#permission structure

[luminousradar]

Uncertainty, Social Media, and the Radicalization of the US

A confluence of factors is leading people in the nation to gravitate toward extremist views.

[theflagartfoundation]

PERMISSION STRUCTURES: The now-famous term comes, as far as I can tell, from a 2008 profile of David Axelrod in the New Republic, where Jason Zengerle quoted Ken Snyder, a Democratic consultant and Axelrod protege, on his mentor’s approach. “David felt there almost had to be a permission structure set up for certain white voters to consider a black candidate.” The “permission structure” relied heavily on “third-party authentication,” which is to say, endorsements from respected figures or institutions that the targeted voters admired.  If you think back to the 2008 campaign, you can see Axelrod slowly building this permission structure around Obama. Right before Super Tuesday, Axelrod rolled out the endorsements of Ted and Caroline Kennedy. Right before the election, he rolled out Colin Powell. The timing and nature of the endorsements were meant to make an African American candidate with an international upbringing and the name Barack Hussein Obama into someone that Ohio steelworkers could feel comfortable voting for. If Ted Kennedy and Colin Powell can back this guy, so can you.  The point of Obama's whole "permission structure" riff was to persuade the media to stop blaming him for Republican intransigence and begin blaming Republicans for Republican intransigence. But talking about "permission structures" sounds academic and passive — it's definitely not what LBJ would have done — and so it just gave the media a new reason to blame the president for Republican intransigence.  The basic idea of this phrase, it seems, is as follows: A doesn’t trust B to do some activity X because A fears that B does not have A’s best interests at heart in the “realm” of X.  “I cannot force Republicans to embrace … common-sense solutions,” Obama said at the press conference, referring specifically to budget gridlock. “I can urge them to. I can put pressure on them. I can rally the American people around those common-sense solutions. But ultimately, they, themselves, are going to have to say, we want to do the right thing. And I think there are members certainly in the Senate right now, and I suspect members in the House as well, who understand that deep down. But they’re worried about their politics. It’s tough. Their base thinks that compromise with me is somehow a betrayal. They’re worried about primaries. And I understand all that. And we’re going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure for them to be able to do what’s going to be best for the country. But it’s going to take some time.”  -- Image: Rebecca Ward. permission structure, 2016. Travertine marble, Carrara marble, cast plaster, 15 ½ x 4 ½ x 6 ½ inches. Image courtesy the artist. Texts: Excerpts from the following: “So about that ‘permission structure’…” by Ezra Kelin. Published by The Washington Post, May 3, 2013. For Full Text: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/03/so-about-that-permission-structure/?utm_term=.f317e2921866 and “Obama’s ‘Permission Structure’ And His Last, Best Chance For A Budget ‘Grand Bargain’ by Brian Beutler. Published by TPM DC, May 3, 2013. For Full Text: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-s-permission-structure-and-his-last-best-chance-for-a-budget-grand-bargain -- Rebecca Ward. permission structure, 2017 is included in Rebecca Ward on view at The FLAG Art Foundation June 1 - August 11, 2017.

JZ