Nancy Gets Her Beachhead
Several years ago now, I was introduced to the idea of a political beachhead. A beachhead is an established and somewhat safe landing area on a beach through which an attacking army can move troops and equipment. My introduction to that concept began while talking to a community organizer in the pre-lottery days (1980's) of Idaho. My organizer friend explained that although most people do not care for gambling he believed lottery officials would be able to sell state legislators on the idea that they would skim some of the profits from the lottery and return it to the state in the form of education costs for children and schools. States would also reap the windfall benefits of taxing lottery winners. The only losers would be the people playing the lottery. So the lottery officials established a beachhead by promising a little payola to the states. Since states and their politicians are always looking for new revenue sources, the lottery became an easy sell. We are now seeing...