Right, so let’s say you’re Buffy Wicks. You were the director of the Obama campaign in Missouri, probably doing some “organizing,” you were there during those raucous Texas caucuses, and you were Obama’s California Field Director. You love you some Barack Obama, and you’re great at what you do, which is rabble rousing, “organizing”. Now you call it “engaging”. You were great at this when you went after Walmart for the UFCW Union as political director of the WakeUpWalmart campaign. Anyway, people noticed, and now that your candidate won, there’s a spot for you in the White House! In fact, when you visit one of your immediate bosses, whether it’s Christina Tchen or Valerie Jarrett, you probably have to pass the Vice-President and Rahm Emanuel’s office before you reach the stairs to the second floor. Oops, careful Buffy, because if you walk much past those stairs you could walk right into the Oval Office….you are definitely in the White House!
Anyway, once you get upstairs it’s literally a few short steps to Valerie Jarret’s office. She’s been crazy busy integrating Van Jones into the new ruling class, so you might pass her office and it’s only one more door to go. Now you’re at the corner suite of Christina Tschen, Chicago lawyer, long-time Obama crony friend and major fundraiser for his campaign. She must have raised a lot of dough, because her office is pretty sweet, and it’s right above Barack Obama’s Oval Office. Cool, huh?
Anyway, as you two gaze out across the South Lawn from your boss’s corner digs, it must occur to you that life has brought you a long way, and then you remember that you have actually brought yourself most of that way. You helped Obama take power, and now you find yourself in a position of real power and influence, standing up in the second floor of the White House. What will you do with it? Will you stay within the bounds of laws and ethics? Was that what worked back in Texas?
When the subject of a campaign and a call to directly enlist some people in the arts community comes up, do you raise the question of whether or not the Administration should be actually recruiting and coaching creative people who are hoping to receive NEA grants in the future? Oh wait, it was kind of your idea, the whole signing up artists thing? Well, did you wonder about the ethical violations that will be created by your participating in that call, being that you’re in the White House and all? No, darn it, you really want people to serve the president. You’re Buffy Wicks, you oversee Serve.gov for the White House, and before you can get people to serve, you need to get their attention. If that means bending a few rules, what’s new. I mean, public financing? – LOL Situational ethics apply, because the President is right about his agenda for the American people. The President is awesome, and people just need to serve him. I mean serve America, but it’s kind of his idea, so…
This is what you wrote two years ago, live-blogging from a star-studded campaign event in Los Angeles where the Goo Goo Dolls introduced BO: “The crowd was thunderous. Obama could barely settle them down they were so excited. But when he did, the Senator delivered another in a long line of beautiful oratories. The crowd clapped at Obama’s outrage at the current situation in Washington and cheered at his plan for bringing the country back together. By the time he was done, not only was I convinced he’s going to win this election, I felt that I could actually help him make a real difference in this country’s future. Judging by the roaring crowd, they felt the same way.”
Goo Goo Dolls and everything? Ah, the smell of the hair gel, roar of the crowd…Those were the days, weren’t they? It was like the Summer of Love for you guys, or something. But what if you’re not supposed to be talking directly to artists through the NEA about Presidential initiatives? Oops, then what if you did? What if Yosi Sergant was quickly demoted after his words from that darned conference call were released? Would you be in any trouble? Probably not, because you have friends in VERY high places. After all, the only thing that would be really bad would be if you were speaking as someone from the White House, sort of instructing artists, people looking for NEA money, sort of telling them what the White House wanted and what you hoped they could do for the President. That would be very bad. It would breach the ethical boundaries of the NEA by suggesting a quid pro quo, something that would change the relationship between the government and the arts. What’s that? Oh. OK let’s say you did. You should… um, apologize, maybe? No thanks, not when what you’re trying to do is so good. Stepping down is unthinkable. As you said on the call, “It’s the world we live in now – we’re actually running the government.” And don’t you know it! Heck, you guys won the leadership of the free world (which we know the President is trying to relinquish so you can all focus on ‘fundamentally changing’ America) on an image, a smile, soaring words that almost no one can remember, and an awful lot of cool posters. There was some other stuff, some of that rule-bending stuff, but whatever. Republicans do it, right?
People are ready for this kind of propaganda ministry, because if it’s fighting for the truth, it’s not really propaganda, is it? Conservatives just hate progress, that’s the bottom line. Look at the way they’re going after ACORN, the good people you relied on and funneled lots of money to during the campaign. Sure, they’re sloppy sometimes, but they’re on the right side of the big issues – your side – so who cares? They’re great at showing up and forming a protest when your union friends can’t be bothered. In fact, come to think of it, you’ve got some pretty intimidating friends. Let these right-wingers try to come and take your office away. Let them cross the United Food and Commercial Workers. Those are your peeps! OK, where were we? Oh right, you’re Buffy Wicks. People love you. You made a real difference in the campaign, and there’s no way you’ll be tossed under the Obama bus. Nope, no way. No sir, no how.