Livingstone won by rising above politics. But it differs from earlier holders of that assumption by viewing the market and the corporation, not just as pillars of economic prosperity, but as models for every kind of social institution and sphere of civil society. Political campaigns have always been advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, the influence of marketing techniques on politics has dramatically increased over the twentieth century. We have now reached the point where, in confirmation of the dialectical law, quantitative change has become qualitative change.
Presentation is the issue.
Today, as democratic politics is eviscerated into marketing alone, it is assumed that this candidate deserves to win. In the near future, he claims, America will be run as a continuous, virtual town-meeting, thus obviating the need for political representation altogether. This prospect is frequently hailed as facilitating a return to the pristine, paradigmatic democracies of ancient Greece. The difference, however, is that ours is a market society, while Athens was not. Political affairs are to be governed by reason, not by the rhetoric of the huckster.