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    "title": "Perlman, Selig",
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    "ocrText": "20\ntomers who look only at the label and do not possess sufficient power or\nunderstanding to look behind the label. Hero is clearly indicated a method\nof consumer cooperation or consumer control in politics.\nThe labor movement, the farmers' movement, the other types of movements\nwith particular social objectives, have leaders or spokesmen who engage in\ncollective bargaining with the managers of the political enterprise, striv-\ning to influence the decision made by these political enterprisers as to\nthe kind of political woods to be manufactured,\nAs you see, that is the standard American method, the method of collective\nbargaining in politics. It began and continues as a two-sided collective-\nbargaining process--011 the one side, the managers of the political enterprise,\nspeaking for their political organization, which includes all sorts of\npeople from respectables in silk hats to wardheelers and henchmen; on the\nother, the spokesmen of the various movement the labor movement, the\nfarm movment, the humanitarian movements and SO forth, speaking for their\ngroups as collectivities, and thus engaging in collective bargaining.\nIn the last three decades or so, a new wrinkle was introduced into this\npattern of collective bargaining in politics, a wrinkle which strengthened\nthe non-politicians, the spokesmen of the social movements, in their bar-\ngaining with the politicians. This new wrinkle was the primary election.\nIt was the primary election which made it possible for these organized\ngroups--organized social groups such as labor, farmers and others--to in-\nfiltrate the political parties with people of their own choosing. They are\nno longer obliged to make bargains with the central leadership of any po-\nlitical party. Under the primary system, they can put forth individual\ncandidates of their own choice, whose loyalty to the program of the move-\nments they can trust, and can get them nominated on the ticket of the po-\nlitical party.\nI call that the process of infiltration. I remember, for instance how\nPresident Coolidge was vexed when he discovered that Republican Congress-\nmen, or at least some of them, did not take their cue from the White House\nbut rather from the political associations or the social groups in their\nown districts to whom they owed their nomination send election. In other\nwords, as a result of this new wrinkle in the pattern of American politics,\nthe internal discipline of the political party, has been broken by the\nprocess of infiltration.\nHere we have another characteristic of the pattern of political action in\nthe United States. Your political leader has to be exceedingly flexible,\nsomething like the manager of a hotel or a summer resort, striving to at-\ntract a great variety of customers from all parts of the country and from\nvarious social groups. He has to make each group feel that it is welcome,\nthat he is eager to serve them. That is the kind of leadership that Amer-\nican\npolitics calls for-a very flexible kind of leadership that can make\nall those different groups, each of which has made a special bargain with\nthe party, feel at home, feel that they are wanted in the party. And of\ncourse the political leaders also have to deliver at least a part of their\npromises if the concern is to remain in business.\nIn view of all this, it is but natural that Europeans should be puzzled\nwhen they try to figure out what the American political party is. It does\nnot seem to conform to any particular model of political party that they\nas Europeans are accustomed to. It seems very much like a crazy quilt."
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