Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409120031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This story is the product of a series of four "community conversations" held around the state by the newspaper's staff. It is not a survey. The locations were chosen for geographical and cultural diversity, but there was no effort to get a scientific sampling of participants. Twenty-four registered voters took part in the four meetings, which were held between July 28 and Aug. 31.
Staff writers David M. Poole, Warren Fiske, Alec Klein, Margaret Edds and Dwayne Yancey also took part in the conversations.
Some choices are harder than others.
Paper or plastic - not too tough. Robb, North, Wilder or Coleman ... That's another matter.
Voters around Virginia are trying to make up their minds about the U.S. Senate race, and they seem to be in similar straits:
Melissa Flibotte of Norfolk: "When do we get to vote for the best of the best instead of the best of the worst?"
Reginald M. Malone Sr. of Richmond: "Taking all that, you just get the lesser of four evils."
Tom Montgomery of Bedford County: "They can't say who is going to help the most but ... who is going to hurt us the least."
And Ralph S. Sellers of Fairfax County: ``This may be one election where I just don't vote.''
Millions will vote, of course, even if they don't like the choices. And somehow they'll manage to pick just one.
At least two themes emerged in conversations with voters:
All four Senate candidates are deeply flawed.
Republican Oliver North, love him or hate him, is the central figure of the race.
Traditional issues such as crime, social programs and taxation were only part of how citizens said they would make a choice at the polls. The voters in the discussion groups came up with some issues of their own, issues that stem more from the heart than the head and that speak to the fundamental values that matter most when choosing a leader.
Out of touch?
``When you say government and politics to me today I think royalty, I think arrogance, people that have built themselves a lifestyle that no one can touch," said William P. Peach, 56, a plumber and retired Navy man from Norfolk.
The notion raised a genuine sense of anger in every group. It began with the idea that acquiring political power makes a person feel special. ``They get some high and mighty idea that their opinion weighs heavier than the people who put them in office," said Reginald Malone of Richmond.
In Bedford County, the residents spoke of looking to ministers, firefighters or parents for leadership. In Richmond, black voters spoke of looking to other blacks for common experience and perspective.
In both cases, the conclusion was that the candidates running for the U.S. Senate - incumbent Democrat Charles Robb, GOP nominee Oliver North, former state Attorney General Marshall Coleman and former Gov. Douglas Wilder - are so remote that it's hard to identify with them. Consequently, the first instinct is distrust - whatever sounds good from the candidates is just slick, manufactured familiarity.
``What they end up doing, they end up using catch-all phrases and words that gather votes and gather support," said the Rev. Akida Mensah, 55, of Richmond. ``And all the time they don't have anybody's interest at heart but their own."
As Flibotte, 30, put it: "A [true] leader went to public school. ... A leader played football and he got injured. A leader fell out of trees. A leader stole candy bars. A leader is a representative of the whole, not the representative of the elite.''
The groups tarred all four Senate candidates for self-interest, but especially independents Coleman and Wilder. This exchange in Norfolk was especially stark:
Coleman stands for ``just Coleman. That's all he's got in mind, is Coleman," said Rudolph R. Wendler, 81. ``And Wilder - he's just a spoiler. Definitely a spoiler. I think that he hates Robb so much that he'd turn ...''
``He would sell the Democratic Party down the river just to keep Robb from getting in office," interjected Guy Flibotte, 44.
Unity a key test
Today's society is so fragmented, being able to unify disparate sections is one of the ultimate tests of whether a politician is a leader or a mere functionary.
``Leadership is strategic. Decision-making is tactical," said Barbara Chatzkel, 44, of Fairfax County. ``A leader may take a stand, but I think a manager is a decision-maker. I think what a leader really does is try to synthesize and have the ability to unify."
This can be a very personal test.
Cynthia Maljevac moved to Norfolk a few months ago. ``I've been to a church back in Pennsylvania and the minister - this minister started out with 30 people. We now have over 3,000 people. He can name every person. ... He just knows everything. If there's a need, he goes there."
``It kind of unifies," Guy Flibotte said.
``It unifies," Maljevac agreed. ``The church works together in this as a whole. It's not in this faction and that faction."
Finding that ability in a politician can be difficult, partly because a politician need only satisfy his most powerful constituents. It's fashionable these days to advocate ``rugged individualism," said Akida Mensah of Richmond.
Cooperation and mutual understanding are all that can heal society's ills, he suggested. But that doesn't mean a politician should somehow work to blur the differences between people.
``A good politician doesn't have to overcome those differences,'' said Reginald Malone. ``All he has to do is acknowledge that they exist and try to find common ground. ... I think that's when we can have some integrity, some ethics and some real honesty.''
Voters want honesty
Honesty is one of the fundamental qualities the discussion groups wanted in a politician.
Ideally, the politician also would set a moral standard. But given that every human makes mistakes, being honest about shortcomings is indispensable.
``Just tell the truth. If we start with the truth, we can fix anything," said Martin Jewell, 48, a Richmond businessman.
``If someone said to me, `I made a mistake' or `I did this and you can judge me on what I did,' I would say `fine.' And I would have a lot of respect for that person,'' said Tom Scrogin, 51, of Fairfax County.
But tempering that sentiment was a deep skepticism that honesty can survive in today's political environment. Virginia H. Cox of Bedford County spoke about an out-of-state candidate who lost because ``he was too honest. He could not make it. ... You can't be honest because people will tear you down."
