How the Villagers Defend Their Turf

by: Matt Stoller

Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 21:02


This is the worst defense of nepotism I've ever seen.  Some Beltway insider named Charlie Brown is mad that Glenn Greenwald is criticizing his friend, Mort Halperin, a legendary civil libertarian turned architect of the FISA compromise, as well as the father of DC journalist Mark Halperin.  It starts with a quote from Glenn noting that the Halperin family is intertwined in policy and journalistic circles.

Several people have emailed to complain - correctly - that I was remiss in failing to note that Mort Halperin is the father of the incomparably execrable Mark Halperin, formerly of ABC News and now of Time. My apologies for the oversight. If there is any system more nepotistic and incestuous than our Beltway political and media institutions, I don't know what it is.

So Greenwald would have us believe that the father should be held accountable for the supposed sins of the son, and vice versa, and that Mark Halperin's success is based entirely on his "famous" father.  I don't know Mark Halperin.  I have no idea how he got his first job in Washington.  But I'm guessing that his subsequent success just might be based on his own achievements and not because of his dad.

I suppose it's possible that Mark Halperin just randomly succeeded as a famous insider DC journalist who constantly appears on television because of his close connections to various political elites, but I'm going to guess that it might have had something to do with his famous insider father, Mort Halperin, and Mort's close connections to various elites.

But we're both guessing, I guess.
Matt Stoller :: How the Villagers Defend Their Turf

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How the Villagers Defend Their Turf | 22 comments
Burn the Village (4.00 / 9)
Destroying the Village ought to be the first priority for the progressive blogosphere.  Beating the dimwit Republicans is easy-- we can outsmart them, fundraise circles around them and generally trounce them at the polls, IF we have a level playing field.  Without the corporate media pimping on behalf of the entrenched economic and political interests, the progressive agenda would have won the war a long time ago.
I couldn't agree more. (0.00 / 0)
My chief concern is how the left attacks the media for bias though. Yes the Village is horribly biased, but bias in and of itself is not the problem. The primary attack on the village should center on how they are stupid. Attacks on the village need not be ideological or partisan. Simply exposing how often they are stupid and fail to reference data is better than accusing them of being "right wing."
[ Parent ]
Luke ... I am your father! (4.00 / 6)
I suppose it's possible that Mark Halperin just randomly succeeded as a famous insider DC journalist who constantly appears on television because of his close connections to various political elites, but I'm going to guess that it might have had something to do with his famous insider father, Mort Halperin, and Mort's close connections to various elites.

But we're both guessing, I guess.

Well, that's not anywhere near the only example.  Matt, your conclusion re: the Halperins closely mirrors this examination of Luke Russert's new gig with NBC.  Substitute the names and the comparison works like a charm.

Just like nepotism.

And Charlie Brown?  He's a clown, that Charlie Brown.

Mika! (0.00 / 0)


Those who have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace should not be given another chance. --Richard Nixon, 9 October 1968
[ Parent ]
what's odd (0.00 / 0)
It's particularly strange that he denies Halperin opposed immunity before Obama changed his position, then says Halperin still opposes immunity even while he supports a bill granting immunity.



New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

Affirmative Action For Elites--Same As It Ever Was (4.00 / 8)
This so misconstrues the argument.  It's not that the son is necessarily incompetent.  It's that so many other people's sons--and daughters--never even have a shot at having a shot.

And for one generation or even two, this sort of nepotism might not be that bad, because it's not like everyone does it.  But after three or four generations, suddenly it is like everyone does it.  And suddenly, the folks doing it are a standard deviation or so below what open market competetition would produce.

And that's not even taking into account how the networked interactions that screen out socially-agreed-upon "non-persons" (like Ned Lamont) and "non-events" (like the Downing Street Memo, the Niger forgeries, etc.) work to further degrade the quality of networked interactions to the level of a couple of 1950s Cub Scouts communicating with one another using kite string and tin cans.

That's what the argument is about.

That, and "Let them eat cake."

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

but it's not like someone would ever have a shot at getting elected president through that kind of nepotism (4.00 / 6)
um.
[ Parent ]
it's a little funny (4.00 / 1)
that Ned Lamont was considered a non-person considering he comes from one of the oldest monied families in all of North America.
[ Parent ]
So? (4.00 / 2)
What is North America to Versailles?

A mere province, at best.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
and (4.00 / 2)
when you're a traitor to your class you must be punished.
[ Parent ]
A colony, I think. (0.00 / 0)
A place from which to extract resources, and keep summer houses.

Montani semper liberi
[ Parent ]
George W. BUSH (4.00 / 1)
It ain't just the media here in this land of opportunity.
We benefited from it too (4.00 / 1)
In being able to elect presidents by the name of Kennedy and Roosevelt.

Not that this changes the indisputable fact that Mark Halperin really, really sucks.

