Is the new populism about the message or the medium?
None of the candidates, not even the party favorites, are campaigning on behalf of their party; most are campaigning to crash it.
.. It began in 1787, during the debate over the Constitution, a debate waged in ratifying conventions but also, more thrillingly, in the nation’s hundreds of weekly newspapers. Some favored ratification; these became Federalist newspapers. Others, the Anti-Federalist newspapers, opposed it. If it hadn’t been for the all-or-nothing dualism of this choice, the United States might well have a multiparty political culture.
.. Revolutions in communication tend to pull the people away from the élites. (The printing press is the classic example; think of its role in the Reformation. But this happens, to varying degrees, every time the speed and scale of communication makes a leap.) In 1833, refinements in printing technology lowered the cost of a daily newspaper to a penny or two; in the eighteen-forties, newspapers got their news by telegraph; the post office set a special, cheaper rate for newspapers; and, in the eighteen-fifties, newspapers began printing illustrations based on photographs.
.. In 1920, Warren Harding became the last Presidential candidate to send his speeches to voters, on a vinyl album. His successors turned to radio.
.. He led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, facing a third flag, held by Gary Dipiero, a Cruz supporter from Saugus, Massachusetts, who was carrying a “Hillary for Prison” sign. (Dipiero told me that he expects this of a Cruz Presidency: “He’s going to prosecute her and throw her in jail.”)
.. Apart from the bluejeans and the boots, which Reagan liked to wear, too, very little about Ted Cruz is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan. Where Reagan was warm and prided himself on being welcoming, Cruz is cold: he likes to make threats.
.. Some Republican candidates deny press passes to journalists they consider to be part of the “liberal media,” preferring to bypass the press in favor of a direct feed. Trump’s decision to sit out the last debate in Iowa before the caucuses took this one step further, but in the very same direction.
.. The American party system is not only a creation of the press; it is dependent on it. It is currently fashionable, indispensable, even, to malign the press, whether liberal or conservative.
.. But when the press is in the throes of change, so is the party system.
.. With our phones in our hands and our eyes on our phones, each of us is a reporter, each a photographer, unedited and ill judged, chatting, snapping, tweeting, and posting, yikking and yakking. At some point, does each of us become a party of one?