Sarah Palin’s new paid video service shows how perverse incentives are damaging Republican politics.
Slate’s David Weigel had a nice piece the other day highlighting how Sarah Palin is launching a new subscription video service. Called SarahPalinChanel.com you can get all the Palin interviews and round the clock coverage you want, just for the low, low price of $99.95 a year!
The fact that some people are willing to pay a hundred dollars a year for the privilege of getting to watch tons and tons of Sarah Palin focused programing strikes me as pretty bizarre. I mean shouldn’t they have to pay you to watch all Palin all the time? But some (presumably) savy business folks seem to think there’s a market out there for this stuff, and Palin (whose no stranger to cashing in) must have confidence that some people are going to pay for this so I guess to each, her own.
Unfortunately this story isn’t just another example of the mindless nature of American consumerism. Instead it’s actually a great example of one of the major problems with the Republican Party right now.
It’s common in American culture to portray politicians’ greed and ambition , that is their self-interest, as being a really bad thing for our democracy. And we are constantly being told by pundits and editorial that politicians need to do “the right thing” instead of “the popular thing” or what’s “good for them.” (And what what’s the right thing? Why what the pundit or editorial board wants of course!) But I think that this gets it backwards. It is true that as a rule politicians are ambitious and driven people. And it’s also true that politicians by and large like to get elected and stay in office. Because of course if they weren’t ambitious or didn’t care about elections, they probably never would have gone into such a competitive field or gotten elected in the first place.
But this isn’t bad for democracy, it’s actually quite good for it. By harnessing this self-interest we as citizens of democracy can get all these intelligent and driven people to work on solving problems. Just think about presidents and the economy. Do they worry so much about it because of general concern of the plight of ordinary Americans? Well maybe, but they probably spend so much time fretting over inflation figures and tax plans because they know that reelection and their popularity hinges on overall economic performance.
What’s happening right now in the GOP though is that these incentives that drive politics in a constructive direction, like winning reelection or advancing your career, are in direct conflict with incentives like getting your own web video deal or any number of other lucrative offers.
All of which means that Republicans aren’t just wondering if shutting down the government (or impeaching the president for no reason) will be good for their popularity or enacting their agenda, instead they are also thinking about how waving the bloody shirt might be parlayed into a book deal. And this makes for a very dysfunctional approach to politics.
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I see Mr. Anderson is a retired political operative.
That leaves open a question: Does he believe this stuff? Or does he know about, say, the Clintons’ money machine but thinks nobody else does?
Alas if only I had the prominence to cash in, be it in Sarah Palin’s silly new channel or the eternal idiocy and silliness of George W. Bush’s book: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n01/eliot-weinberger/damn-right-i-said To be sure I do believe this stuff and would like a seat on the Hillary gravy train, the problem is that the Palin (a massive failure as a politician by any reasonable standard) train has a lot more gravy.
Just shy of rag mag articles you see at the checkout counter
Other then making a comment that I will not comment, I won’t waste my time with these articles…. very remedial in my opinion.
Phillip. Or you could spend some money on a snoozer of a book to help pay for Hillary’s $14 million advance.
Or is it only republicans?
[Ed.} Let’s not have any crazy talk here!
I’m not going to deny that there is a market out there for liberal and Democratic rah! rah! nonsense. There really is. But the size of these markets is completely incomparable. You can read the article I linked to if you want to know what I’m talking about: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/86530-sarah-palin-inc/
Anyway just think about Palin the politician. By any objective standard she’s a total failure politically and hasn’t held office in years. Yet she’s the one who gets the video deal. Where’s the Walter Mondale Channel if these things are so symmetrical?
Of course if you don’t like that you could go to a Hillary Clinton speech that someone paid $250,000 for her to make.
Come on, now. Her knowledge of commodities trading alone is worth four times that. Get with the program.
Sarah Palin debates Nancy Pelosi! Now that would be some Pay per View event! Hey, Joe Biden could moderate!