Our primary: The future is ...

Friday, January 13, 2012

Once again, the New Hampshire presidential primary was a worthy event, one that spotlighted the strengths and flaws of some interesting candidates, this year on the Republican side only because, of course, President Barack Obama had no serious challenges to his impending renomination.

But what about 2016? Will the first-in-the-nation primary still be important, still bring candidates face-to-face with people in our relatively small communities, to places like the Hollis Pharmacy?

Maybe. Maybe not so much. Already this year, we saw stories about how candidates were using the Internet more, and for years, the importance of television advertising has been growing, if for no other reason than the inability of voters to cross-examine a TV ad. Get a candidate at Bedford High School and he might have to answer a tough question.

But a story in Monday’s issue of The Telegraph, our sister paper, spotlighted another interesting, a potentially distressing, change in our national political game: the use of “applications designed to inform voters and procure campaign contributions.”

That means social media “apps,” of course and one specifically mentioned that is already in use is from the Obama campaign – an “app” for the iPhone and iPad called Obama 2012 that allows users to access photos and videos, receive news updates, and donate to the campaign.

It is, of course, understandable that campaigns of all stripes would tap into the latest technology because, after all, the people they are trying to reach are logged into the latest technology. There are some exceptions: the Ludites among us aren’t all app-happy, but so many millions are, and can be reached so relatively easily and en masse, that it would be foolish for a campaign not to do it.

But what does that mean for primaries like New Hampshire’s? Well, we still will have one, of course, but there’s a good chance we won’t see as much of the candidates, that they will find less need for face-to-face sessions where fewer voters can be reached. That will be a sad moment for New Hampshire, for America and for American politics, which will become even more robotic than it is now.

It will become an “ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies because you can’t ask me any questions” sort of campaign where, instead of shaking a candidate’s hand, you can shake your cell phone up and down, that’s all.

In the Telegraph story, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee said that the GOP is working to develop mobile applications and campaigns but has no firm launch date. Want to bet it will launch prior to 2016?

“I’ve seen the future, brother, it’s murder,” Leonard Cohen wrote.

We’re afraid we see it, too, and it’s robotic.