analysts are calling the worst thing ever for the women's movement -- it prohibits coverage for abortions even in private contracts written on the health exchange -- may in fact be an enormous opportunity.

And that opportunity holds big lessons for other political movements as well.

First, want to know why the AARP is  so powerful? Cash flow. 

Thanks to a deal with UnitedHealth, AARP draws millions of dollars per year in insurance kickbacks from its members. Thus it's not just an interest group, but an institution. The AARP's endorsement of the House measure went a long way toward assuring its passage last night.

Planned Parenthood, by contrast, is financially weak. It has been burdened with the call of "choice" for a generation, against the stronger frame of "life." It is constantly on the defensive, where if it looked at history and changed its frame to working "against slavery" (a woman's independent life can today be ended by any guy's sperm, and even a rapist's baby brought to the world at the point of a gun, according to the other side) things can be turned around.

But this post is not just about politics. It's about money.

The Robocall Campaign

Last year the election was everywhere.

Even though Georgia was considered a backwater, a reliable red state filled with Angry White Men, there was enormous excitement. Both parties worked hard, yard signs were everywhere, there were rallies and people making phone calls.

Not this year. Atlanta just had its mayoral election and no one I knew cared. It's not just that a run-off was expected. There was a total lack of yard signs, few people talked about it, and I felt undecided almost before walking into the booth.

Instead of buying TV ads or hiring people to canvass, all the campaigns this year relied on robocalls, recorded messages that seemed to come from every area code around (and some that do not exist) but were in fact tapes with happy voices telling us who they were and who they were voting for.

Which is another thing about the campaign that struck me. All the calls were upbeat, relentlessly so. I wasn't told who to vote against. I was told "I'm someone you should trust and here is who to vote for."

The result was sad because turnout was low and real issues were not discussed. Everyone was rattling about crime, but the crime rate is not that high. There have been some spectacular incidents, acts of desperation by young, bored, pathetic people. But the gangs are in the suburbs now.

The real problem with Atlanta is that we pretend to be a great city but we are in fact a small one. There are just 500,000 people here, even with gentrification. We're like Tucson or Portland, but for decades we've pretended to be Philadelphia or Chicago, because we're at the center of a metro area that has grown to 6.6 million people. The efforts of Cobb and Gwinnett Counties to wrest control of the center from Atlanta have brought them Atlanta's poor, its crime and congestion. Government leaders there ignore the rot, and fearful whites move even further-out -- to Henry County in the South, Paulding County in the northwest, Cherokee County and Forsyth County to the north. They're as ignorant as they always were, so the problems will follow them there.

Good riddance, I say.

The Extended Warranty

The distrust of our economy and our high-tech lives from the media is unrelenting.

This Halloween, a little Christmas. A bit of good news you probably haven't noticed before.

Turn on your TV. Chances are you're going to see adds from outfits like Mogi, Carchex, EasyCare, or  StopRepairBills. 

The ads are basic. Customers getting new transmissions who aren't troubled because the bills are covered. Customers moaning over the cost of a needed repair. Customers on both sides of the divide sitting side-by-side.

I'm not telling you to buy this stuff. Just notice how such companies have suddenly become a big feature in your broadcast day. And ask why.

The reason is, of course, that it's good for the companies offering this service. They may claim it's insurance. But it's really an extended warranty.

Trolls

Think of this as Volume 12, Number 44 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

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One of the most annoying features of online life is the troll.

Most have experienced it. Many have done some trolling themselves. I won't pretend to be 100% innocent in it.

But I had thought I'd gotten over it.

I first experienced this phenomenon in the late 1980s. I had been covering the online world for three years then and felt pretty comfortable there. Most of those who spent time online then were educated, erudite, looking for sincere give-and-take. Being online was an elite activity.

Then I entered into a political discussion. Under my own name.