The Student Alliance

27 Jan
2010

The Student Alliance, a new political party at UF that represents a merger of two groups of UF’s “independent movement”, has launched. I’ve already made note of Ben Cavataro’s run for Student Body President. Other candidates are on their way, including Sagar Shane, a graduate student for VP.

Their website, which can be found here looks very professional - I was shocked at the extent it looked like a real campaign site with attention-grabbing graphics. Most SG campaign websites end up being little more than a spruced up blog or a fancy business card. Definitely good work from SA’s Graham Clark.

They even have a place where they promise you can donate via PayPal and get “sweet Student Alliance swag” in return. I’m hoping they put their logo on a bunch of stuff from like Cafe Press so folks like me can buy it - but that’s probably too much work for them when they should be out campaigning.

Good luck. You’re off to a very good start with the branding of your party. And of course, I dig the choice in color scheme.

Cavataro Runs

21 Jan
2010

Ben Cavataro has announced. He’s president of Florida College Democrats, and a two-term student senator from Hume Hall. Now, he’s aiming to be UF Student Body President. If he succeeds, Ben Cavataro would be the first non-Key elected in modern UF history, since the Engineering rebellions of the mid-80s.

Now, of course, two Keys won since then without FBK’s endorsement (in 1992 and 2004). But it’s rare. So he’s got quite an uphill battle.

Still, he can do it. Students don’t vote because they either don’t see the value or don’t expect FBK to lose. But FBK has a ceiling of support (and an admittedly high floor). No matter how many honors kids, frat boys, and minority groups they’ve got, there is always a segment of the student body willing to vote for an independent. They’re typically liberal and/or politically engaged, they’re in the Liberal Arts or Graduate Students segment, and they’re engineers.

It’s doable. And the recent anti-tax fight brewing over a new fee to fund possibly unnecessary Reitz Union renovations may just be the ticket. After all, they added the Bookstore without a new fee. They funded seemingly annual renovations and expansions without a new fee. What on earth would require them to create a new fee to fund this? And why this and not something to protect scholarships or teaching positions?

Good luck, Ben Cavataro. You’re going to need it, but you may also be in for a perfect storm.

Don’t Panic

20 Jan
2010

The fact that the leader in the polls managed to win should not come as a surprise to anybody. Yet, the phrase “epic upset” was heard last night when Republican Scott Brown beat the Democratic machine in Massachusetts. Never mind that that machine couldn’t deliver for Obama in the 2008 primaries, and that the machine nominated a candidate who actually showed disdain for campaigning in the cold and shaking hands with regular voters, among many other gaffes and signs of elitism.

Don’t panic.

The nominal filibuster-proof majority is now over. But what did the Democrats do with it last year except make excuses after excuses to find support among uninterested Republicans and catering to every last whim of every egotistical pol from Ben Nelson to Joe Lieberman. Now, at least, the center-right Democrats are powerless, even if it means the liberal ones are, too. Maybe we’ll finally get a debate over whether to end the procedural filibusters on literally everything that dares to move in the Senate.

The real problem is the high likelihood of cowering Democrats using this as an excuse to abandon any real moves on healthcare, climate change, labor organizing, or financial regulation. Just when they receive proof that Republicans are excited and Dem voters are staying home, the politicians in Washington may just make matters worse by abandoning what’s left of an honestly weak, watered-down, pansy-ass of an agenda.

That’s the real worry, the real cause for panic in Scott Brown’s victory. It’s not that the Dems suddenly are powerless to enact their agenda - it’s that they’ll drop all pretenses of even trying.

The Making of an Idealist

19 Jan
2010

I have completed a spec pilot for a hour-long political drama entitled The Making of an Idealist. Of course, as this is just a draft (a beta version, if you will), that title, the character names, and anything else can be changed. But finding good names for TV shows is hard to come by without making obvious analogies to contemporary politics (”Straight Talk” would be too McCain-like, and “The Senator” is too boring).

Any rate, the logline for the show is this:

We are taught to define our ideals and then, cynically or pragmatically, lose hope in those ideals in pursuit of money, fame, and power. What if one politician was different? What if he started out as a shy, directionless college freshmen who held on to those ideals even in the face of tremendous pressure to compromise?

For the pilot, the logline is this:

When a U.S. Senator vows to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee, lobbyists turn to the Senator’s past for leverage. Back then, Mike, the shy friend of a congressman’s son makes a fateful choice when he meets the mysterious Kathy. Meanwhile, the ambitious Nick Atlee looks to win over the campus’ three top recruits during Rush Week.

The spec pilot can be found here. Contact me if the link doesn’t work (Facebook doesn’t seem to import them). Any feedback is welcome, as I’m going to submit this to some screenwriting contests this year.

Oh, and fans of my earlier novels will find a *lot* to like in this pilot - as it’s based on those novels (in particular, I based the teaser on a chapter in my latest book). Unfortunately, in the current draft I had to eliminate explicit references to The Circle, but the terms “tapped” and “independent” do make an appearance, as does a stand-in for GDI (”Gamma Delta Iota”).

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