In the movie Days of Thunder (1990) a notable explanation of stock car racing was given that directly applies to what I am seeing down in the GOP South Carolina primary. In fact, this whole race and the one I observed from the inside of a campaign in 2008 remind me a lot of a good traditional and hard fought NASCAR race.
In the movie Harry Hogge yells into the driver’s ear, “Cole, you’re wandering all over the track! “
Cole Trickle responds, “Yeah, well this son of a bitch just slammed into me.”
Harry Hogge laughs and educates his ambitious but inexperienced racer, “No, no, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he *rubbed* you. And rubbin, son, is racin”.
Rubbing is racing. I believe they also called it, “trading paint”.
The 2012 election has been marked with a lot of nudges, rubs and outright bumps. The media looking to inflate the relevance of each spark thrown in the GOP primary make the incidents out to be more than they actually are.
The GOP primaries can look a lot like a good NASCAR race. You have competing teams lining up with each other for days or weeks to increase their traction on an issue or a point they wish to drive home. In NASCAR this is called “drafting”. In the GOP primary it is called “piling on”.
When one candidate doesn’t like what the other is doing in front of them they are likely to bump them in public or between their campaigns to compete for their space on the track. When a candidate doesn’t think it is their time to win a portion of the race they tend to push up someone else for those laps they don’t consider to be their “real” competition in the end.
The campaign is fueled by a brand of gasoline known as money and the candidates are thirstier than any 1000 horsepower car. The candidates’ organizations are the vehicle they ride in and the tires are their strategy.
I say the tires are their strategy because they seem to change them about four or five times a race. Sometimes they just change a couple things, and sometimes they change a strategy completely.
At the start of the race there are many more participants than there are at the end. The track is crowded and there is a lot of “rubbin” and bumping going on. This is where accidents happen and the cars (or campaigns) get banged up. In the pit stops between debates or breaking news events the campaign crew desperately tries to bang away at the car to make it drivable again, even if everyone at home is wondering why the bother when a busted up car that is missing a lap or two can’t finish the race in first place.
The size of the dents and magnitude of the setbacks and recoveries can be breathtaking and that is what keeps the drivers (or candidates) coming back. What we have seen in the race hasn’t disappointed.
Yes NASCAR and GOP primaries aren’t pretty at times, but they sure are fun to watch. The human and political drama of just one day, two days before the primary in South Carolina, is enough to remind us that picking our leaders and the access we have to information are privileges even if it is a bit tawdry at times.
The ability to participate in this process is a privilege too, and is something we should never take for granted.
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