It is worth noting, briefly, that the outrage brigades do not exist solely on the left. Yes, they're more vocal. Yes, they're more easily riled. Yes, they seem to have an unending stream of things to be aggrieved about. But they're not alone.
Consider the treatment of Liz Mair, who was recently hired by the Scott Walker campaign to provide some online outreach. (Full disclosure: I've met Liz a couple of times and I believe we are Facebook friends, though we do not follow each other on Twitter and I have yet to have her out to my villa in the Italian countryside.*) Turns out that Liz is a bit of a squish on immigration and the dread social issues. But, more damningly, she thinks it's foolish to have the Iowa caucuses serve as the first event on the presidential primary calendar. And people in Iowa aren't happy about this because people in Iowa love it that politicians have to suck up to them and their asinine policy preferences.
So people in Iowa whipped up an outrage mob and got Mair removed from the campaign. For heterodox opinions she held on a few issues (that she wouldn't be working on) and tweets she had authored (before she signed up to do media outreach for Walker), she lost her job.
I want Republicans to remember this day the next time, say, the media goes after a GOP staffer because she said something vaguely mean about the first daughters' behavior at a press conference.
Over at the Washington Post, Hunter Schwarz complains that this is making politics boring:
Resigning was the right political move for Mair and Walker. Keeping someone on board who dared to speak out against Iowa couldn't have helped Walker as he shook hands and campaigned there. But it's still a shame — and a sign that social media is making things more boring rather than less so.
And, as former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett notes, there's a cost in terms of talent:
Harmless sarcasm means you lose your job. Thankfully, only the BEST people have no strong opinions or sense of humor.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) March 18, 2015
Schwarz points out that trawling through Twitter feeds will keep many an oppo researcher busy this cycle. Is Matt Lewis right when he suggests that this is just the new normal? A new danger of having consultants who also serve as talking heads and maintain a healthy presence on social media?
It used to be that political operatives were mostly seen, but not heard. At least, they didn’t speak for themselves — didn’t voice their own personal opinions. But in recent decades, many have parlayed campaign success into TV hits and the like. Going on TV is fun, and who doesn’t want to be a little famous? Meanwhile, social media makes it incredibly easy for all of us to say spontaneous (and dangerous) things.
Call me old school, but I’ve always thought that, at some point, you sort of had to pick a lane. You can either be a contrarian and controversial commentator, or you can work for candidates and companies. But if you choose the latter, you must suppress some of your desire for mischief. It’s really hard to have it both ways. If you want to be an irreverent pundit, that may disqualify you from other professional opportunities.
The problem here is that it can be intriguing, from a news standpoint, to see what aides believe and read what they say. It's something that voters and readers like to know about. It's interesting, at least to me, that Rand Paul's campaign associates hired someone who thinks that Edward Snowden is a hero who deserves the Nobel Prize and thinks Putin is right to refuse extradition of an American whose efforts have led to enemy states obtaining sensitive intelligence data. I imagine others were interested that Liz Mair is a dirty RINO anti-corn-subsidy squish.
The question, I guess, is one of norms. Is it possible to report on such things without having the second day story be, "Well, why hasn't this person been fired yet?" I kind of doubt it. Which is too bad. And it scares me a bit. Because it means that if I ever decide to work for a campaign, God forbid, Big Bicycle will come after me with everything they've got. And those jokers don't mess around.
*What, you didn't know? All establishment beltway D.C. RINOs invite their Georgetown cocktail party buddies out to their Italian villas. You don't do the same? Seems rude, tbh.