Pubdate: Thu, 03 Aug 2000
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Author: Scott Holleran
Note: Free-lance writer Scott Holleran is in Philadelphia to report on the
convention.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE GOP CONVENTION

Widely regarded as meaningless coronations, political conventions
remain a major presentation of a party's philosophy and the 37th
annual Republican National Convention in Philadelphia is no exception.
Political scientist Gerald Pomper, who studied both Democratic and
Republican platforms, found that 75 percent of platform proposals become law.

However, as the two major parties increasingly morph -- with Democrats
preaching welfare reform and Republicans promising compassion --
voters are rejecting both and some intellectuals are offering a
coherent alternative. One of them is syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington.

Teaming with organizations called United for a Fair Economy and the
National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, Huffington is staging
so-called shadow conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, just
doors away from the Republican and Democratic convention sites, to
promote campaign-finance reform and aid to the poor and
drug-addicted.

Huffington's events consist of workshops, lectures and poetry
readings, managed by a coalition of religious leaders and academic
intellectuals. Among the concepts featured at her convention:
government-funded election campaigns, larger government subsidies for
the poor, restriction of the individual's right to make political
contributions, and government subsidies for those addicted to drugs.

Huffington views the proposals as the application of her guiding
principle -- self-sacrifice -- to government. "America has become
two nations and the conventions of the two major parties are really
for one nation," Huffington said during a recent interview. "We want
to give voice to those who have not done well. We cannot solve our
major social problems without major government appropriations. We
cannot count on private solutions."

In other words, self-sacrifice as society's proper moral code must be
implemented by the state. Huffington does not equivocate about this
moral claim on the life of each American; her meaning is crystal clear
- -- the collective matters more than the individual and the
individual's life is meaningless without service to others. Though the
shadow she casts takes the shape of a Coco Chanel suit, and she
pitches her ideas with a sweet blend of feminine charm and
self-deprecating humor, she carries her conviction with a renewed
sense of power.

Huffington, who was married to Santa Barbara Rep. Michael Huffington
during his failed $30 million U.S. Senate campaign against Dianne
Feinstein, has attracted activists and politicians, such as Arizona
Sen. John McCain, Warren Beatty, and comedian Al Franken, to her cause.

Describing herself as a recovering Republican -- and pledging to
re-register as an independent -- Huffington insists that the founding
fathers' philosophy of individual rights must be subjugated to the
greater good of mankind, a concept, she points out, rooted in
religion. "Every individual has a moral obligation to help others,"
she explained. "It is a biblical admonition."

Her deep pockets, influential alliances with wealthy liberals, and her
media and political skills render Huffington a formidable intellectual
force in today's culture; by calling on George W. Bush to practice the
compassion he preaches, the ardent advocate of altruism is cashing in
on the deterioration of the Republican Party's defense of absolute
individual rights in the name of traditionalism and Judeo-Christian
values.

And she's gaining ground: Huffington's vision was feverishly embraced
Monday night by Gen. Colin Powell, who declared that each child
belongs to us all, which is horrifying to those who regard a child as
a human being -- not a piece of property. His call for each American
to serve others was repeated by nearly every speaker at the GOP
podium, from former President Bush, who stated that life without
self-sacrifice is wasted, to John McCain, who holds duty to others as
the highest virtue.

This is an undeniable sign that the Republican Party, in a
transformation that began in earnest with its call for family values,
no longer stands for the individual; the GOP has drifted toward the
notion that the individual exists to serve others.

Republicans in Philadelphia haven't always sounded like Democrats.
Indiana businessman Wendell Willkie was nominated for president in
1940 as a fierce proponent of individual liberty. Months after the
National Socialists conquered Europe, Willkie was nominated by Rep.
Charles A. Halleck, who viewed Willkie as a champion of liberty in "a
battle between slavery and freedom."

Halleck warned that America was gripped by a "desperate competition,
a competition between two ways of life; the totalitarian and the
free." When he finished speaking, writes R. Craig Sautter in his
book, "Philadelphia Presidential Conventions," "pandemonium broke
out . . . as the deafening chant of 'We Want Willkie' thundered
throughout the hall" and spontaneous demonstrations erupted. What
they were cheering was individualism -- the individual's right to his
own life, to be left alone and the right, if one chooses, to not serve
others.

Such an authentic response to a candidate for individual rights is the
opposite of today's Republicans, who applauded like robots during
Powell's declaration that each American must serve the state and
"share their God-given success" with those less fortunate.

Whether Powell's philosophy of sacrifice fully uproots individual
rights as the party's core principle remains to be seen; Stanford
University professor Condoleeza Rice spoke of "the fundamental rights
of the individual" in a passionate speech Tuesday night, may prove a
lone voice in a party eager for victory at any cost. Unless the GOP
returns to its -- and America's -- philosophical roots of individual
rights, Huffington stands ready with her own agenda. She offers a more
consistent and polished brand, which is proof that politics -- and
sugary conventions -- do matter.

Free-lance writer Scott Holleran is in Philadelphia to report on the
convention.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens