Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Ballots vs. Beer
By David Daddio
The Diamondback (U. Maryland)
10/26/2006

(U-WIRE) COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It's painful to sit by and watch The Diamondback opinion page once again get dominated by election-year propaganda and all its associated youthful idealism. Indeed, it's difficult for the average student to get too excited about politics these days. In an age where serious issues take second place to style and free speech is mostly reserved for bitching about gas prices, the average university student has reached a point where the few minutes it may take to vote could be better spent kicking back some brews.

I'll use myself as an example: At one time I followed national news almost religiously. Especially in the wake of Sept. 11, it seemed incredibly important for me to be informed of every political development. Then one day, without even intending to do it, I just stopped paying attention.

A couple of weeks later, I turned on CNN to see what I had missed, and I had an epiphany - there was no news. President Bush was still invoking Sept. 11 at every opportunity, using it as justification to limit civil liberties and to "stay the course" in Iraq. He confessed our addiction to oil in January but still proposed no cure. Congress still hadn't reformed reactionary immigration policies that deny visas to the brightest international minds. Congress was still pork-barreling bridges to nowhere, spending our grandchildren into their graves, still labeling timetables as a "cut and run" strategy and still doing everything it could to ignore the so-called "Mexican invasion."

So I decided to abandon national news to try to find my news fix in seemingly less divisive and ego-driven state politics. This included the Maryland gubernatorial race between moderate Republican incumbent Robert Ehrlich and Democratic Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. What I found was a predictable series of events that seems to take place in the course of most political campaigns: An initial commitment to run on issues, followed by a wholesale abandonment of a promise in favor of personal attacks, despicable commercials and mindless rhetoric.

Whether apathy overcame you or your valiant effort to grasp the issues came up short among all the garbage, I've reproduced some key takeaway points: In-state tuition at Maryland has increased from just under $5,000 to nearly $8,000, and higher education funding now follows a mysterious four-year pattern. The university is "the best deal in the universe." Ehrlich has the audacity to take credit for laws he hesitated to sign and, in some cases, actually vetoed. His appointees tried to sell state conservation land in southern Maryland to a politically connected developer in November 2004. He supported Cambridge's proposed Blackwater Resort before he was against it. He supports the Purple Line, a proposed transit link from Bethesda to Silver Spring and through the campus to the College Park Metro, as long as it's free. His administration has recorded three golden shovel groundbreakings for the Intercounty Connector road - the most contentious 18 miles of asphalt ever fought for in state history.

In case you think I'm in support of the Democrats, I'd like to point you to Ehrlichisbush.com. This website is an excellent example of how the Democratic Party has chosen an "anti-Bush" platform to cover up its own abandonment of the issues and lack of vision. Enter O'Malley, who, although seemingly politically adept, has failed to make any hard commitments to higher education, transit or the environment.

Why don't students vote? Is it because we don't have draft cards to burn or cultural bandwagons to jump on like our parents did? Maybe. Still, politics seem unable to produce one inspirational candidate, a person who we can identify with and who speaks straight to our beliefs and concerns, someone who can reassure us all that democracy isn't some failed experiment. In a desperate drive to mix things up, we may simply choose to vote against incumbents and feel around in the dark for something different, something better in our leaders. I'll be voting Nov. 7 - for Propositions 1 and 4, that is. The rest I'll regretfully ignore unless our leaders begin to address the very real challenges that face this state and this county in the years to come.

David Daddio is a senior environmental economics major. He can be reached at ddaddio@umd.edu.

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