| The Harvard Salient | November 4, 1996 |
| Cover Story | |
here seem to be very few undecided voters left
in this Presidential election. If the pollsters are to be believed, most
Americans have decided to re-elect President Clinton. The only fence-sitters
are disgruntled Republicans and the two or three people who actually seem
to care about the scandals that beset the Clinton White House. I fall into
neither category.
Though quite disturbed by the seemingly endless sequence of ethical lapses in the White House, I have a more ideological reason for opposing Clinton's re-election, even though I intend to vote a straight Democratic line in every column but the first. Quite simply, Clinton has sold out his party to win. He signed a welfare bill opposed by most members of his administration and endorsed a campaign of demagoguery on the Medicare issue. It is the latter that disturbs me the most. Clinton's own trustees say that Medicare will go bankrupt in 2001. Yet the Democratic National Committee engineered a massive media campaign decrying phantom cuts in Medicare included in the GOP budget. In fact, the Republican plan would allow Medicare to grow at about 7% a year. Hardly a draconian cut. Clinton also says, repeatedly, that he wants a balanced budget that protects "Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment." This presumably means that they will be able to grow at current levels. This is as if New York Yankees manager Joe Torre had said before the World Series that he planned to win without beating Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux and Neagle. Some reduction in the rate of these programs' growth is necessary if one wishes to balance the budget. Every politician compromises a little in an election year. Remember that George Bush ran as a pro-choice moderate against Ronald Reagan in 1980. Clinton, however, compromised not only his own values, but also the financial security of an essential government program in order to win re-election.
My aversion to Clinton does not immediately put me in the Dole camp, however. There are a number of minor party candidates running for President on the ballot in my home state of Connecticut. It is easy to eliminate Libertarian Harry Browne, as I disagree with just about everything for which he stands; the same goes for Natural Law Party nominee John Hagelin and Howard Phillips, candidate of the US Taxpayers' Party. So I am left with Mr. Dole, Reform Party candidate Ross Perot and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader.
Ralph Nader has been a champion of the weak and unrepresented for more than three decades since he first made his name taking on General Motors over automobile safety. He is a consistent voice for the oppressed and those without large lobbying firms and well-funded political action committees. A vote for Nader would be the ultimate protest against the President. I think a lot of liberal Democrats should consider, very seriously, pulling the Green Party lever on election day. A strong enough show of support would demonstrate to the President and, more importantly, to Vice President Al Gore, that principles matter. There are enough liberals unhappy with the Clinton/Gore Republicrat strategy to make a difference, if the GOP had nominated a stronger candidate. If Clinton wins in a landslide, as is becoming increasingly likely, it will only encourage the sort of abandonment of principles and co-opting of Republican ideas that Clinton has executed perfectly over the past two years.
Ross Perot presents an interesting choice. He will certainly register nationally, perhaps with as much as 10% of the vote. A stronger than expected Perot vote will demonstrate the power of his twin issues of political reform and fiscal sanity. Perot has been personally discredited, but he is poised for another strong third party showing. A vote for Perot would be a protest against the whole of the Washington money culture. It would register my support for political reform, an enormously important issue to which Republicans and Democrats have paid lip service over the past several years, but done little actually to change the status quo. Political action committees, soft money, lobbyists, and "independent" campaign expenditures all combine to degrade Washington politics into a media affair dominated by spin doctors and 30-second attack ads. Reasoned debate and deliberation is almost entirely lost. The issue of reform is not going away. People are fed up with the political process. They feel that it is corrupted by money. They feel it has become negative, personal and has little to do with their everyday lives. They feel that politicians are out of touch and don't care about their concerns. They are right. Perhaps another strong showing by Perot would force the two major parties to actually try to reform the political system.
ut ultimately, I decided to vote for Bob Dole.
I disagree with him on most major issues. He has compromised a lifetime
of principle to support a 15% tax cut in which he does not believe. No message
is sent by a vote for Bob Dole. Simply, Dole is too good of a man, too strong
of an American to lose in a landslide to someone like Bill Clinton. Smug
baby-boomer and Generation X-ers snicker at Dole's age and military service,
but he is a hero, regardless of how long ago he was wounded. Dole has given
his life to public service. He is generally regarded as one of the most
decent men in Washington, despite his acerbic wit and his reputation as
an attack dog . Dole is a man who deserves our votes. If he actually had
a chance to win Connecticut, I would feel differently. Dole does not deserve
to be humiliated, and a double-digit loss to Bill Clinton would be a humiliation.
After all my considerations of principle and policy, I have decided to cast
my vote based on purely personal reasons, namely my respect and admiration
for Bob Dole. In this day of handlers, there are few genuinely, personally
funny elected officials in Washington. Dole is his own man. For his entire
career he has stood on his own two feet and his own principles. Dole did
compromise some of them for this campaign. But weighed against his entire
career, it is a minor offense. Bob Dole is a better man. He will be sorely
missed on the American political stage.