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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens