“Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” — Winston Churchill
I don’t watch television very much these days. Instead, I’ve taken up the surprisingly informative habit of listening to Podcasts on the Internet. I heard one of my favorites, “Revisionist History” with Malcolm Gladwell, today in which a novel idea about voting was introduced.
Malcolm interviewed a guy named Adam, who came up with a proposal to have all high school student council members and presidents elected by lottery instead of the current practice that mimics the American vote model.
Like anybody else, I was skeptical, but Adam tried out his plan in a small school in Bolivia, with terrific results. He supervised an election with 200 teens expressing interest, but only eight were chosen by random lottery using eight purple-colored beans.
We Americans would scoff at the procedure, preferring the process of choosing from a small group selected for us ahead of time. Yet results in Bolivia produced students at the school coming up with a seminar on human trafficking and student identification cards that easily could be worn on clothing. In the United States, student council officials are most famous for planning dances and special events. School administrators aren’t known to be keen on permitting the kids to do something meaningful.
That once again reminded me of my earliest suspicions that voters too often select candidates because of their sparkling personalities, good looks or being popular or well known. I have come to believe over the years since that American elections for president, senator, congressman, governor or state legislator more often are determined by party affiliation (particularly in these parts), who is better known, who seems to have the better personality, or even worse, who has the best packaging by public relations.
I never got over the student council president election of the fall of 1964, when friend and fellow Wayland High School junior Terry Parks bested senior Tom Tarnutzer. The latter candidate, I was told, blew it during the campaign when he told the student body at an assembly that “This is not a popularity contest” and the winner should be selected on then basis of what he would be able to do on behalf of the student body.
Many friends and acquaintances told me a huge number of kids were turned off by the remarks, believing them to be something akin to a scolding. Yet, Mr. Tarnutzer, who later became superintendent of Wayland Union Schools, was absolutely correct in his assessment.
I’ve seen plenty of elections during my somewhat sordid career in community journalism. More often than not, I’ve watched too many people make their choices based on political party, personality, being more well known and better marketing.
This is why I rarely let incumbent politicians get away with free advertising every time they simply show up to get their pictures taken at some local feel-good event. I’ve been known to crop them out of pictures, and I’m proud of it.
We’ve seen too many elections in which the rich and famous have taken advantage of their fortune and fame to pick up electoral support they really don’t deserve.
Good examples were Arnold Schwartzeneger for governor of California, Sonny Bono for Congressman, Clint Eastwood for a small town mayor’s post, and closer to home, and popular restaurant owner Tommy Brann for state legislator. I haven’t seen any evidence that they have done a better job than anyone else.
So maybe I’m on board with Malcolm Gladwell’s friend’s suggestion. Because high school student councils really aren’t permitted to do anything of substance, I don’t see the downside. And perhaps, as in the case of Bolivia, there might be an upside in opening up the adolescent political process to more than just the hand-picked popular favorites.
William F. Buckley said on many occasions variants of ““I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.”