A month and a half after Greene’s out-of-nowhere victory in the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary, the media obsession with his unlikely story is becoming as big a mystery as the circumstances surrounding his curious candidacy.
A week ago, CNN sent one of its top correspondents to the Democrat’s small hometown for Greene’s debut speech, and ABC’s “World News Tonight” did an entire segment that day on the 32-year-old military-veteran-turned-unemployed-Senate-candidate.
These reports follow scores of national, and even international, stories about nearly every aspect of Greene’s life: Who he is, how he got on the ballot and why he won the June primary.
There’s no other marginal candidate this election cycle drawing such attention. And there may be no other example in modern political history of a statewide political hopeful with so little hope of victory, yet so much media attention.
It’s virtually certain that, by November, Greene will be the subject of more national coverage than most of those candidates who will actually be elected to the Senate. What’s most curious is that it’s not as though his surprise primary victory dashed or advanced Democratic hopes to pick up a seat — GOP Sen. Jim DeMint is virtually certain to win reelection regardless of who is put up against him.
But while Greene’s long-shot campaign may not offer insights into the broader political environment, the breathless coverage of his candidacy reveals much about how the news media operate in the Obama era and how otherwise obscure stories and individuals can attract and hold their attention.
From the outset, the alchemy of the Greene story has proved irresistible to the national press. At its core is a mysterious, quotable protagonist in a whodunit featuring alleged dirty tricks, against the backdrop of race and region — the equivalent of catnip for reporters.
“You’ve got a lot of volatile chemicals at play here,” said Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at South Carolina’s Winthrop University.
What’s truly remarkable about the Greene story is that the fascination has endured even after a state law enforcement investigation concluded there was no wrongdoing — that Greene paid the $10,400 candidate filing fee out of his own pocket.
As reported in The State newspaper, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division obtained Greene’s bank records and determined that he had cobbled together the money through a payment he received from the Department of Defense for his military service and from federal and state tax refunds.
So, despite accusations from some Democrats, such as House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, Greene is apparently not a GOP plant meant to ensure DeMint’s reelection.
With the facts surrounding his candidacy more mundane than first thought, why is Greene still drawing attention?
First, there is the obvious: Greene’s authenticity in an era of talking-point-bound politicians is arresting. Quirky, long-shot candidates are a commonplace election presence across the map; but in this case, Greene has shown a knack for drawing attention. An example is his suggestion to a British newspaper that he could raise revenue for the state by selling bobble-head dolls with his likeness.
“He keeps saying provocative things,” said Republican strategist Tucker Eskew, a South Carolina native. “That’s, on the most basic level, noteworthy.”
And in an era in which cynicism permeates politics, the discovery of an utterly guileless politician whose motives and goals are genuinely unclear fuels even more coverage.
But the lingering fixation on Greene reaches beyond that.
The South Carolina dateline plays a significant role, because, dating back to the Lee Atwater era, the Palmetto State holds a place in the American psyche as a uniquely nasty political universe in which the worst sort of dirty tricks are practiced by the most sinister of operatives.
Even after the conspiracy theory of Greene’s primary victory was knocked down, interest in the bizarre tale has continued, in part because of the state’s better-than-fiction political culture.
“It feeds the narrative about how South Carolina has been a carnival act for the last year and a half,” said Democratic operative Wyeth Ruthven, a veteran of state politics, referring to recent events involving Republicans, including Gov. Mark Sanford’s intercontinental affair, Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst and recent accusations of infidelity against gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley. “Had this happened in any other state, it wouldn’t have gotten the same coverage,” Ruthven said.
State Rep. Anton Gunn, an up-and-coming Democrat, said there is now a national perception about the state along the lines of, “If you want to hear something crazy, if you want to see something stupid, come to South Carolina.”
“I don’t agree with it,” he added, “but there’s this imagery of us being the whoopee cushion of the nation, and we continue to exacerbate that.”
Huffmon put it more simply: “South Carolina politics has become the car wreck on the American political highway, and the public can’t help but slow down and rubberneck.”
Many in and around the state’s tight-knit political class are, however, growing annoyed at the continuing interest in Greene, which now includes reports that a documentary film is in the works. Both Democrats and Republicans believe the many media profiles of a small-town man who still lives with his father and doesn’t own a cell phone are veering toward mockery.
Gunn said the coverage reflected “condescension toward a Southern state.”
“Here is this guy in a rural town, who doesn’t have it all together and is appearing on TV with a 1993 family reunion shirt — I think it’s very much cultural,” Gunn said.
“The coverage has been patronizing, but because he has no chance to win and makes himself totally available, people can cover him any way they want and there won’t be any consequences to it,” Ruthven said.
Another Democrat with deep South Carolina roots went further, expressing anger at both the media and Republicans for what he said was ridicule that wouldn’t take place if Greene were not African-American.
“It’s painful to watch,” the Democrat said, noting that state GOP operatives have now purchased website domains to link Greene with the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee.
Eskew, referring to Haley, an Indian-American, and Lowcountry congressional candidate Tim Scott, an African-American, said, “In a state that has finally made good news politically by nominating two exceptional and interesting Republicans of different backgrounds, it’s unfortunate that it’s a black Democrat who is drawing attention for a lot of the wrong reasons.”
The interest in Greene has shown no signs of abating, as mash-up videos that ridicule his tics go viral on the Internet.
As much as anything else, the appeal of the Greene saga illustrates how the media ecosystem now works. His improbable candidacy began as something of a cult sensation among reporters and political junkies on Twitter and other social media.
At first, the possibility of mischief was alluring, but then the story took on a life of its own as details about Greene, including a pending criminal charge of obscenity, dribbled out. The story then quickly migrated to cable-TV and print-media outlets that discovered their politically inclined readers had a considerable appetite for the tale.
“It drives page views,” Ruthven said. “People who write about Alvin Greene are going to get clicked on. It has become more of an Internet sensation than it is anything else.”
April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008