As one looks back on the seven-week drought of primaries lead- ing up to Pennsylvania last night, there really is little to note. Trading barbs, slinging mud, shooting arrows - the metaphors are endless.
The fact is, very little good came out of the Pennsylvania campaign, because each candidate was too busy nitpicking and playing "gotcha" games. The first Democratic debate between just Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama consisted of two hours of issue-based discussion, something that should have helped sway the voters' minds. What did their last debate consist of? Two hours of squabbling.
This is, indeed, a tired issue. Everyone complains that politics is too dirty and too hateful - "the candidate should talk about the issues more." Yes, that is true. But the reason why all one hears every election year is name-calling and quarreling is that it works. We have no one to blame but ourselves.
Let's face it - politicians are smart. They are able to manipulate the opinions and minds of millions of people and convince them of their sheer brilliance and capability. As Americans, we need to stop following the bickering and start focusing on issues again. Obama was forced into the trenches because slinging sells.
Part of the problem is the media. FOX, CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets snowball nothing issues until they become gospel. Remember that clip of Hillary taking a shot of whiskey? How about that "bitter voters" comment by Barack? It's unfortunate that what is going to possibly sway the Pennsylvania outcome is a slip-up in a sound bite (or video clip). The media makes money from the ratings it gets from showing these back-and-forth verbal slap fights. Why on earth would they want to change it? They do practically no work and make money.
It's incredibly unfortunate that the system benefits everyone - the media, the candidates, political insiders - except us. And yet we are the ones that support it. It's absurd that we still get sucked into this trivial quarreling so easily, without thought and without question.
Sometimes it is embarrassing to listen to each candidate squabbling about petty nonsense. I distinctly remember stumbling upon a news article from the Associated Press about how the candidates were complaining ... about complaining! The candidates were honestly claiming that the other was bitching and moaning more than they were. I could not believe what I was reading.
We Tufts students should be smarter than this. We need to look at this shallow nonsense as degrading and not support it. There is a difference between supporting a candidate you like and tearing down a candidate you hate. I'm an Obama fan, but that doesn't mean that Hillary Clinton is the daughter of Satan. I think Barack is a better leader, has better policies on health care, Iraq and foreign policy in general, and would make a better president than Hillary. But that doesn't mean that I want her deported to Central Asia.
This is the key difference. Attack the policy, not the person. If you have a problem with what someone said, explain why. Don't take the petty route and make blanket accusations. Don't take what was said, spin it out of context and make normative and disgraceful comments. This is the only way to clean up politics - or even clean up the media as a whole.
As students and as citizens, we need to take a stand and say that this disgraceful mudslinging is inexcusable. Only when enough of us start showing that it doesn't work will the small-minded accusations stop. Only by showing the attackers that we won't stand for it any longer will the heartless attacking cease.
Dave Adams is a freshman majoring in political science and economics. He can be reached at David.Adams@tufts.edu.
