Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, October 30, 1987
Opinion
Confessions of a politically deviant sorority gill Cl
I discovered a few
weeks ago that I
am a political
deviant.
It happened
one d^v at lunch
Tracy
Staton
Guest Columnist
house. I was
sitting at the dining room table,
unaware that bv the end of the meal I
wou.. ormal” by my
sorority sistei s.
Susan started it all. She said, “Did you
know that George Bush is so-and-so’s
godfather?” I guess she never learned
that name-dropping and talking politics
are taboo.
Of course, someone said, “Isn’t he
running for president?”
Since I’m a college journalist, and
therefore required to keep abreast of
current events, everyone at the table
looked at me.
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I hope he gets it,” Susan said.
“Me too,” Kelly chimed in. “He’s been
a good vice president.”
Unable to control myself any longer,
I groaned.
Eigl . ( m' ' eves looked at me
. ' V ■ ; >n’t Liic him?”
no, to tell you the truth,” I
I knew I had to face the wrath of
the second-hand Republicans sometime.
“He’s the most honest politician
around right now,” Amber huffed.
Everyone agreed. Except me.
“Well, Tracy, who do you want to be
president?” someone asked.
I hesitated for a moment, then
plunged into Greek no-man’s land. “No
Republican, that’s for sure.”
“NO REPUBLICAN??”
Their response echoed through the
hallowed halls of the sorority house. I
cringed, but refused to yield to political
peer pressure.
“Are you a Democrat?” Susan
whispered.
History shortchanged
Landon, labeling him
‘quintessential loser’
Alf Landon,
who died recently
at the remarkable
age of 100, got a
bad rap from
history. For about
half of his life he
was remembered
primarily for his
epic loss to
Franklin
Roosevelt in 1936;
in the ’40s and ’50s
Donald
Kaul
and even into the ’60s, he was kind of a
national joke, the quintessential loser.
The Kansas Republican was better
than that, a lot better. Both before and
after his defeat he was a progressive
moderate who was on the common
sense, far-seeing side of almost every
issue. When he was governor of Kansas
he saved the banks during the
Depression, declaring a moratorium on
farm foreclosures, and he gave state
support to local relief plans without
running up a huge deficit. Before that
he had campaigned against the Ku Klux
Klan in Kansas, when the Klan was still
quite powerful, and before that he
supported Teddy Roosevelt’s “Bull
Moose” breakaway from the Republican
Party in 1912.
He was an internationalist who, in his
role of elder statesman of the
Republican Party, supported aid to
Britain prior to World War II and anti
communist aid to Greece and Turkey
after it. He was in favor of the Marshall
Plan and the United States’
participation in Europe’s Common
Market.
There is hardly a question that he
would have made a fine president; one
so superior to recent models, in fact, as
to make a joke of the comparison.
Still, he has a good deal to answer for
in his life, this amiable, gentle man, for
his candidacy inspired one of the most
pernicious devices known to mankind,
one that threatens our system of
governance — the political opinion poll.
Before Landon what polls existed
were casual affairs, generally conducted
by publications that would ask their
readers to send in cards supporting
their preferred candidates. The most
famous of these was the reader survey
conducted by a well-thought-of
magazine of the time, the Literary
Digest. It had had a pretty good track
record over the years.
Well, in 1936 it asked its readers
whom they liked for president, and a
clear majority of those responding
answered “Alf Landon.” A Landon
victory was predicted; this in a year
when Franklin Roosevelt was largely
regarded as the country’s savior.
Landon himself later said that news
“It may have been warm for Maine,’
he said, “but it was damn cold for
Kansas.”
Last month, days before his 100th
birthday, Landon was visited by
President Reagan. It was a little sad.
The old gentleman, hard of hearing,
seemed confused and at times lapsed
into nonsense.
Landon was fine, though.
Copyright 1987, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 S60)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwestjournalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
John Jarvis, Managing Editor
Sue Krenek, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
Robbyn Lister, News Editor
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Tracy Staton, Photo Editor
“No, but I’m not a Republican,” I
whispered back.
After a few moments of stunned
silence, everyone resumed eating. I
thought I was safe. I was wrong.
“Who else is running?” Kelly asked.
“There’s Richard Gephardt. He’s a
congressman from Missouri. And the
governor of Arizona, Bruce Babbit, is
running,” I began.
“Isn’t there anyone we’d know?”
Susan asked.
“Jesse Jackson.”
“UGH,” they chorused.
“Paul Simon.”
“Paul SIMON is running for
PRESIDENT?”
“Not the Paul Simon from Simon and
Garfunkel,” I laughed. “He’s a senator
from Illinois. He always wears a bow
tie.”
“Oh, he’s the one who looks like the
guy from ‘Revenge of the Nerds,”’
someone said. “I saw him on television
the other day.”
“That guy? He’s such a geek,” Susan
said. “I don’t think anyone who looks
like that should be president. I mean,
really.”
I restrained a sarcastic comment by
gulping my iced tea, then checked my
watch.
“Gosh, it’s 12:15 already,” I said. “I’ve
got to go to work.”
As I escaped from the dining room. I
heard someone say, “She never should
have changed her major to journalism.
If she would have stayed in business
she’d be Republican like we are. They
really THINK about that stuff in
journalism.”
Since that luncheon fiasco, I have
judiciously avoided talking politics with
any of my sorority sisters. “No
comment,” I loftily say when anyone
approaches me with questions about the
campaign. They’re waiting for me to
slip, though — I can tell.
