Opinion

Political arena in dire need of real discussion

Posted on Sept. 15, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

Republicans seem to have the ability to undermine any debate of their choosing and turn the conversation into a spitball contest based on distorted truths and straight out lies. They did it to Senator John McCain in the 2000 GOP Primaries when George Bush and Karl Rove accused Senator McCain of having a black love child when in fact his daughter was adopted from Bangladesh. They did it in 2004 by distorting Senator John Kerry’s war record and attacking him for being an “elitist” – evident by his windsurfing. They have even done it here in Maine, where interest groups have repeatedly attacked Congressman Tom Allen for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would actually give workers more freedom in deciding whether or not to unionize.

Now they have done it again with Senator Barack Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” quote. The line was intended to shed light on Senator McCain’s views on policy but was quickly twisted by Republicans who came cracking down on Senator Obama for being sexist. Senator Obama’s quote was not sexist – Governor Palin was not mentioned anywhere near the pig quote. Once again, the McCain campaign has ducked debate on policy and driven the country into a mud-slinging contest with no end.

Senator McCain, who believes this election will be decided on the candidates’ characters, loves these sorts of arguments. He constantly attacks Senator Obama as elitist, out of touch and not grounded in reality. At the same time, McCain hides behind tired excuses like his experience as a POW. While McCain is the descendent of two prestigious naval officers, Obama grew up on food stamps without a father, but never mind the fact that he is living the American Dream.

Meanwhile,Senator Obama is fighting to be heard as he talks about the only thing that matters – policy. His campaign is commendable, and hopefully he will further catch the attention of the nation. We must all hope our presidential elections move away from the false attacks and attention-grabbing headlines of today and back to the policy discussions and civilized debate of yesterday. Yes, it is not quite as exciting, but we, as Americans, must take the election of the most powerful man or woman in the world more seriously than we have in recent elections.

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William P. Davis is a first-year journalism and violin performance major.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.