Looking at Ron Johnson’s 2010 media campaign, one could see one of two things: that despite having no political experience he’s put together a clever strategy, or that he doesn’t exactly know what a U.S. Senator does. Johnson’s media campaign has respectable goals, including exposing Feingold’s supposed “misdirected stimulus spending,” and presenting voters with this-is-what-you-need-to-know talking points on issues.
However, in his dealings with the public, he frequently skips over the actual logistics and complexities of a U.S. Senator’s job and appears simplistic.
Maybe he hopes that the voters don’t really understand what a senator does and will be won over by his skimming the surface technique, or perhaps he himself is in the dark.
On his website, Johnson has several press releases with cute, 4th grade-style headlines such as “Feingold’s Pet Project” and “Feingold Dancing on American Taxpayers,” that purportedly expose Feingold’s wild spending habits to the detriment of Wisconsin jobs. These articles describe entomology museums, dance companies, and recycling firms in other states that are receiving money from the stimulus bill, supposedly evidence that Feingold is a financial madman on a big-budget shopping spree. In reality, Feingold has little to do with how the stimulus money is actually allocated.
Johnson’s press release, “Stimulus Fund Lands in a Ditch,” describes how rural Oklahoma received $90,000 dollars to repair sidewalks. What Ron and his press team leave out is that this is actually pretty normal; organizations and individuals frequently receive government grants.
Because of the 2009 stimulus bill, many endowments have been awarded across the country for everything from public works to biofuels. And yes, this includes fixing sidewalks in Oklahoma. Johnson’s claim that Feingold himself helped this community receive funding just demonstrates that he either doesn’t have a real concept of how spending works or he just hopes you don’t.
The system for distributing the money from the stimulus fund works like this: at the top is President Barack Obama, followed by the Senate, who can approve or veto the bill as they see fit. Under them are many committees, each dealing in a particular sector, such as transportation or rural development. They actually decide who gets the money within that sector.
A senator who is in charge of a committee may approve legislation for something like sidewalk improvement, likely what Johnson is referring to when he tries to tie a $90,000 stimulus grant for sidewalks in Oklahoma directly to Feingold. Feingold probably oversaw some of the rural development sector, but probably couldn’t dictate which communities got what.
Johnson is right that politicians sometimes do oversee small details, but only if there’s something in it for them, like votes. However, even if Feingold was somehow responsible for approving how much money was going to be directed toward building sidewalks or funding archaeologists and dance companies, he stands to gain nothing by pleasing people who can’t even vote for him. This brings the likelihood that Feingold has such “Pet Projects,” going on in other states close to zero.
The other way in which Ron Johnson skips over the logistics is because the “issues” he brings up are really non-issues. A quick visit to his website shows that Johnson supports “creating jobs, honoring our servicemen and women, and improving education.”
Interestingly, Feingold, the alleged antithesis of Johnson, also lists among his issues, “Education, veterans, and working Wisconsin.” These two are similar on so many points because nearly everyone believes in caring for our veterans, creating jobs and improving education, and they are safe topics.
However, there’s not much more substance to Johnson’s issues than these compulsory talking points. Feingold goes on to list 12 more issues, including “consumer protection, seniors, women’s issues, and environment,” while Johnson goes on to list only seven, including “preserving Wisconsin values,” which, by reading his 107 word article, one can gather either means heterosexual-only marriage, preserving Wisconsin wildlife or the Second Amendment, although it’s not clear which.
Johnson purposely skips over the realities of campaigning because he hopes voters will agree with his muckraking and with his non-issues. Johnson hopes to grab voters like moths to a flame with his charismatic, seemingly no-nonsense presentation and simple, easy to defend issues.
Despite not being a “career politician,” he’s sure playing the game like one. But whether he’s crafty or just uninformed, he’s certainly not a good fit as Wisconsin’s representative to the U.S. Senate.
Taylor Nye ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in English, French and Spanish.
