The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 07, 1978, Image 8

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 07, 1978, Image 8

Newspaper Page TextPage 8 THE BATTALION TUESDAV, NOVEMBER 7, 1978 Perricone's Townshire Gulf CERTIFIED MECHANIC ON DUTY BRAKES TUNE-UPS TIRES AIR CONDITIONING ‘SPECIAL FREE LUBRICATION WITH ALIGNMENT *13 88 (OFFER EXPIRES 11/10/78) mmi 111. i_ HOURS fG u I#) 2213 TEXAS 7 a.m.-9 p.m. 822-6485 mon.-sat. Americans losing interest Voters going to polls less United Press International WASHINGTON — Despite Pro position 13 fever and the chance to elect 36 governors and 35 senators, Americans are likely to continue a long- running trend and stay home from the polls in droves today. If the level of voting in the na tion’s 43 primaries this year is any indication, the turnout this year could be a record low, says Curtis Cans, an expert in voter behavior. “Since the trend toward de creased participation has been con tinuous since the early 1960s, and since the turnout for this year’s primaries showed that the tendency to eschew the polls has not stopped, there is a distinct possibility that less than a third of those eligible will MARriMRUTE ATTORNEY GENERAL Political Ad paid for by Aggies for Mark White, Jeff Steen, Chairman. P.O. 9372 CS, TX. XX= vote for Congress this year,” he says. A former Democratic party ac tivist and now head of the Commit tee for the Study of the American Electorate, Cans wants to know why people are consciously refusing to vote and how to get them back to the polls. He has some thoughts on the mat ter — and more important, a collec tion of some startling statistics on the size of America’s vast election day yawn. —Of all the world’s democracies, only Botswana has a lower national election turnout, about 35 percent. —In 35 states that had primaries in both parties this year, 22 had lower turnout rates this year than in 1974 or their most recent nonpresi- dential year, while only 10, plus the District of Columbia, showed in creases. Two others held primaries too long ago to make good compari sons. —Twenty-six of those states had turnouts below 30 percent, 13 were below 20 percent and Kentucky had a primary turnout below 10 percent. Only California and Hawaii had 40 percent-plus turnouts. —From a high of 63.8 percent participation in 1960, presidential voting has dropped to 54.4 percent in 1976, the lowest since 51.1 per- cMjJumdjcCb NOON-SEVEN 75 c bar drinks 40c beer NORTHGATE (Next to the Dixie Chicken) 3tK Tuesday Nite Live At I HOP CHEESE OMLETTE AND Welcome back to the Restaurant! THREE PANCAKES $J49 ONLY Good between 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Internationa] House of Partcake*. 103 COLLEGE cent in 1948, when nonvoting blacks were counted as eligible, and 51.9 percent in 1928. That means Jimmy Carter was elected by less than 28 percent of his countrymen. —From a high of 46.3 percent in 1962, off-year elections drew 36.1 percent in 1974, the lowest since the war year of 1942 when 32.5 per cent voted. —New Jersey Gov. Brendan Byrne was re-elected in 1977 with less than 15 percent of eligible vot ers supporting him, and Mayor Ed ward Koch of New York won less than 12 percent of the eligible vote. —This year, conservative Repub lican Jeffrey Bell in New Jersey ousted Sen. Clifford Case in a pri mary that drew only 11.4 percent of eligible voters to the polls; Iowa conservative Roger Jepsen beat moderate Maurice Van Nostrand in a GOP senatorial primary that drew 12.8 percent participation. Cans says lower turnouts gener ally help candidates at the political extremes. This year it’s conserva tives, in 1972 it was liberals. For example, Sen. Edward Brooke, R-Mass., won his primary battle against a conservative activist be cause of an unpredicted high turn out. “If the decline in participation continues, there is every reason to believe that more and more elec tions will be won by small groups of intense activists and that the public interest as a whole will begin to suf fer,’’ he says. “When the level of participation is so low that single-issue zealots such as those opposed to abortion and gun control can be instrumental in defeating a candidate such as Rep. Donald Fraser in Minnesota or extremists can unseat men like Clif ford Case of New Jersey, there is something fundamentally wrong in our political system.” Nonvoters can be lumped into three categories. Cans says: chronic nonvoters, who are poor, unedu