Words of advice on the presidential elections

Vote for the best party, not for the best candidate

 

My entire adult life has been spent studying politics. In doing so, I think I've come to understand a few things about what's important and what's not important when it comes to presidential elections. I'd like to share with you some of what I've learned.

My first bit of advice is that you do not base your decision on the "information" you are most likely to receive from TV ads, "spin" from TV news commentators, and especially from talk radio. The constant stream of words emanating from these sources is always biased and extremely narrow, focused only on today's "hot" spin war (such as: did Sen. John F. Kerry really say "nuisance" in the wrong way?; did President George W. Bush really use drugs in his youth?), and not on the larger and more important issues at stake in a presidential election.

Second, in voting for a president you are not voting for just one person, but for a whole team of people who will actually run the White House and the executive agencies, and for an approach to the public policies that set the quality of our national and personal lives. When Bush was inaugurated as president, for example, along with him came several thousand other people with a very cohesive and conservative philosophy of government that he put into high-level positions. And these people make thousands of important decisions affecting our Online lives in many ways. One example is Attorney General John Ashcroft's approach to criminal prosecutions, civil liberties and the enforcement of civil rights laws, which now reigns supreme in the federal government. But this is only one example: there are thousands of others, from Vice President Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfield, to countless others whose names you don't know but who are deciding you and your country's future. So understand the choice you make is between two different "teams" for running the government — which team (a.k.a. political party) do you want to have in charge? Which will do the best job for our country? Why do you think so?

Third, in deciding between these competing governmental "teams," think carefully about your priorities for government and each party's approach to these priorities. In my own learning about government, I've come to believe that most people share an underlying set of priorities about what we want from government, even though we often disagree about how to achieve these priorities. Here's what I think we all want:

• Security/Safety — we all want to be secure and safe in our homes and in our country – from both external and internal (including the government itself) threats. Since Sept. 11, of course, this has seemed a much more important and more challenging task for government.

• Prosperity — governments everywhere are expected to create a framework in which people can work for economic growth and meet their material needs.

• Justice — we all want to be treated fairly by governments, and by the social and economic "rules of the game" that governments define and enforce, and that ensure fair "equality of opportunity" in our society.

• Sustainability for a Better Future— finally, we all expect governments to play a role in ensuring that we are preparing a good future for ourselves, our children and grandchildren. We can't expect to treat the world around us, and each other, as "consumable supplies" that we can use quickly — "burn through" — and also expect that the world, and those around us, will still be around to supply our and other peoples' needs in the years to come. There are literally hundreds of public policy issues that are critically important when it comes to sustainability, from the environment to infrastructure development to education and health policy.

With his party having a clear majority in Congress and control of the federal executive branch (not to mention the Supreme Court), how has Bush's team done in respect to these priorities over the last four years? What are Kerry's plans in respect to them? Which team can do the better job? There is not space to compare them here, but comparing them with some depth of knowledge is what you need to do if you wish to cast your vote in a way that will enhance your own interests and values. Where will you get your information? The first step is begin the decision-making effort.

Ron Schmidt is a political science professor at CSULB.