Opinion
Jana Pedersen, Editor, 472-1766
Eric Pfanner, Editorial Page Editor
Diane Brayton, Managing Editor
Walter Gholson, Columnist
Paul Domeier, Copy Desk Chief
Brian Shellito, Cartoonist
Jeremy Fitzpatrick, Senior Reporter
Haunting pasts
Louisiana governor candidates ‘running’
The news stories are so much the same.
David Duke, “fringe” Republican candidate for
governor in Louisiana, apologizes for his past and
vows that he is a born-again Christian. His Democratic
opponent, Edwin Edwards, carries much the same tune
when asked about his own past deeds.
With just three days left before Louisiana voters will
decide their new governor, much media attention has
focused on the choice between Duke, a former Grand
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Edwards, a former
three-term governor known to have a penchant for high
stakes gambling and womanizing.
When the pair debated Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the
Press,” they took turns explaining past actions.
Duke denied that he ever was a Nazi or called Adolf
Hitler “a genius.” He admitted to espousing racist atti
tudes in the past, but said: “I reject Nazism. I reject
Communism. I believe in less government, and that’s
what I stand for.”
Edwards denied that he participated in illegal gambling
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Atlantic City. When asked if he would try to change his
wheeler-dealer, womanizing image if elected, Edwards
said: “I’m 64 years old now, and I want this opportunity
to do something for myself and for my state, and I’m not
going to blow it...
Who to believe?
According to The Associated Press, one of Duke’s
campaign workers said he no longer believes Duke. Bob
Hawks, whom Duke identified as his state campaign
coordinator at an Oct. 19 victory party, resigned this
week, calling Duke a phony who had not renounced his
racist past to become a born-again Christian.
Some reporters apparently don’t believe Duke either.
After Duke claimed to belong to an evangelical church
1 that reporters couldn’t locate, a group of reporters con
fronted Duke, who said the church was a small organiza
tion that met in private homes.
One black television reporter, Norman Robinson, was
more adamant in asking Duke to give him something to
believe:
“I am scared, sir,” Robinson said during a televised
debate. ‘‘I’ve heard you say that Jews deserve to be in the
ash bin of history. I’ve heard you say that horses contrib
uted more to the building of America than blacks did.. . .
Convince me, sir, and other minorities like me, why they
should entrust their lives and the lives of their children to
you.”
Duke responded by asking Robinson if he ever had
been intolerant to people unlike himself.
Duke’s behavior goes beyond intolerance. It’s hate — a
. dangerous commodity in politics.
Certainly, Duke is not the first racist politician in
America. Racist overtones can be taken even from the
Bush administration’s catch-phrase “quota bill.”
But David Duke has become a symbol of intolerance.
Despite his insistence that he has left his racist past be
hind, Duke sold Nazi literature from his office in the
Louisiana legislature as recently as 1989, and Hawks
alleged that Duke used the term “niggers” after a Labor
Day parade this year in Morgan City.
Even if Duke loses Saturday, he has won a strong fol
lowing of citizens whose ideology is farther right than that
oi the mainstream Republican party.
Mainstream Republicans have been quick to distance
themselves from Duke. Even President Bush said he’d
vote for Edwards. With good reason.
But Duke’s success in gaining that popularity that he
has should be warning that ultra-right politics can no
longer be dismissed as fringe.
While Edwards’ ideology is far from shining and his
position on women’s rights may be downright frightening,
he is no David Duke. Edwards is the lesser of two evils.
We hope that in Saturday’s election Louisiana voters
will decide that “not being David Duke” is enough.
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WALTER GHOLSON
America hooked on politicians
mericans seem to be addicted
to a powerful substance that
causes us to act as if we have
some mental illness. Most of us don’t
know it, and those of us who do won’t
, admit it.
We walk around every day stoned
on this dope, and when one of our
worldwide neighbors says something
about our problem, we say we can
stop using it anytime we want be
cause we’re Americans.
Psychologists call this behavior the
denial syndrome, which means that
we have built an automatic defense
mechanism against any suggestion
that our problem has gotten out of
hand.
In some cases our avoidance of the
fact that our problem is visible causes
us to ignore the reality of our situation
and the danger posed by our habit.