1 almost got caught two days ago. 1
was reading an article about George
McGovern in “RollingStone."Inpiil
It was a mistake. I had tomarkthrj
that began an article about BonosolT
could flip to it when someonewalel
by. Since I’m pretty paranoid any*: I
spent so much time flippingbac
forth betweeen the two interviewsikl
took me 30 minutes to readonec
■
in
B
1 know that someday I’l
publicly acknowledge my divergent
from the Gospel According to
Conservatism — again. I just need>;J
time to recover from the emotional
shock 1 experienced thelasttime
It’s a hard-knock life forapolim
thinker — especially a Greekpolitij
thinker. But I’ve been an aspiring
deviant for a long time, rmnotgoinj
abandon my quest now.
I racy Staton is a seniorjoumalm
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“Nothi
pame, s;
of the poll results had given him his only
glimmer of hope in the campaign. “For
an hour or so that night,” he said, “I
could see myself in the White House.”
The cruel reality was that Landon
carried only two states — Maine and
Vermont — losing the election 28 million
votes to 17 million and, incidentally,
crushing the old political truism “As
Maine goes, so goes the nation.”
He retired from active politics after
that, returning to an oil business in
Topeka, Kan., but the damage was
done, a few exceptionally bright young
men, led by George Gallup, realized
that their was a market out there for
public opinion polls, ones conducted
along more or less scientific lines that
could make accurate predictions of
political behavior. They began to chip
away at the market.
There was no harm in it at first. They
would conduct polls to find out what
people were thinking about politics and
other things, then publish the results.
Sometimes they were proved right,
sometimes wrong. As they got better at
it, though, it occurred to some that it
was only a small step from finding out
what poeple were thinking to being able
to give people what they wanted. Thus
was modern political advertising born.
What it has produced is a generation
of politicians who live almost entirely by
polls. They test-market messages the
way Proctor and Gamble test-markets a
new brand of soap. If the message finds
favor, they sick with it; if not, they
change it. They test-market their hair
styles, their clothes, their mannerisms; I
haven’t heard of it yet but I wouldn’t be
surprised if they test-marketed their
wives and children. As a matter of fact,
I’d be surprised if they didn’t.
So, in a sense, we have Alf Landon to
thank for the blow dry candidate, a
brand of politics, ironically, from which
he could not have been further
removed. It wasn’t his fault. He was
simply the agent of inspiration.
His personal campaigning style was
said to be awkard and halting, but he
never lost his sense of humor about
himself. During his ’36 campaign he
appeared in Maine and was
complimented on the warm response he
received.
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MDtturr groRk
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Mail Call
Two cents' worth
EDITOR:
I have been here as a transfer student since January ’87
and have been reading The Battalion ever since. The one
thing that I really like to read is Mail Call. I really get a
laugh at all the complaining from writers who call each
other names and refer to their moral character, mental
capacity, etc. I am sure everyone remembers the pro-
choice vs. anti-abortion debate and the cry because the
Students Against Apartheid has only 15 members.
I believe everyone should have a choice to do with his
body as he sees fit, as long as it does not violate my free
choice. I am sure the Students Against Apartheid feel the
oppressed in South Africa should determine their fate, so
they’re pro-choice. The anti-abortion people are pro-
choice; they want what the unborn infant would choose.
The problem is that the infant is not recognized by the
government as being an individual and therefore has no
rights. So now if this is the premise, that an individual does
not have any rights until they are recognized by the
government as having rights, as we have set in our own
country, then how can we protest the government in South
Africa? It doesn’t recognize the blacks as individuals
having any rights, so no human rights are being violated.
This is in accordance with our own policy. Let us get our
country within the guidelines that we want to set for other
countries.
Yes, I am against abortion. Now you can get an abortion
as easily as buying a candy bar at the corner store, and we
complain about other countries’ stances on human rights
and morality. My question is, where is the concern for our
own people? People die from living in poverty, yet we send
millions overseas to feed the hungry.
I’m waiting for students to address the problems that
effect the student body. Since the school was not allowed
by law to raise the tuition fees, it added a computer access
fee. This is called circumvention. What about theparM
A&M sells as many permits as possible, knowing thereiisf
way that all of them will find a place. I am waiting for tbt I
sidewalk use fee; it’s the only thing left. Whatabouttk
rising cost of college and the decline in financial aid?
Several weeks back there was an article on doing away rtl
public education. If the writer hasn’t noticed, he is
attending a public institution. And I’m sure the writer*!
wanted to do away with the standing army and issue
everyone a gun is a member of the reserves, in linewiPj
“reserve only” concept.
Now that I put my two cents’ worth in, I hope I do ml
get this urge again. I do have classes to pass.
R. Smith ’90
Set a good example for the kid
EDITOR:
There are many children who spend time hanging!
around campus, and until last week I viewed themasP|
more than small nuisances invading my sidewalk space
with their skateboards. Until last week. A friendandl
were talking in the Theater Complex when a smallgrofl
of boys began “spying” on us. They began tomakesexej
references in fluent street language. It seems, Ags,t
they pick some of them up from us.
It’s sad that before these kids can understand sex,s< ! |
has become cheap. I never realized remarks madecasm
as I walk across campus were heard, and certainlynevdj
condi dered the fact that they were taken as importani
It’s something to think about.
Lea Scott ’89
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial
reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make ever) tff(f‘ : -1
maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must
classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
BLOOM COUNTY
W' y-YVA 5d/p meRe
** W-MS ABOUT
5-5 '555556VCNTY
million peopLe peppiN'
TH/5
TH I NO r
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by Berke Breatti
New Marketing Ddj|
Ned "Crack’eml
Katston was goingIj
the story about thefj
the rah hi and the gj
salesman,but heb
apparently chokedi 1 !
clutch.
Ned soon will ben#
back to shipping"?'!
he should be happy'J
learn, his audience"- 1
be about two.