Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992 TAG: 9202180355
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT LINDSTROM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TWEEDLEDUM, TWEEDLEDEE
AMERICA now has the distinction of possessing the largest non-voting electorate of any democracy. The 1988 presidential contest engendered such a case of ennui that less than half of those eligible cast ballots.Self-righteous pollsters wag their lever-worn fingers, blaming non-voters for the deteriorating state of the nation and never examining the state of the election process itself.
In a nation which daily offers more than 40 brands of hand soap to satisfy diverse preferences, the quadrennial practice of allowing only two major candidates to represent such a varied populace seems indefensible. Many disaffected voters find it more satisfying to wash their hands of politics than to play in the stagnant political mud.
Non-voters often defend their entropy by stating their unwillingness to engage in the rancorous mudslinging that characterizes elections. Many feel little civic pride in choosing between the candidate who promises to make the wealthy richer, or one who pledges to make them just wealthier.
The 15-second campaign commercial belittles crucial national issues to fit in the space of a soap ad. This truncated format eliminates discussion about crucial questions. It discourages voter consideration of problems such as health care or the deficit. But to give voters more than a slogan to grasp might make them meddlesome!
The Republicans and Democrats ostensibly represent the political yin and yang, a balance of opposites. The ideological differences between the two parties feign a contest designed to promote a responsive government. But that design fails us.
Increasingly, the parties grow closer together, following whatever demographic current promises victory or whichever stream of money proves most promising.
The sameness of the two parties generates the sameness of candidates: wealthy, male, middle-aged attorneys, each of whom must raise obscene amounts of money to distinguish himself from his quite indistinguishable opponent.
At present, the Democratic candidates look different from one another, but as the nominating convention nears they'll appear more alike in an effort not to offend campaign financiers.
Eventually, a nominee will be chosen. While the nominee will only slightly distinguish himself from his opponent, voters will be offered those distinctions as crucial points on which the nation's fate hangs.
Those points will not include discussions of a nation which pursued corporate objectives while allowing children to slip into poverty. Expect no dialogue about the expatriation of jobs and factories while the ranks of the unemployed doubled and then quadrupled. Look for no talk about misdirected wars on drugs and Third World nations. Such talk might engage and enrage voters' interests.
Because the two parties seem so much the same, and because they cannot distinguish themselves from each other, they pit us against each other. They play upon the differences we see among ourselves.
Into this void might come a rejuvenating third party - one that refused the bold bribes of the rich; one that sought to restore the public's faith in government; one that chose to be the party of opposition, rather than the party of collusion. But the improbability of that propels us to find another solution.
Those seeking to wrest the nation's control from the rich might begin by displaying their disaffection with the system. They might reclaim the right to a political voice by supporting: None Of The Above.
Make a NOTA sign for your car window with black marker on recycled paper. Where campaign posters are displayed in store windows, place a NOTA poster of your own design beside them. Create and wear a NOTA campaign button, scarf or cap that proclaims refusal to be compliant with a political system dedicated to a questionable agenda. When voting, move the diagonal door above the tweedledum and tweedledee candidates and write: none.
One of several things then may happen:
The major parties may begin to respond to the NOTA movement by addressing substantive issues. Or, the demand for black markers may create a black-marker black market. Or, those pundits who formerly castigated non-voters for the state of the nation will begin looking at the real causes of decline.
If we can't find a way of communicating our dissatisfaction, the power brokers will believe we willingly accept our state and nothing needs changing.
From disaffected but suddenly counted voters may come the impetus for a candidate or party that will not trade ideals for victory, that will not barter away the concerns of the powerless for the patronage of the plutocracy, and that will not shrink a sense of national purpose to fit on a bumper strip.
Scott Lindstrom lives and teaches in Bedford County.