The Game of Politics

I first met him in the Wisconsin primary campaign of 1968 when I was a University of Wisconsin (UW) student in Madison. At that time the Wisconsin presidential primary election in April was one of the most important in the nation.

It was the second primary in the nation as it followed the presidential primary in New Hampshire, which was not considered representative of the nation, and the Iowa caucuses also not considered representative. Wisconsin however was a state with a history of both Democrat and Republican administrations and a demographic more representative of the USA. Thus, it was said that “whoever wins Wisconsin wins in November”. Thus, all the major presidential candidates spent big money in Wisconsin.

That year, 1968 Charlie had recruited me from the UW College Republicans to lead “Students for Leonard”, a campaign for the GOP senatorial candidate Jerris Leonard. Later he appointed me as the state-wide co-chair of the Nixon college committee. In that role I visited other campuses in the state including Marquette University in Milwaukee where my friend Thomas Miller was a student leader.

As I remember the bronze plaque behind his desk read:
“Politics: The only game for adults. All other games are for children.”

That summed up Charlie’s view of politics. It reflected the insider notion that politics was “hard ball” and not gentlemanly at that. I wondered then and for many years, whether the plaque was Charlie’s quote or came from somewhere else.

A few decades later I discovered the answer to that question. The words on his plaque were a paraphrase of a quote from a 1946 self-help book on politics How to be a Politician written by the science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein. The original words are to be found in the Heinlein book. The book was based on Heinlein’s political experience after World War II in California in support of fellow author Upton Sinclair, then running for governor of California.

The reason I found Heinlein’s  book was that it reprinted in paperback in 1992 by the presidential campaign of Republican primary candidate Ross Perot under the title Take Back Your Government: A Practical Handbook for the Private Citizen Who Wants Democracy to Work, (Baen Publishing Enterprises, Riverdale, NY).

Here is how Heinlein presented the idea that later appeared on Davi’s plaque:
“Politics …the greatest sport in the world. Horse racing, gambling, football, the fights, all of these things are childish and trite compared with this greatest sport. Politics is a game where you always play for keeps…”  

The mystery of the origin of the quote was now solved. However, in reading the original, during the current presidential campaign season, the words “play for keeps” remind me again of the seriousness and importance of our selection of the next president. It’s “for keeps.”

The photograph above shows Vice President George H.W. Bush campaigning for the president in 1987. The American Serb Memorial Hall in Milwaukee was, and still is, a regular campaign stops for candidates of both parties. Bush took a moment to visit with me, then a member of his state campaign committee, and my daughter Elizabeth (age 4).