cated and “living an atavistic exis tence;’’ the young, who are not con forming to the pattern of increasing their voting as they age; and the dropouts, the estimated 15 million Americans who simply quit voting. Thirty-eight percent of them are people with high levels of education and income. Why? “I think that there is a whole se ries of things,” Cans says, “the last of which is because in many cases it hasn’t made any difference whether they voted or not in terms of the direction of public policy. “You start off with a sort of mas sive promissory rhetoric of the early ‘60s and the emergence of the fact it couldn’t all be delivered upon.” There was Vietnam and Watergate, he says, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. “And they were both dampeners on the image of public leadership.” Also, while the vast body of civil rights, anti-war and environmental activists eventually had an effect on government policy, it was too slow in coming. “For those people who wanted ‘freedom now,’ the political process has been damnably slow in yielding up results. “The source of the problem is twofold: it’s a public disenchant ment with government and political leadership, and the obverse, that the government has been finding it difficult to get its own self untracked to provide a sense of direction in programs and policies to govern the country.” Even the government-cutting, tax-slashing mood scaring incum bents to death has in it the seeds of more disenchantment, Cans pre dicts. “The danger of Proposition 13 is that it’s not likely, in its implemen tation, to yield what many people who voted for it thought it was going to yield. It’s a nice referendum question but it’s not necessarily a good public policy questton. So the danger is the next time something like that comes around, the turnout will be again lower.” THE FOUR R’S Now that you've graduated from the first three, you’re ready to learn the Ath: Reality. Peace Corps/VISTA will teach you about people and places you’ve only read of. REPS ON CAMPUS: TODAY & TOMORROW INFO BOOTH: MEMORIAL STUDENT CENTER SENIORS/GRADS: SIGN UP NOW FOR AN INTERVIEW: CAREER PLANNING AND PLACEMENT OFFICE, 10TH FLOOR, RUDDER TOWER. what’s up? Tuesday PENTAGON AREA HOMETOWN CLUB. Will meet in Room 302, Rudder Tower at 8 p. m. Rides and car pools to and from northeast and midwest states will be discussed for the Thanksgiving Christmas holidays. For more information please contact Darrel Westbrook at 845-7103. MARKETING SOCIETY: Will have a speaker from Foley’s at 7:30 p.m. in Room 207, HECC. PRE-LAW SOCIETY: Charles R. Dunn, attorney at law, will speali at 7:30 p.m. in Room 504, Rudder Tower. PLANT SCIENCE CLUB: Will have pictures taken for “The Aggie- land” in the MSC Lounge at 6:30 p.m. A meeting and a speech on how to get a job will be at 7 p.m. RICHARDSON HOMETOWN CLUB: Will have pictures taken for “The Aggieland” at 7:30 p.m. in front of Zachry. Dues for this are semester will be collected. PATHFINDERS: Will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Room 317, Military Science Building. Plans will be made concerning the TAMU- hosted orienteering meet to be held at the Fireman’s Training Center on Nov. 18. AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS: Will have pictures for “The Aggieland” taken at 6 p.m. followedbya meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Room 103, Zachry. A mock interview will be staged by a student and a Texas Instruments Recruiter. Nolon Sutherland from the Placement Center will offer advice on suc cessful interviewing. AMERICAN HUMANICS ASSOCIATION: Dr. Candida Duncldey will conduct a workshop in Human Relations at 6:15 in Room231, MSC. A&M WHEELMEN: Aggieland pictures will be taken at 7:30p.m.in Room 141, MSC. THE TRADITIONS COUNCIL: Will meet in Room 119, Military Science Building at 7:30 p.m. A slide presentation on traditionwl be reviewed. All interested students are invited to attend. AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS: Plans for a field trip will be discussed and Charles L. Waligura willspeal on “Conception, Design and Operation — Role of the Process Engineer” at 7:30 p.m. in Room 203, Zachry. ENGLISH SOCIETY: Tom Jordan will speak on “Film Frolics'al 7:30 p.m. in the Basement Coffeehouse. TSEA: Will have pictures taken for the Aggieland at 7:30 p.m. intht Zachry lobby. MECHANIZED AGRICULTURE CLUB: A representative from Ford Tractor Co. will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Power ani Machinery Lab. ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY: Will have pictures |T" V taken for "The Aggieland” at 6:45 p.m. at Zachry followed byji ar speech by Ms. Gustafson in Room 203, Zachry. ASME: C.H. Britt from Monsanto will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Room omplete 102, Zachry. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS CLUB: Will have officer elections at 7:30 p.m. in Room 108, Harrington. BOGART FESTIVAL: “The Maltese Falcon,” the famous story ofi group of men who desperately search for a black statuette ofi falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, will be shorn at 8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. “In a Lonely Place,” in which Bogart is the key. suspect in a murder case being investigated by a war time buddy turned detective, will be shown at 10 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Wednesday Room 212, MSC at 7:15 p.m. BRIDGE CLUB: Will play in Everyone is welcome to play. HANG GLIDING CLUB: "Cloudbase,” a 33-minute film of hang gliding from 19 sites in the United States, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in Room 308, Rudder Tower. TAMU ROADRUNNERS: All members are urged to attend this meeting at 7 p. in. in Room 321, Physics Building, to discuss coming events. STUDENTS OLDER THAN AVERAGE: Will meet at 8 p.m. n Room 205, MSC. All students are welcome who are beyond the average age of university students. ILLUSTRATORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jim Berry from Uni versity Studios will talk on "Photo Enhancement” at 7 p.m. in Room 304, Old Engineering Building. BOGART FESTIVAL: “The Treasure of Sierra Madre,” the storyof % up t( three American men who journey into the wilderness mountaim ( A ft Amer worth] elude nee tier fig leal The moodh of hon noodle Firsi are nol ned by Toga in blankel Wra] about t lirl, top beer, 1 hambm cucum stomac Bacchai of meg: Keep the mar calls for Some t underw Toga noted ; be Nati douse, hem i nomen I The intics ta the e; Toga i vmes tc f Conn llowed The b over t (rear bik “But nake,” The o ith smi reach ion. B loodle ; lave lad The fig ibric bu ng it sti lothes. (irn/i Bi Unitec 1INNEA irican hi Who tc and gi Is? Andrev Who Maid i berries, butter, S rink the Unh? / will J.nw wic IIIUUMUUU. . of Mexico in seareffi of gold, will be shown at 8 p.m. in Rudder lewwil ‘ Theater. “The Caine Mutiny," in which the crew of the mine sweeper U.S.S. Caine is saddled with a paranoid captain whose rule forces the crew to mutiny, will be shown at 10 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Thursday POLITICAL FORUM: Wayne Peveto will speak on “Tax Reform-- Fact or Fantasy?” at 12:30 p.m. in Room 206, MSC. Pevetoisi state legislator from Orange who has always worked diligently to change the system. He was ranked as one of the Top-10 legislators in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine. GREAT ISSUES: “Human Rights and Soviet-American Relations will be the topic of a debate by Robert Kaiser and Melor Sturuaat 8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Kaiser is a former Soviet Union c»rre spondent for The Washington Post and Strua is the chief corre spondent in New York for the Soviet newspaper Ezvestya. PRE-LAW SOCIETY: Will have Aggieland pictures taken at7p.m in Zachry. All members should plan to be present. TAMU RUSSIAN CLUB: Will meet at 7 p.m. to make preparations for a Thanksgiving dinner. The meeting will be held in Roo® 305AB, Rudder Tower. lead, a c )ta fro i ered the shut oil 1933. bances a: remembi of 1922 : cultural a ’ of the ement. t e able to luce with ititrust 1; Prohibit one, the bobbec lead Act r product f it wen AGGIE PLAYERS: Presents “J.B.” at 8 p.m. in Rudder Forum. CEPHEID VARIABLE: “The Magic Sword,” the world famous! legend of St. George and his battles with evil sorcerers, dragousj and witches will be shown at 8 and 10 p.m. in Rudder Theater. St George and his magic sword, Ascalon, prevail against all oddsi»| this enjoyable tale from the world of fantasy. TOKYO ST€JiK HOUSE AGGIE SPECIAL $095 DINNER Includes: Sweet and Sour Chicken Egg Roll Fried Won Ton Chop Suey Fried Rice Fortune Cookies Specials good for students Tues., Wed., Thurs. & Sun. Closed Mondays 2025 Texas Avenue Townshire Shopping Center 822-1301

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 07, 1978, Image 8

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