How the politicians are turning off youthful voters
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 25, 2000
When politicians spend more time slinging mud at each other than explaining their own positions, it’s easy to lose sight of the issues.
Wednesday, October 25, 2000
When politicians spend more time slinging mud at each other than explaining their own positions, it’s easy to lose sight of the issues.
That was aptly demonstrated Sunday night in Austin when Austin High School senior Amber Berhow asked the candidates for U.S. Senate how they would respond to a younger generation being turned off of politics. The two major candidates proceeded to respond to her question by basically attacking the other.
n Incumbent Sen. Rod Grams: "… I understand the apathy, because many politicians promise more than they can deliver – I look at you Mark," he said, looking pointedly at DFL-challenger Mark Dayton.
n Dayton: "What I consider most unfortunate is that young people see ads and hear things said that are so untrue and so derogatory," he responded. "Rod, your manager said yesterday that you were going to spend the next two weeks explaining how despicable I am."
n James Gibson, Independence Party candidate, had the best answer for Berhow, at least in my opinion, and stayed out of the sniping indulged in by the two leaders in the race for U.S. Senate. He spoke of intergenerational justice issues: leaving the environment better than we found it, paying down the national debt and making Social Security accounts personal.
All four candidates then proceeded to refer to Berhow and her peers later in the debate by talking about "Ann’s generation" – her name was Amber – which just seemed to emphasize the lack of real connection between the politicians and this young lady from Austin High School.
However, I’m not writing here to promote a certain issue or a particular candidate. I wanted to get the word out about a proposal that would limit the kind of juvenile playground behavior that results from the kind of mudslinging that Grams’ campaign – in particular – is indulging in.
The proposal is called the "Minnesota Compact on Campaign Standards" and was sent out by the League of Women Voters of Minnesota at the beginning of the campaign season. It promoted voluntary standards designed to "raise the level of political discussion among Minnesota candidates, campaigns, the media and the voters."
What the compact tried to do was persuade candidates and political parties to stress issues and candidate qualifications and to minimize attacks. It worked to strengthen the tradition of debates that actually focused on the issues. It asked news organizations to emphasize coverage of campaign substance over campaign strategy. Finally, it encouraged citizens to participate more fully in the election process.
Made up of four planks – tackling debates, advertising, media coverage and citizen participation – the compact would appear to have failed, particularly on the second plank of advertising.
Minnesota candidates were asked to abide by several voluntary standards in advertising, two examples follow:
n A candidate and campaign staff will ensure what is said about an opponent is true and said by the candidate in person. In TV and radio advertising the candidate’s voice and/or face should be clearly identified and in at least 50 percent of the ad.
n It is legitimate and useful to compare and contrast an opponent’s record and positions with one’s own. Both criticisms of an opponent and claims for oneself should be fully documented and not deceptive, misleading or taken out of context.
Wonderful suggestions … I know a couple presidential candidates who could stand to follow the compact as well.
That’s not to mention the national media, which appears to spend far more time polling people than actually writing about the issues and exploring the differences between the candidates. I could tell you daily who’s ahead in the polls – imagine if all the energy that goes into scientific polls were dedicated to finding solutions.
We need more than campaign finance reform – we need campaign reform.
The election is the only poll I need.