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Back to Subjects - Political Science

Politics as Usual

Politics as Usual Another presidential election season has come and will surely drag on for another six long arduous boring months. The primaries went by quicker than ever leaving us with our two nominees for president: George W. Bush and Al Gore. Yes, everyone is thinking it: another “lesser of two evils” election. Voter turnout is at an all time low. People are fed up with their “choices” and just do not vote. Currently the races for president is a dead heat, not because people do not care or are not informed, but because the people have seen that all the candidates are the same. There is no choice because there is no difference. There is little difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush and the people know it. In a recent Newsweek poll published last March the vote was evenly split: Al Gore had 44% and George W. Bush had 47%. It’s a virtual coin flip. The candidates are the same on so many issue’s no one knows which is which and just picks one blindly. You can even add Senator John McCain into the race and the vote still comes out even: Gore 28%, Bush 35%, and McCain 32%. But of course John McCain says he won’t be running for president so who will McCain voters vote for? Gore 37%, Bush 48%. The list goes on and on with many variables. 49% of men would vote for Bush with the other 43% siding with Gore. With women it’s a dead tie: 45% Gore, 45% Bush. By region you ask? In the North East Gore is favored 49% to 33%. In the both the Midwest and South Bush is favored 49% to 40% and 57% to 40%, and finally in the West the coin flips in Gore’s favor again 50% to 43%. Look at the issues at hand: Both Bush and Gore support the death penalty, NAFTA, increased Pentagon spending. Immediate Universal Heath care? Both Bush and Gore oppose it along with the ban on handguns and assault weapons. Foreign policy? Bush supports the air strikes on Iraq, Gore supports the air strikes on Iraq. Bush supports the embargo on Cuba. Speaking of Cuba, Gore said, “I think Elian should stay”. 2 days later Bush states that he thinks Elian should stay. Does anyone hear an echo in here? Do I even have to mention the subject of cutting taxes? It doesn’t matter who the candidate is, he’s in favor of cutting taxes. Just a year ago people barely even knew Al Gore was alive. The same is true with George W. Bush. But of course people have herd of current President Bill Clinton and former President George Bush. Bill Clinton has a high approval rating and Gore is just taking part of the claim for that approval, and is merely drafting of Clinton’s success. George W. Bush has very little previous experience in Government other than being Governor of Texas for the past 8 years. Nevertheless, he still claims he can do a better job of running the country than Al Gore can. Another similarity between Gore and Bush is that they are both hypocrites. In various speeches and interviews, Al Gore stated that there needs to be a ban of soft money in campaign finances. This coming from a man whose party accepted illegal money from the Chinese and just a few days ago headlines were popping up stating things like: “Gore Shatters Fund-Raising Record.” and “ Democrats Cash-In from Stars and Computer Executives.” By the end of February, Al Gore had received over $30 million dollars in contributions. Apparently Gore had to get something going for him if he were to match the almost $70 million dollars in contributions received by Bush, even if it does mean being a hypocrite. Bush doesn’t have much room to talk on many issues he’s mentioned. For example: Nearly a quarter of all children in Texas have no health insurance. The Texas Legislature decided to do something about it and created the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP would provide federal money to pay the cost of health insurance for a family with an income twice the poverty level. George Bush wanted to limit eligibility to no more than 150 percent of the poverty level, effectively eliminating over 200,000 children. Bush was turning down federal money that was the states for asking. So much for “Compassionate Conservatism” So just whom should we vote for come Election Day? Is there even a reason to get out and vote? Yes there is a reason to get out and vote. In 1992, a crazy rich man by the name of Ross Perot won 20% percent of the vote. How did this man with very little government experience get that many people to vote for him? As one journalist Michael Moore put it, it was the “@#$! You!” vote. People were fed up with candidates that would just end up being the same in the end, and were not going to take it anymore. They were no longer going to give either the Republicans or the Democrats the satisfaction that people still do believe in them. The same principal applies to the recent Governmentorial election in the state of Minnesota. The citizens of Minnesota had a choice between the run of the mill Democratic and Republican candidates and Jesse Ventura. They choose now Gov. Ventrua because they knew what the outcome would be if they chose either of the two major candidates. The 80% percent majority of American citizens have refused to budge as members of the largest political party. Call it the “Non-Voters party” or the “None of the Above party” call it whatever you want. There is a way to break this monopoly of this one-party system that goes by two names. The people of Minnesota broke it by choosing a former professional wrestler. If there is such thing as an honest and hard working candidate anymore, voters will soon be storming the voter booths in droves. With the right candidate, people will be eager to put their vote down not for the lesser of two evils, but for the greater standout above all the rest. Bibliography: Works Cited Moore, Michael. Downsize This! New York: HarperPerennial, 1996 Moore, Michael. Public speech at Bowling Green State University. 3 April 2000 Moore, Michael. Personal Interview. 3 April 2000 Voter poll. “Where they stand now” Time 20 March 2000 Ferraro, Thomas. “Democrats Cash-In from Stars, Computer Execs” Yahoo.com. April 2000. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000416/pl/campaign_gore_127.html (16 April 2000) Lardner Jr., George and Walsh, Edward. “Bush: Weighing the Cost of Compassion” The Washington Post. Oct. 1999 http://washingtonpost.com (April 2000) Gore, Al. “Gore 2000: Al Gore's Agenda for America in the 21st Century” Algore2000.com Jan. 2000 http://www.algore2000.com/agenda (April 2000) Bush, George W. “Issues” Georgewbush.com Jan. 2000 http://www.georgewbush.com/issues/index.html (April 2000)

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