Brayden

Matthew Yglesias is struck by the unprincipled meandering of talking heads like James Carville, who don’t seem to be helping anyone’s political future except their own. It leads one to ask, who’s running things anyway?

[F]or all the talk of “interest groups” influencing the Democratic Party absolutely nobody is more influential than the essentially permanent members of the consulting aristocracy. In an important sense, they don’t really work for their clients, mere politicians who come and go. Their clients don’t quite work for them, but they are subservient to them.

That political consultants control much of the debate in contemporary U.S. politics is consistent with Max Weber’s view of “politics as vocation.” Those who “live off politics” have a greater interest in directing the agenda and shaping the public image of the political passersby than the actual passerby does. After all, as Yglesias notes, “mere politicians come and go,” but the professional consultant has decided to make a career of this game, come what may. Sometimes that means taking the role of the “unbiased” journalist adovating free speech, while at other times it means promoting a particular client’s campaign. Quoting Weber directly (From Max Weber, 1946).

He who by his material circumstances is compelled to live ‘off’ politics will almost always have to consider the alternative positions of the journalist or the party official as the typical direct avenue. Or, he must consider a position as representative of interest groups….Nothing more than this can be said about this external aspect: in common with the journalist, the party official bears the odium of being déclassé. ‘Wage writer’ or ‘wage speaker’ will unfortunately always resound in his ears, even though the words remain unexpressed. He who is inwardly defenseless and unable to find the proper answer for himself had better stay away from this career. For in any case, besides grave temptations, it is an avenue that may constantly lead to disappointments (114).

Die Politik bedeutet ein starkes langsames Bohren von harten Brettern mit Leidenschaft und Augenmaß zugleich. Es ist ja durchaus richtig, und alle geschichtliche Erfahrung bestätigt es, daß man das Mögliche nicht erreichte, wenn nicht immer wieder in der Welt nach dem Unmöglichen gegriffen worden wäre. Aber der, der das tun kann, muß ein Führer und nicht nur das, sondern auch—in einem sehr schlichten Wortsinn—ein Held sein. Und auch die, welche beides nicht sind, müssen sich wappnen mit jener Festigkeit des Herzens, die auch dem Scheitern aller Hoffnungen gewachsen ist, jetzt schon, sonst werden sie nicht imstande sein, auch nur durchzusetzen, was heute möglich ist. Nur wer sicher ist, daß er daran nicht zerbricht, wenn die Welt, von seinem Standpunkt aus gesehen, zu dumm oder zu gemein ist für das, was er ihr bieten will, daß er all dem gegenüber: »dennoch!« zu sagen vermag, nur der hat den »Beruf« zur Politik.

Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It requires passion as well as perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms–that man would not have achieved the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that, a man must be a leader, and more than a leader, he must be a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that resolve of heart which can brave even the failing of all hopes. This is necessary right now, otherwise we shall fail to attain that which it is possible to achieve today. Only he who is certain not to destroy himself in the process should hear the call of politics; he must endure even though he finds the world too stupid or too petty for that which he would offer. In the face of that he must have the resolve to say ‘and yet,’—for only then does he hear the ‘call’ of politics.

–Max Weber, Politik als Beruf (1919) (lecture delivered before the Freistudentischen Bund of the University of Munich)(S.H. transl.) in: Gesammelte politische Schriften p. 560.