Published October 19, 2004 in the East Valley Tribune as “Democracy deserves a better metaphor than war.”
The Arizona State University campus was transformed into a media stage this week. Hosting the final Presidential debate was a great honor, but it was also a window into how politics is done as well as how it could be.
MSNBC created a large staging area in front of the Memorial Union student center on campus, and hung American flag banners and signs saying “Battle for the White House.” Outside that staging area, college students with huge Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards signs competed on cue for who could yell the loudest. They stopped on command so that the talking heads could take over. CNN did much the same 100 yards away. The metaphor being acted out was that elections are war.
But must a democracy look like war? Just a little farther south on campus and a bit closer to Gammage Auditorium was a memorial to the Iraq war dead. Here was a recognition of the human cost of war that illustrated a vastly different way of thinking about democracy. No one shouted, but many people gathered and talked. Read the rest of this entry »