Such cynicism, paradoxically, led back to the need for morality. If a politician has to lie to get by - ``There has to be some sort of deceit; I mean, everyone knows it," said Guy Flibotte of Norfolk - then he or she should have a moral compass that at least ensures the lie is for a good cause.
Is morality a gauge?
Many voters felt driven to morality or character as a measuring stick because they trust their own hearts better than any other gauge.
Candidates ``don't really tell you what they really feel. ... They tell you what you want to hear. That's why you have to look at the person and their character and what they've done," said Bobbie Powers, 48, a Bedford County bank teller.
But that's the very thinking that has led many to reject the political process as distasteful and unreliable.
Because, as Powers acknowledged, you have to judge based on superficial images. ``Nobody knows anybody inside," she said, ``so what they portray is what you see."
Nonetheless, some members of the discussion groups insisted that ``leadership means to go one step further than the average Joe," as Cynthia Maljevac of Norfolk put it.
Some feared that such thinking holds politicians to an impossibly high standard. In Fairfax County, the approach was a combination of idealism and pragmatism:
``I would expect them to be more honest and more trustworthy than average,'' Don Stephenson said.
``You expect them to be honest and trustworthy,'' countered Barbara Chatzkel, ``but so do you expect your [news]paper-person to be honest and trustworthy. Because when you go away and you put your paper on hold, you don't want your paper-person coming in and burglarizing your house. ... I think honest, trustworthy - those things are the same for anybody."
Stephenson disagreed: ``I hold a politician to a higher standard for his conduct in office.''
``I have to agree with that,'' said Renata Wade. ``Because I think the greater the responsibility, the more stringent the requirement.''
``It depends on what you're talking about,'' said Marylou Stephenson, 62. ``You really need somebody who's knowledgeable and courageous and intelligent. You need all of that. It's such a broad scope of things that we need to look for. And in what single person do we find them? That's the point.''
That was the point for several black voters in Richmond, who decided that when all those qualities cannot be found in a single person, morality can take a back seat.
``I think we should look at politicians [in terms of] if they deliver," said businessman N.A. Eggleston, 61.
``And if they have some personal problems, and that personal problem does not get in the way of them delivering to their constituency, I don't think we've got a big problem with them."
Political courage valued
Good representation, despite the talk of following the will of the people, entails having the courage to stand up for something unpopular.
``I think a good leader has a lot of self-confidence," said Richard Asbury, 38, a veterinarian from Bedford County. ``It's OK to make an unpopular decision. I think that's what a leader has to do sometimes."
Paul R. Lintz, 52, of Fairfax County had a specific example: ``Leadership doesn't mean deciding what your morals are according to the polls. ... I think it's setting a goal and inspiring others to achieve that goal, like President Kennedy did with the space program."
The key to defying the people successfully lies in the fundamental concern of all these voters: that the politician have the good of the people at heart. The risks of defying constituents, though, are enormous.
``For me, I still think their stance on the issues is the overriding factor in voting for them. I don't care at all about his personal life," said Asbury.
Asbury's notion of a good political campaign is simple: ``Spending limits. [Political-action committee] limits. Public-service announcements on TV. All the debates should be free on public TV with no commercials. They shouldn't even be allowed sound-bite campaigning. Real dry. Very boring elections. And we'll get some people who are, I think, going to be good people."
Looking at their friends
Some of the voters worried that Robb is beholden to special-interest groups, others that North is a pawn of the religious right.
Associations are important because ``it's not government by the guy you elect, it's government by the people who are in the background that are pulling the strings," said Robert Frank, a retired Norfolk businessman.
If North wins, ``I have this imagery of Oral Roberts and Jerry Falwell lurking in the background," said Renata Wade, who voted in 1992 for Ross Perot for president. ``Again, you have such a diversity in the state, how can you possibly be that rigid and go forward saying you're representing constituents?"
``As you say, Renata, once elected the doors to Virginia voters will close,'' Don Stephenson said.
Not the other guy
Fear is a factor in this election - for some, it's fear of a bankrupt status quo; for others, fear of a menacing change. The result is that many in the discussion groups are going to wield their votes not in favor of someone they like, but against someone they despise.
``It's going to be another anti-vote. The one I vote for may not be the one I think is going to be best, but it's going to keep the one I think is worst out," said Richard Asbury, who can't tolerate Oliver North.
With that kind of motivation, a lot of high-flown beliefs evaporate. It puts a special burden on a voter like Akida Mensah, who hungers for black leadership but who must weigh whether voting for the one black candidate - Wilder - would benefit North, the candidate Mensah most wants to stop.
``You can be as philosophical as you want, but the bottom line is, you're going to have to be practical. And you need to look at, one, you see who you think will most reasonably represent your interests. Two, who is likely to win. Three, who is the worst and how do you prevent that from happening. ... You may not benefit a whole lot from the person that gets in, but hopefully you won't lose anything.''
That brand of existentialist politics - focused on cutting your losses - seemed to carry the day at all the discussion groups, whether the tilt was toward Democrats, Republicans or something in between.
``The only people that I have spoken to that know they're really voting for Robb are strong Democrats who just absolutely would never vote for anything but a Democrat," said Bobbie Powers of Bedford County.
``I guess when it comes down to it, if I feel on Election Day that voting for Coleman would be a waste of my vote, I will vote for North as opposed to the other two candidates," Tom Scrogin said.
Scrogin pined for another way out: ``How about if we took a little of the decency of Marshall Coleman. A little bit of the charisma of Doug Wilder. The courage of convictions that Oliver North has. And I'm not sure what we'd pick up from Robb. And put that into a fifth candidate, and have somebody you can probably vote for."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB