IT’S LESS than a week before Election Day. I agree with Economics Prof. Kenneth Elzinga, who, according to The Cavalier Daily, has declared that he doesn’t have much sympathy for students who say they can’t find time to vote unless the University cancels classes, or at least lets them cut class to go to the polls. As Elzinga said, the polls will be open at least an hour and a half before your first class begins. Get up early. Or go vote absentee sometime between now and then. Or send your absentee ballot by overnight mail right now.
Stop whining.
Democracy — or, more accurately, our republic — ought to be worth that much too you. If you can’t convince yourself to put that much effort into it, maybe the rest of us would be better off if you didn’t vote anyway.
If you are going to vote, please base your decision on something more substantial than the running Tina Fey/Sarah Palin show or John McCain’s tiff with David Letterman or even Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I know, Cavalier Daily readers are uniformly thoughtful, curious and dedicated to bringing Jeffersonian ideals and critical thinking to bear on a decision as important as choosing the chief executive, commander in chief and ceremonial leader of a nation facing recession, climate change and the approaching collapse of Social Security and Medicare and a basketful of other disasters and challenges while fighting two wars.
That means you’ll turn to all manner of media — no doubt including the propaganda put out by the campaigns themselves — to gather the information you’ll use to soberly consider the options the major political parties have left you. As The Cavalier Daily’s editorial page reminds us, Mr. Jefferson declared, “For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left to combat it.”
For that noble sentiment to have any meaning, we must be willing to engage in the trip and the combat. And we must be aware that often what’s said may not be as important as what’s left out.
Take a recent Cavalier Daily story about an online petition in support of William Ayers, a former member of the former Weather Underground. Ayers is at least as much a figure in the current presidential campaign as Joe the Plumber — even though Sen. John McCain has declared he doesn’t care about “an old washed up terrorist.” You can see the petition at www.supportbillayers.org, a URL that wasn’t mentioned in the story.
Something else that wasn’t in the story was any comment from supporters of Barack Obama’s campaign. The story notes that The Cavalier Daily tried to contact the McCain campaign and failed. So the paper turned to John Sweeney, president of Hoos for McCain, for comment. There was no mention of any attempt to contact Obama’s campaign or any organization on Grounds that might support that campaign.
The story gives a brief description of Ayers’ anti-war history — which included bombings but no criminal convictions — and Ayers’ connections with Obama. Then it quoted Sweeney: “I think it’s worthwhile to look into [Obama’s] past association with a man charged with bombing a federal building. It’s not unfair to look into peoples’ pasts. In a presidential election, that’s just what happens.”
In that case, Sweeney won’t mind a look into his candidate’s connections with Charles Keating and G. Gordon Liddy.
A Senate ethics investigation decided McCain used poor judgment when, after receiving campaign contributions from Keating, he went to federal regulators on Keating’s behalf. The regulators backed off from their investigation of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Two years later, Lincoln went under, costing the federal government $2.6 billion.
Liddy — convicted of a variety of crimes that led to arguably the biggest crisis facing the United States since the Civil War — has counseled people confronted by armed federal agents to shoot at the agents’ heads, not their bodies, because the agents wear bullet proof vests.
Liddy has contributed to McCain’s campaigns and hosted a fundraiser for the senator. And the senator has congratulated Liddy for his “adherence to the principles that keep our nation great.”
Is this a one-sided screed filled with apologies for Obama and cheap shots at McCain?
I don’t think so, but I’m not going to be handling that touch screen for you next Tuesday.
And that’s the point. No matter how hard any source of information tries to be fair and accurate, something’s going to get left out. So look this stuff up yourself. Make your decision. And vote.
Tim Thornton is The Cavalier Daily’s ombudsman. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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