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Arianna Online
Election
2002: Hold Your Nose, Vote, Then Fight For Reform
By Arianna Huffington
November 4, 2002 What an absolutely dreadful campaign season
this has been -- an interminable Bataan death march of
ruffle-no-feathers issues, sleazy, mud-slinging TV ads, and insipid
poll-driven candidates. In fact, the only truly compelling aspect
of Election 2002 has been trying to decide which campaign was the
most inept. There were so many contenders: Sen. Robert "The Torch"
Torricelli's corruption-fueled flame out in New Jersey; Andrew
Cuomo's "I had too many ideas" nosedive in New York; Janet Reno's
red pickup truck breakdown on her way to the Florida statehouse;
Montana senatorial candidate Mike Taylor's bizarre, Perot-esque "I
quit. No, wait, I don't" temper tantrum after the opposition ran an
ad he felt implied that he was gay. It was the most amusing display
of heterosexual panic since baseball superstar Mike Piazza called a
press conference to insist that he liked girls. But the most
wretched election spectacle of all took place on my home turf in
California where we were given the option of voting for the
remarkably unpalatable incumbent governor, Gray Davis, who never met
a special interest he didn't want to hit up for a donation, or his
stupefyingly incompetent challenger Bill Simon, who shot himself in
the foot so many times it's a wonder he can still walk. It was like
being asked to choose which kind of bag we preferred to suffocate
ourselves with, paper or plastic. Illustrating one of the paradoxes
of modern politics, both candidates managed to make blandness taste
bad. Today's wrinkle-free candidates are so afraid of offending
anyone, so committed to the notion that the only way to win is by
running to the middle that they end up standing for nothing more
profound than: "Vote for me, the other guy sucks!" This trend makes
the sudden loss of Paul Wellstone, a politician distinguished by his
unwavering commitment to his beliefs, popular or not, even more
tragic. Wellstone's death brings his rare breed one step closer to
extinction. Campaign 2002 saw some of the most vitriolic TV ads in
recent memory. There was the ad in the Georgia senatorial race that
sought to link war hero Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm
in Vietnam, with mass murderers Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein
because he had voted against some of President Bush's homeland
security measures. And then there was Texas Governor Rick Perry's
just-this-side-of-slanderous attempt to smear his opponent, Tony
Sanchez, with the blood of a DEA agent murdered by Mexican drug
lords 17 years ago. "The Justice Department," the ad slimed, "said
Sanchez had a choice: to cooperate with law enforcement or the drug
dealers. Sanchez chose the drug dealers." The stench from this
political cesspool is expected to keep roughly 70% of eligible
voters away from the polls. And nothing in the much-ballyhooed "Help
America Vote Act" the president signed into law last week will
change that. These long-awaited election reforms may make it less
likely we'll have a repeat of 2000's dangling chad fiasco by
requiring states to replace outdated voting equipment and create
computerized voter registration rolls in time for Election Day 2006.
But they will do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of
candidates we can vote for on our high-tech voting machines. For
that we need more fundamental changes in our electoral system. For
starters, the incoming Congress should immediately pass legislation
requiring broadcasters to offer political candidates free airtime.
Candidates in congressional and gubernatorial races forked over
close to $1 billion for TV commercials this year alone -- and, as a
result of the absurd cost of these ads, spent an equally absurd
amount of their time raising money to pay for them. Time that
could've been better spent figuring out why they were running in the
first place. We should also push to make it possible for voters
nationwide to register on Election Day. Same day registration,
currently permitted in six states (states that, not coincidentally,
averaged a markedly higher turnout in the last election), would
allow insurgent candidates whose campaigns catch fire in the final
days of a race to attract voters who have been turned off by
politics as usual -- especially those who are just coming of voting
age but have yet to be convinced that voting can make a difference.
Instant run-off voting would also expand the political playing
field by allowing voters to abandon the increasingly prevalent
"lesser of two evils" yardstick and vote their conscience without
fear of turning their third-party candidate into a "spoiler." Of
course, the Big Kahuna of voting reform remains full public
financing of elections, which would dramatically diminish the
corrupting influence of special interest money and give us
candidates beholden to no one but the American people. In the
meantime, despite the anorexic pickings currently being offered us,
we still need to honor our duty as citizens by heading to the polls
on Election Day. Here's my recommendation: hold your nose, cast your
ballot, then turn around and begin the fight to reform the system --
before we have to endure another demoralizing campaign season.
If you have questions or comments, please contact
me at [email protected]. |
