The “permanent campaign” is the idea that governing with public approval requires a continuing political campaign.
It means scoring political points at every turn, at whatever cost, all in the name of being able to win in the long run through enough mistakes by the other side and enough ammunition to use against them in the next election.
Both parties do it. And everybody gets that.
Still, with that in mind, it’s astonishing how ugly the permanent campaign has particularly devolved with regards to the Democratic front-runner.
Before many of us were even born, Republicans were going after the Clintons.
The extent to which a first lady was involved with policy at the White House raised many eyebrows in Washington during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Compounding that, it’s no secret Hillary Clinton has never been fond of the media — and for good reason.
During the GOP-driven scandals of the 1990s, the Clintons experienced first hand that privacy at the highest of echelons of public life is virtually nonexistent.
Their vast orbit has brought with it plenty of enemies. And as we move deeper in 2016, the ugliness and intensity of attacks on them — particularly Hillary — are bound to continue.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi is the crown jewel of an entire industry designed to take down — or at the very least damage — the candidate best positioned to win the presidency despite not being an incumbent.
The Benghazi committee was created to find out what “really” happened during the Sept. 11 attacks on the American consulate that left the American ambassador to Libya and two American servicemen dead.
This committee was formed despite the other nine congressional committees that participated in investigations relating to the 2012 attack that found no wrongdoing by the Obama administration.
Ten reports have been published on the attacks since. Yet still, in 2015, Republicans continue to use taxpayer money — an estimated $8,000 per day — to bankroll a partisan witch hunt that traditionally was left to the national committees.
What’s truly shameful, though, above all else, is the willingness of Republicans to politicize the deaths of four Americans to attack Hillary. The committee is a microcosm of the toxic politics being used by the GOP to go after her and a harbinger of the circus to come going into 2016.
The email scandal raised some valid questions, particularly about how the government classifies information.
But at the end of the day we should remember that the reason we’re talking about it is because of a committee created for the purpose of political theater.
Reality suggests the permanent campaign will play you if you don’t play the system. But it’s costing us in much more than money.
edsalas@indiana.edu