[ Parent ]
Huh? (4.00 / 2)
I think you're blurring two different concepts here.  One is the function of incestuous nepotism in the world of Washington and the other is the political advantages of wealth and power.  While both may have their deleterious effects, they are clearly not the same.

There has always been a political advantage for the monied elite, and it's difficult to conceive how it could be otherwise.  But the degree of insular nepotism in Versailles has risen dramatically over the past 30-40 years, and is not only more deleterious, but also more capable of being changed.

Joseph Kennedy certainly harbored presidential ambitions, and when those were thwarted he passed them down to his sons.  But with the local Boston Brahman political culture, the Kennedys weren't even true insiders in their own hometown.

Similarly, Teddy Roosevelt was an insurgent in the GOP, who was made Vice President to try to contain him (at the time VP was a dead-end job).  FDR was a somewhat distant cousin, whose political career in the opposite party owed nothing to Teddy, and everything to the fact that their family had been part of the monied elite since the Dutch owned New Amsterdam.  It had been involved in politics, certainly, but not to an extreme or exclusive degree for such a prominent family.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
FDR (0.00 / 0)
I don't quite agree with your historical analysis here.  FDR talked about wanting to follow in the footsteps of "Uncle Ted" pretty early in life--State legislature in NY, Assistant Sec. of the Navy, President--and ended up doing just that.  President Uncle Ted gave away the bride (his niece) at FDR's wedding.  It's a pretty big stretch to say that those connections had no effect on FDR's ability to first win public office in a county that hadn't elected a Democrat in decades, and then to parlay that into an important assistant cabinet post in Washington less than 3 years later.  The national prominence of the Roosevelt name didn't exactly escape Democrats' minds either when they nominated FDR as VP in 1920, before he had even turned 40.

All that said, FDR was, of course, one of the handful of greatest presidents in US history.  When 1932 rolled around, he had been prominently involved in national government and/or politics for almost 20 years, so he obviously had more qualifications when he first ran for president than the idiot son whom the GOP foisted on the country in 2000.  But I don't see much point in trying to argue whether our nepotism was better than theirs, or whatever.    

[ Parent ]
It's A Pretty Big Stretch To Say That Those Connections Had Any Big Impact At All (0.00 / 0)
I read dozens of books about FDR as a kid, and Teddy Roosevelt was little more than a ghost in any of them.  An inspiration--mostly from afar--who gave away the bride (and congradulated Franklin on keeping the name in the family--see, I do remember).  That's not a whole lot of nepotistic pull in my book.

What you're doing here is exactly what I was warning against, conflating the prominence due to wealth--in this case, very old wealth, about as old as any in this country--with insider-politics nepotism.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
i was born in 1977 and was the 2nd American in my family (0.00 / 0)
who's we?
[ Parent ]
This is something that the Democrats were just as bad at (0.00 / 0)
remember who we ran against Bush?  That self-made man who rose from poverty into a life of politics, Al Gore.

Oh, wait.  

[ Parent ]
Not Really (4.00 / 4)
There have been political dynasties since the dawn of time, but, as in most things, it's a real stretch to say tht the Dems as are as bad as the Republicans.

It's more accurate to say that they're not innocent, either, and that it's more disappointing, given what should be.  But one need only look at the Roosevelt family and the Kennedy family to see the limits of nepotism on the Democratic side compared to the Bush family in the GOP, and boundless opportunities for the truly mediocre, but determined.  For all its faults, the Democratic Party remains far more open, and the place of dynastic power within it is far less secure.  Hardly an ideal situation, but nowhere near the psuedo-aristocratic cesspool of the GOP.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Setting the stage for an ignominious collapse when he was needed (0.00 / 0)
I don't know Mark Halperin.  I have no idea how he got his first job in Washington.  But I'm guessing that his subsequent success just might be based on his own achievements and not because of his dad.


John McCain doesn't care about Vets.


Worse than nepotism (4.00 / 1)
As much as I hate nepotism, I hate even more seeing our society fall back to the traditions of all stagnant societies where the son follows in his father's footsteps.  While some of the specific results might be good (Joss Whedon is a third generation screen writer, for instance) the overall stagnation it leaves the country just kills me.  This is where class is born, even more than money.
Self-made elitists (4.00 / 1)
I'm guessing that his subsequent success just might be based on his own achievements and not because of his dad.

Just as Bill Kristol, John Podhoretz, Cokie Roberts, Christopher Buckley, Michael Powell, Elizabeth Cheney, John McCain, Evan Bayh, Patrick Kennedy and the current president of the United States all achieved their career success (such as it is) without any help whatsoever from their influential fathers and/or families.

The true test of the senility of any system (like, say the Soviet Politburo circa 1983) is its inability to see, much less justify, the source of its own power and privileges. And by that standard, the village is flunking pretty badly.

How the Villagers Defend Their Turf | 22 comments
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