Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992 TAG: 9203060472
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This is what the American people want and this year, by golly, we're finally getting it.
Forget Bush, Buchanan, Tsongas, Clinton, Harkin, Brown - forget the whole bunch of them. They just remind us of our many troubles when we need to snap out of our national funk. Is it any wonder that Elvis, long dead, still lives - and is causing more excitement than any of the tone-dead political Tweedledums and Tweedledees?
The real election this year is between Elvis and Elvis. With one stamp, we get back the daring of youth, when rock 'n' roll challenged the establishment norms of the 1950s. With the other, we get back the rhinestones and overindulgence of the '70s.
We cannot lose in this election - and for this blessed event we must thank the U.S. Postal Service.
Indeed, the Postal Service - with unprecedented commitment to democratic principle - will distribute 5 million ballots to post offices across the country on April 1. For a mere 19 cents the public can pick the King it wants in 1993.
Only a commemorative stamp, you say? Oh, no. With this election, the people can send a message: Enough of Willie Horton, the Pledge of Allegiance, character assassination, unemployment lines, health-care-system shambles, Japanese bashing, race-baiting, tabloid accusations and the like.
We want to rock 'n' roll back to the future. We want the better times of yesteryear. And the beauty of this election is we get to say which yesteryear.
In fact, the Postal Service's enterprising experiment may provide a model for reforming national elections. No more nominations decided by a mind-numbing series of primaries and caucuses. No more fat-cat contributors underwriting a blitz of negative TV ads.
George Black, a contributing editor to The Nation, suggests replacing the current electoral process with a call-in plebiscite. For, say, less than a dollar, Republicans could call a 900 number and vote for either the Desert Storming macho George or the kinder, gentler "I care" George. Democrats could choose between a youthful Clinton who opposed the Vietnam War on moral grounds or a Clinton whose middle-aged midriff symbolizes his party's new midsection strategy.
Once the nominees are chosen, there would be no need to make a dreary trip to the polls to pull a lever. Everybody could just drop a 19-cent post card in the mail in November, and the Postal Service would deliver a winner to the White House by January.
by CNB