Candidates should prove their worth

Viewpoints

June 18, 2011

By Ronnie Ellis CNHI News Service The Richmond Register Sat Jun 18, 2011, 10:00 AM EDT

FRANKFORT — No one on either side of the political divide disputes our state and country face crucial decisions about the future. But what obligation do candidates asking for your vote or incumbents arguing for a particular policy have to discuss their positions with the public?

That question occurred to me while watching an interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell on “One To One,” Bill Goodman’s program on Kentucky Education Television. It’s also a question for candidates in this year’s governor’s race.

Goodman repeatedly pressed McConnell about the national debt, the federal budget and entitlement programs. Each time McConnell — “with all due respect to you, Bill” — said he wasn’t going to negotiate those questions on television. It’s unrealistic to expect McConnell or any other political leader to give away in advance precisely what his side will accept in a compromise.

But it is also the public’s business under negotiation and this is a representative, republican democracy. How are citizens to understand the problem or determine what elected representatives should do if they aren’t given more information than poll-tested sound bites? These are complicated problems which require complicated solutions and the public needs to understand the consequences of the choices. But politicians don’t talk to us seriously about these issues. The result is demonstrated by polling on the federal budget.

Poll after poll shows the public overwhelmingly favors significant cuts to federal spending. But the same polls show equal majorities adamantly opposed to cuts in the costliest programs in the federal budget, the very programs which drive the budget out of balance.

That’s what happens when politicians fail to lay out for the public in plain language the options — and the consequences of their decisions — on spending and yes, Senator, taxes. In Kentucky, we’re about to endure a campaign that will feature personal attacks and sound bites like “trusted, tough and tested” and “bold conservative leadership.”

But voters aren’t likely to hear a serious discussion of the state’s almost endless list of problems or, most depressing, of our persistent denial of those problems’ causes. Reporters will try. Those like Goodman who get a chance to interview the candidates on behalf of the public will work hard to elicit substantive answers from Steve Beshear, David Williams and Gatewood Galbraith about tax reform, Medicaid, education, the environment and state pensions.

Galbraith might actually answer a few, but if experience is any guide, Beshear and Williams — like most major party candidates — will rely on tested and safe platitudes which don’t inform voters but won’t alarm them or force them to confront the hard realities we face. The problem isn’t specific to these candidates. It’s the way campaigns operate in an age of television, paid consultants, focus groups and a polarized electorate.

Why not put candidates for governor on a flat-bed truck or stage and give them a couple of hours to go at one another just like Lincoln and Douglas? No questions from reporters or moderators. Flip a coin to determine the order and then give them blocks of time to talk about whatever they wish. Let them choose their subject, make their case and then defend their positions from the others’ criticism. If candidates want to engage in personal attacks, fine. At least they’ll have to do it standing a few feet away and in plain sight of their target and can’t hide behind an anonymous narrator on a slickly produced television ad. If their candidacies are really about bold ideas, personal character and leadership, then let them prove it.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.

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