Mitchell - THE CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY: Upton Sinclairs Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY:

Upton Sinclairs Race for Governor of California

And The Birth of Media Politics

By Greg Mitchell

Sinclair Books

Originally published by Random House, 1992

Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize, 1993

First e-book edition, December 2011

Copyright and all other rights, Greg Mitchell

INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION

In some critical and haunting ways, 2011 seems an awful lot like 1934. The U.S. economy, while not yet hitting the depths of The Great Depression, remains terribly weak, unemployment is perilously high, and many Americans have lost their homes. The poverty rate has soared. Millions do not have enough money to go to the doctor, or even eat full meals. Then theres this: Theres a Democrat in the White House, elected by a comfortable margin. He followed a Republican president who let the economy go to pot, but is bitterly opposed by Republicans, and mocked by large segments of the media. Some in his own party, and many of those who elected him, feel he needs to push for bolder remedies for what ails the country. Meanwhile, new grassroots political and social movements, from left and right have gained wide and passionate followings.

I could go on. Suffice to say, The Campaign of the Century, first published by Random House in 1992, has new relevance today. Even apart from the economic crisis, there are other enduring issues explored in this book: from money calling the tune in politics to the manipulation of and by the media.

One of my hopes in making sure this book finally appears as an e-book is that I believe activists in the ultra-grassroots Occupy Wall Street movement can learn a thing or two from it. To that end, I donated a copy of the print edition to the amazing Peoples Library at Zuccotti Park in New York City, and when that book was seized and likely destroyed in the November police raid, I gave them another. But since many claim young people dont read print, it seems wise to make The Campaign of the Century available in electronic form.

A few weeks back, I wrote a piece about the Sinclair race for the OccupyWriters site, which has published pieces now by several dozen well-known and not-so-known authors and poets. I explained in that essay that my book, The Campaign of the Century, explores the most remarkable mass movement in American history, in the depths of The Great Depression, and it was led by a famous writer.

He was Upton Sinclair, muckraking author of The Jungle and dozens of other important works during the first half of the last century, I continued. It was Sinclair who wrote one of the most oft-quoted lines in the media since the economic meltdown of 2008: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. In September 1933, he changed his party affiliation from Socialist to Democrat and announced his run for governor of Californiaand quickly wrote a book (naturally) outlining his End Poverty in California (or EPIC) plan. It demanded employment for all, old- age pensions, broad medical coverage, and much more, before the New Deal had fully taken effect.

Then, with little direction, hundreds, then more than a thousand EPIC clubs sprung up throughout the state, much as Occupy sites are forming across the country, I explained. It was the amateur hour, but a mass uprising had found its legs. Amazingly, in August 1934, Sinclair swept the Democratic primary-- in a landslide and appeared headed for victory in November. Sinclair's EPIC movement was, in the words of novelist Theodore Dreiser, "the most impressive political phenomenon that America has yet produced." The New York Times called it "the first serious movement against the profit system in the United States."

But then the most vicious smear campaign against a candidate arrived, directed by vested financial interests, even from as far away as Wall Street. It featured the birth of the modern political campaign, as it was led by what we now called spin doctors, national fundraising, ad men, and (with the help of Hollywood) the first use of the screen to defeat a candidate.

Theres much more to say about Sinclair, his movement and the dirty tricks of that campaign, I wrote in that OccupyWriters piece, adding that I mainly wanted to emphasize for now the potential for a massive grassroots uprising during harsh economic times. Yet I also offered this warning: In the end, Sinclair lost. And when he lost (despite many EPIC candidates winning state races) his mass movement started to fade. Perhaps this only bolsters the Occupyers vow (so far) to stay out of electoral politics in 2012?

But I closed with a more a favorable view of this. EPIC also faded partly because Franklin D. Roosevelt acted on Sinclairs plan and the cries of his supporters to push through most of the New Deal programs we cherish today, including Social Security. President Obama and todays Democrats certainly have all the incentive to act, and already the Occupy message has gained traction and produced a stiffening of spines in the White House and, here and thee, in Congress. Even in electoral defeat, voices can be heard and produce vital change.

--Greg Mitchell, December 2011

PREFACE

Pretty Boy Floyd ran wild in the Midwest. Father Coughlin ruled the airwaves, and Huey Long seized control of Louisiana. More than a year into the New Deal, ten million Americans were still without work, and even Shirley Temple could not lift their spirits for long. Out in California, a general strike shut down San Francisco, vigilantes attacked union organizers in the Central Valley, and the Red Squad hunted suspected Communists in Los Angeles.

From his Santa Monica ranch, Will Rogers revealed that a famous author, a socialist no less, was running for governor of California"a darn nice fellow, and just plum smart, and if he could deliver even some of the things he promises, should not only be governor of one state, but president of all of 'em." Six weeks later, on August 28, 1934, socialist writer, Upton Sinclair, swept the Democratic primary for governor of California, and all hell broke loose from San Diego to Sacramento. The Los Angeles Times denounced Sinclair's "maggot-like horde" of supporters. Former president Herbert Hoover called the coming campaign the most crucial in California history. Earl Warren, the Alameda County district attorney, warned that the state was about to be overcome by communism, and the movie studios threatened to move back East if Sinclair took office.

Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle and dozens of other muckraking books, had created a crisis not just for his home state but the entire nation. No politician since William Jennings Bryan had so offended the vested interests, Time magazine declared. "Upton Sinclair has been swallowing quack cures for all the sorrows of mankind since the turn of the century," H. L. Mencken explained, "is at it again in California, and on such a scale that the whole country is attracted by the spectacle." Political pundits, financial columnists, and White House aides for once agreed: Sinclair's victory represented the high tide of radicalism in the United States. The country stood at a crossroads, and some predicted that a Sinclair win in November would set America squarely on the path to destruction.

The prospect of a socialist governing the nation's most volatile state sparked nothing less than a revolution in American politics. With an assist from Hollywood, Sinclair's opponents virtually invented the modern media campaign. It marked a stunning advance in the art of public relations, "in which advertising men now believed they could sell or destroy political candidates as they sold one brand of soap and defamed its competitor," Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., has observed. In another twenty years, these techniques "would spread east," Schlesinger added, "achieve a new refinement, and begin to dominate the politics of the nation."