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In politics it would be novel to have a gracious rival. Modern political campaigners might take a lesson in graciousness and kindness from the great British statesman, Edward Campbell. Once when Campbell was opposing Thackereay for a seat in Parliament, the two contenders, in course of their campaigning, met and engaged in friendly conversation. On taking leave of his rival Thackereay remarked, 'May the best man win!' 'Oh, no, ' replied Campbell, 'I hope not, I want to win!' E. J. Dionne Jr. , author of They Only Look Dead, ascertains that politics in America today are nothing more than 'politics of moral annihilation'.
As an example of this he refers to the presidential election of 1992. Normally, press conferences are called when political matters arise. The conference mentioned was called by the conservatives. Paula Jones came forward and accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment; apparently Mr. Clinton made 'unwelcome d sexual advances." He continues to point out that these are the same conservatives that only a few years earlier had denounced the idea of sexual harassment as 'feminist invention'.
It is acts like this that are aiding in the 'moral annihilation' of politics. The overall impact of such politics is undermining the intelligence of the American populous by turning political campaigning into a childlike power struggle. Both the Democrats and Republicans have reverted to a state of guerrilla media warfare. Every time election year rolls around we begin to hear the usual complaints of how politics is morally corrupt. It typically means we get to see the superficial image-oriented campaigning, negative attacks against one's opponent, and the thirty-second spot commercials that into up our favorite sitcom. Experts note that the rates of political participation in the United States, as measured by the percentage of eligible voters who register and actually cast their ballot, has been dropping for years, in part due to the fact that citizens are disgusted with the conduct of political campaigns.
From this we can clearly see overall impact of this type of politics does infact undermined how the populus acts in 3 ways: 1) don't watch televison 2) don't care and 3) don't vote. This then brings us to the second point of how this is harmful to democracy. As I stated before it turns political campaigning into a childlike game for power. Author Daniel O'Connell once said: 'A political doesn't stand on his own record; he jumps on the other fellows. An example of this in Dionne's book is the Senate election in Virgina. Oliver North ran an commercial that talked about Senator Chuck Robb: 'Why can't Chuck Robb tell the truth?
About the cocaine parties where Robb said he never saw drugs-then four of his party friends were sent to prison for during cocain. Or about a beauty queen in the hotel room in New York. Robb says it was only a massage. 'Chuck Robb lived a lie and violated his oath of good faith to the people, ' writes Richmond Times-Dispatch. Character counts, and North has it all over Robb. Dionne then points out that Robb replies ever so quickly with an 'tag, your it' ad, claiming that North has told so many lies, '...
people wonder does North even know what the truth is. ' It is these childlike games for power that causes people to question the validity of politics itself. Both Oliver North and Chuck Robb lacked political insight and only hindered the citizen's of Virginia right to democracy. It begins in one state and soon will spread throughout the United States. Dionne unfortunately points out that due to moral annihilation, democracy is already is being harmed. This now bring us to the third and final point. What have both Democrats and Republicans done or failed to due that has encouraged the 'Politics of Annihilation' Democrats problems started in the late 1970 's.
At this time government was becoming less and less popular. The government had to much control over the people. Thus the Democrats capitalized and swayed middle-class. In truth, Democrats according to Dionne 'really did support expansive government. ' They have never had any problems taking cheap shots at Republicans (ie.
social security, Medicare, and even school lunch programs). The overall effect has become less and less each year. During the Regan years Democrats have had their ego's literally dismantled. Because of this Democrats have the problem of being both for and against big government.
As for the Republicans it has become easier to place blame for 'moral annihilation'. Dionne points out that the one of the main issues in politics involves understanding morality itself. Sociologist James Davidson Hunter made it known at the 1992 Republican National Convention that there are battles within the elephant camp, because of this there is a lack of respect within. In Today's world a political thinks of the next election; a statesmen of the next generation. To preserve peace, we need guns of smaller and men of larger caliber. But more importantly for myself I seek a candidate that sees the world as I do.
I believe Professor David Tabb summed it up in the statement: 'I don't care what you (the candidate) can do for everyone, but what can you do to for me. '
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