We are now two weeks removed from the midterm elections, and everyone in the political world is still trying to figure out what to do next. Now a minority in both houses of Congress, the Democrats must provide a stronger opposition to Republicans than ever. Continuing simply to defer to the president on tough issues will hardly give voters a reason to vote for them over Republicans in 2004. The Republicans also must be careful not to overplay their hands and alienate mainstream America by cementing tax cuts for the wealthy, pushing through ultra-conservative judges and slashing social programs. Independent of their policy merits, these measures are just bad politics.
Then again, let me think about that last sentence. If after winning an election a party has to fear that enacting their preferred policies could cost them the next election, what's the point of winning? Things have been turned upside down in American politics. Elections should be a means to enact good public policy. Instead, public policies are being crafted in ways that optimize electoral outcomes. Winning an election has now become the main goal in politics, not just the means to achieve better policy. This trend was illustrated not only in several close races nationwide, but also in our very own town of Hanover.
Often the candidate who comes out on the losing end of the initial count asks for extra measures to make sure that "every vote is counted." As we have seen, of course, these candidates sometimes do not want all the votes to be counted. Rather, they only want recounts in areas that are likely to increase their own yield. If Al Gore had immediately asked for a statewide recount in Florida in 2000, perhaps he would have had more credibility with the public and with the courts. Instead, the vice president asked for recounts in only two counties, both of which probably would have given him enough of a net gain in votes to win the state and the election. His obsession with winning the election superceded the need to have a fair recount in every county in Florida. By the time Gore actually did ask for a statewide recount it was difficult to believe that he was more interested in a fair process than a favorable outcome.
In 2002, we also saw several cases in which free and fair elections took a back seat to the win-at-all-costs mentality. The Lautenberg for Torricelli swap in the New Jersey Senate race is the most egregious example of underhanded campaign tricks, and it ended up working out fairly well for the Democrats. Of course, citizens of New Jersey now have an aging senator with no seniority who brings absolutely no new ideas to a legislature that is sorely in need of them. In Minnesota, after the horrible plane crash that killed Paul Wellstone Democrats decided to use his public memorial service as free political airtime and turned what should have been a solemn and nonpartisan ceremony into a campaign event. Polls show that the race shifted in favor of the Republican, Norm Coleman, after the memorial service, and Coleman went on to win.
Something also needs to be said about the "get out the vote" effort that went on here at Dartmouth on Election Day. From talking to other students, I have been able to gather that I was not the only one who was bombarded repeatedly by enthusiastic young men and women clad in yellow T-shirts asking me if I had voted. I have two major problems with this. First, we may live in New Hampshire most of the year, but most of us are not citizens of this state. Our driver's licenses come from other states, our parents pay income taxes in another state and we should be registered to vote in another state. Voting absentee is perhaps the strongest show of commitment to one's civic duty, because it takes the most time. I would encourage all students to vote absentee in their home states rather than re-register in New Hampshire.
The second problem I have with the yellow T-shirt people is that they were not so much interested in getting me to vote as they were in getting me to vote for the Democrats. In most cases, the yellow T-shirts were covered in stickers for Jeanne Shaheen and other ill-fated Democratic candidates. The citizens of New Hampshire wanted John Sununu to be their senator. My question for anyone who re-registered to vote on Election Day is this: What were you trying to accomplish? Were you hoping, in your infinite wisdom, to correct an error that the citizens of New Hampshire may have made? In any case, the yellow T-shirts managed to deliver Hanover strongly for Shaheen, but fell short in their effort to make up the difference in a close election.
The results of the Machiavellian method of campaigning are mixed, as one can see. I just hope that we are seeing a passing trend here, and that the future of elections and politics in this country will not be as grim as the present is. No one understands the importance of winning elections more than I do, but it should never become more important than the real long-term goal, which is development of good public policy.
