D AV I D G E R G E N
A R AT I O N A IRRATIONA Making sense of the political scene. Excerpted from “A Rational Look at Irrational Politics,” July 23, 2015. DAVID GERGEN CNN Senior Political Analyst; Professor and Co-Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government In conversation with
DAN ASHLEY
News Anchor, ABC7; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors DAN ASHLEY: Are 16 candidates enough? [Laughter.] Should we cap it at 20, or let it go wherever it goes? DAVID GERGEN: It is a little bit like going to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and they bring out the VW, and 18 clowns climb out. You wonder, “When
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will this stop?” The parties have sort of flipped sides. For a long, long time, the Republican Party nominee was usually the heir apparent. The Republican Party operated largely like a corporation in terms of its executive talent, moving people up, waiting your turn, and it was the Democrats who had a free-for-all. This time around, it’s just the reverse. The Democrats are looking for the heir apparent; they’ve got their person. I mean, she’s still under challenge, but nonetheless, I think we know who the candidate’s going to be. It’s the Republicans who are having their free-for-all. In some ways, it’s healthy. You have to ask yourself, where is the Democratic bench? What if something were to happen to Hillary? Joe Biden obviously is a possibility, but there are not a lot of other players out there. So you could say, from a Republican point of view, [having many candidates] is healthy. But obviously it’s hard to keep it serious when Donald Trump starts lobbing hand grenades into the middle of things. People start thinking, this is not a campaign; this is a circus. They’re going to need some sorting out
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fairly quickly, before this takes on the gravity of a serious presidential effort. There’s an interesting argument that whether Trump is being criticized or praised—as long as people are talking about Trump, it’s good for his business. The more he gets on his bottom line, the more capacity he feels he can spend. ASHLEY: But there’s a cynicism about that. GERGEN: [Laughter.] You think? ASHLEY: Maybe that’s even the wrong word. There’s a sort of damaging effect. Is that good for American politics? GERGEN: What things have you seen recently that were good about American politics? I mean, we’re going through a pretty awful period right now. We’re going to get out of this; this too shall pass. We’ve had times like this in the past in American politics. ASHLEY: Do you really think we’ll get out of this or is this the new norm for American politics? GERGEN: I don’t know that we’re going to get out of it badly or well, but I think we’re going to come out of it because there’s a new generation coming along