While it seems as if I have been
describing the classic drug abuser, in
this instance what some of us arc
dependent on is not a drug or alcohol
but our almost religious belief in some
of the politicians we’ve voted into
office over the past years.
We have become so strung out on
their “vote for me and I’ll set you
free” rap that even when they arc
caught with our savings-and-loan
money in their back pockets, we still
sing the old denial song, “We can
vote them out of office anytime we
want to.” But four years later they are
still there.
special-interest groups.
And just like all big-time drug
operations, the PAC cartel has had a
profound effect on the people in the
senator’s hometown. This spccial
influence-group drug has trickled
everything down to the lower rungs
of the political ladder, except the i
money.
So today, as we prepare to listen to
another year full of mesmerizing
orations from would-be elected offi
cials, we must ask ourselves whether
we really understand what they are
saying when they tell us about all the
great things they’re going to do if
they’re re-elected in 1992.
We have to admit finally that we
have become users of the same sub
stances these politicians arc on and
decide to quit cold turkey. We’ve got
to stop being afraid of the dealers of
this political dope and realize that we
cannot afford to be hooked anymore.
Because, while we’ve been get
ting high inhaling the smoke left over
from burning Kuwaiti oil wells, our
cities are in decay and our children
are buying automatic weapons to take
to a public school system we can’t
find funds for.
While we have been partying and
chugging down the brew of perestroika,
millions of our fellow citizens are
unemployed and homeless.
While we’ve been
gelling high inhaling
the smoke left oxer
from burning Ku
waiti oil wells.• qul
cities, are in decay
and, qul children are
buying automatic
weapons to take to a
public school system
we canll find funds
fan.
For years we actually trusted the
politicians we elected and believed
they represented our interests and wax
law-abiding citizens who swore on a
brand new slack of Bibles to uphold
the Constitution and to attend to the
needs and desires of their constitu
ents.
wnue wc ve Dccn nanuciiuiuus
on this rhetorical acid and tripping
out on a thousand points of light, our
congressional representatives found
it convenient to give themselves a
1 healthy salary increase.
Instead of injecting ourselves with
this political dope, we should try to
find out why millions of Americans
| are lined up to get food stamps and
why half of those who could vote
don’t.
It’s way past time for us to wake up
and smell the decaffinatcd coffee and
find the willpower to “just say no’’
to the new brand of political rhetoric.
Because those who traffic in the
crack of political promises have again
1 taken to the streets in your neighbor
hood with a new drujj called conser
vative right-wing politics.
This stuff is extremely powerful;
use it one time and you’re hooked lor
life. The gang selling this new drug
is an equal-opportunity employer. It
just hired two new dealers: one is a
black Supreme Court justice, the other
a rehabilitated racist from Louisiana.
Gholson is a senior news-editorial jour
nalism major and a Daily Nebraskan colum
nist
We arc hooked hopelessly on the
addictive qualities of the political
personalities who show up around
election lime to kiss babies and any
thing else that’s held up for them.
And just like drug addicts and
alcoholics, we deny that the politi
cians arc out to get our votes so they
can stay in office for another term. As
long as they keep selling us the mind
altering drug of political rhetoric, we
couldn’t care less about what’s hap
pening to the economy or what coun
try we bomb.
We weren’t always political junk
ies. There was a time in America’s
history when people expected their
leaders to represent them with hon
- esty and integrity and to take their
t problems seriously. Back then, they
. knew how to control the people we
5 pul into office.
1 That was back in the good ol’days
) when we really believed there was a
. solution to every problem and all we
- had to do was call up Sen. What’s
l his-name’s office and the problem
would be taken care of.
But then something happened tc
these salt-of-thc-carth politicians tha
shook the foundations of govemmen
and cast doubt on the honesty of these
political types, something thatcauscc
their eyes to widen, their minds tc
wander and their palms to itch.
In the bright lights of polite Wash
ington society, they were introduced
to the cartel called .political action
committees.
These PAC’s showed Sen. What’s
his-facc how he could make more
money than he’d ever seen if hccoulc
just manage to stay in office for the
rest of his life.
They explained the importance ol
keeping the voters happy through gooc
press relations and by keeping his
private activities in the nation’s capi
tal from getting back to the folks ir
his home state.
The PAC syndicates showed him
how easy it was to make lots of money
on the lecture circuit and how to gel
free vacations in exotic places from