Politicians
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
In politics it would be novel to have a gracious rival. Modern political campaigners might take a lesson in graciousness and kindness from the great British statesman, Edward Campbell .
Once when Campbell was opposing Thackereay for a seat in Parliament, the two contenders, in course of their campaigning, met and engaged in friendly conversation. On taking leave of his rival Thackereay remarked,
'May the best man win!'
'Oh, no,' replied Campbell, 'I hope not, I want to win!'
E.J. Dionne Jr., author of They Only Look Dead, ascertains that politics in America today are nothing more than 'politics of moral annihilation'. As an example of this he refers to the presidential election of 1992. Normally , press conferences are called when political matters arise. The conference mentioned was called by the conservatives. Paula Jones came forward and accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment; apparently Mr. Clinton made 'unwelcomed sexual advances" . He continues to point out that these are the same conservatives that only a few years earlier had denounced the idea of sexual harassment as 'feminist invention'.
It is acts like this that are aiding in the 'moral annihilation' of politics. The overall impact of such politics is undermining the intelligence of the American populous by turning political campaigning into a childlike power struggle. Both the Democrats and Republicans have reverted to a state of guerrilla media warfare.
Every time election year rolls around we begin to hear the usual complaints of how politics is morally corrupt. It typically means we get to see the superficial image-oriented campaigning, negative attacks against one's opponent, and the thirty-second spot commercials that intrr upt our favorite sitcom. Experts note that the rates of political participation in the United States, as measured by the percentage of eligable voters who register and actually cast their ballot, has been dropping for years, in part due to the fact that citizens are disgusted with the conduct of political campaigns.
From this we can clearly see overall impact of this type of politics does infact undermind how the populus acts in 3 ways:
1)don't watch televison
2)don't care and
3)don't vote.
This then brings us to the second point of how this is harmful to democracy. As I stated before it turns political campaigning into a childlike game for power. Author Daniel O'Connell once said: 'A politican doesn't stand on his own record; he jumps on the other fellows....