Nebraskan
/ • Editorial Board - ='
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
J. Christopher Haiti..... .Editor, 472-1766.
Doug Kouma ., ... Managing Editor
Doug Peters.**:...Opinion Page Editor
Sarah Scalet.... Associate News Editor
Mali Waite...... Associate News Editor
Michelle Garner........ Wire Editor
Jennifer Mapes ,..Columnist
Insured drivers
New state law a step in right direction
The light turns green. You shift into first and start through the
intersection. You glance to your right, but it’s too late to stop —
someone ran the light.
The shock of impact and the sound of twisting metal and shat
tering glass is the beginning of what could turn into a tangled web
of legal wrangling and financial burdens.
It’s a simple fact... if you drive enough, for a long enough pe
riod of time, eventually you’ll be involved in an accident. Even
the most conscientious drivers cannot avoid that.
A new state law increasing penalties for uninsured drivers took
effect on New Year’s Day, paving the way for the elimination of
an all-too-frequent problem. Previously, proof of insurance was
required before a vehicle could be registered, but there was no
requirement that the policy be maintained throughout the registra
tion period. In addition, the penalty for violating the insurance
requirement was deemed unenforceable by some Nebraska courts.
Many accidents are little more than a couple moments of fright,
a second of impact and a few days or weeks of inconvenience.
Information is exchanged, tickets may be issued, and damage is
paid for by the insurance company of the driver at fault.
If, of course, that person has insurance.
There are few things more frustrating than being hit by an unin
sured driver. Often, these drivers have limited financial resources
and are simply unable to pay for medical expenses or repairs to
someone else’s car. Since they have no insurance, victims have to
resort to the courts for relief.
But that’s usually not very effective, either — you know, no
blood from a turnip, etc.
The passage of LB 37 by the Legislature and Gov. Nelson’s
signing of that bill into law is a service to all law-abiding Nebras
kans. By increasing the penalties associated with driving without
insurance, our state government is laying the groundwork for fur
thering the protection by government of people who play by the
rules.
Only when it becomes more expensive to be uninsured than to
be insured will all Nebraska drivers purchase and maintain the
insurance policies required by law.
And only then will innocent, law
abiding drivers be safe from the
legal and financial quag
mire that results when
driver is
uninsured.
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Fall 1995 Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebras
kan Editorial Board. Editorials do not
necessarily reflect the views erf" the
university, its employees, the students
or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial
columns represent the opinion of die
author. The regents publish die Daily
Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
Publications Board to supervise the
daily production of the paper. Accord
ing to policy set by the regents, respon
sibility for the editorial content of the
* newspaper lies solely in the hands of its
students.
Latter policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor from all readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily
Nebraskan retains the right to edit orreject all material
submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit mate
rial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether
material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and
guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the
property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re
turned. Anonymous submissions will not be pub
lished. Letters should include the author’s name, year
in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Re
quests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit
material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union,
1400 R St. Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
— .1 1 - / >J'1« ■' ~ '*■> ■ ; J.'l' - ' ■ l l~— -
f of course i think
1 v'ft)U?E TEiLIH/? T7|F
l -m
‘Going negative’
Political parties need to take a bigger role
WASHINGTON — The polar
ization of American politics is not
an accident. The uncivil atmosphere
of Washington, so evident in the
protracted battle of the budget, is
not a happenstance. Both of them
are direct byproducts of the domi
nant means of political communica
tion, the 30-second campaign ads,
whose increasingly negative tone
and content heighten partisanship
and drive centrist and independent
voters away from the ballot box.
That is the central argument and
ingeniously demonstrated conclu
sion of a new book called “Going
Negative,” by two political scien
tists, Stephen Ansolabehere of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technol
ogy and Shanto Iyengar of the
University of California at Los
Angeles.
The subtitle of the book, “How
Political Advertisements Shrink and
Polarize the Electorate,” states the
case that is persuasively made by
the MIT and UCLA professors.
Many of us in journalism have
decried the effects of negative
political ads because of the repul
sion many voters and some politi
cians have expressed for them—and
because of our own distaste for the
meanness of these attacks. The
authors have found a way to
describe and measure what those
ads really do.
They ran experiments with cross
sections of California voters, using
ads from the 1990 and 1992
gubernatorial and senatorial
campaigns. The subjects were
shown local newscasts, some
containing no political ads, some
with one, and some with two.
Before-and-afler questionnaires
allowed the professors to measure
the effects of positive or negative
ads, singly or in various combina
tions, on voter attitudes and inten
tions, in a controlled laboratory
environment.
Their findings shatter some of my
preconceptions and illuminate a
problem more serious than I had
ever reckoned. They report that the
ads give people a lot of information.
Seeing even a single ad gives the
prospective voters more data,
mm .m
David Broder
Ma ny of us in
journalism have decried
the effects of negative
political ads because of
the repulsion many
voters and some
politicians have
expressed for them.
especially on an issue, than they had
before. The increase is especially
great for those who start with little
knowledge of the candidates.
With partisan voters, the ads are
not as manipulative as one might
think. Few Democrats are persuaded
to vote Republican or vice versa by
seeing an opposition ad. For the
partisans, ads tend to reinforce
allegiance. Positive ads modestly
increase the partisans’ motivation to
vote; negative ads lessen their
turnout only slightly.
Unfortunately, the main finding
of this survey is a powerful confir
mation of the intuition that negative
ads are a turnoff to the growing
number of independents in the
electorate—those with weak party
ties or no ties at all.
“Among partisans (Republicans
and Democrats alike), the drop in
turnout produced by negative
advertising was 3 percentage
points,” the authors write. “Among
non-partisans, the decline was an
astounding 11 points.... Our
findings show that negative advertis
ing demoralizes the electorate. It -
eats away at the individual’s sense -
of civic duty, especially in those
people whose connection to the
political process is marginal. In the
long run, negative campaigns
contribute to the general antipathy
toward politicians and parties and
the high rates of disapproval and
distrust of political institutions.”
That, of course, is exactly what
many of us critics have been saying.
But one device that we hoped would
help — ad watches, newspaper or
television features examining and
critiquing campaign ads — appear
only to reinforce the negative
consequences. They “clearly
backfired.” In test groups where ad
watches were included in the news,
the candidate whose ad was criti
cized gained even more support
among partisans, while independents
were further disenchanted with the
whole political process.
Ansoiaoenere ana Iyengar argue
that it is futile to urge candidates to
“stay positive.” Their experiments
confirm the political consultants’
advice that the damage is heaviest
for a candidate who stays positive
while his opponent is attacking.
How then to change the dynamic
that is driving away the moderate
middle of the electorate and
increasing the influence of the
partisan extremes? The authors
endorse an approach I have long
championed: Increase the roles of
our two parties in elections, espe
cially their grass-roots activities.
Media campaigns aim to persuade,
and negative ads do that efficiently.
But party organizations try to
mobilize voters, because “a party
centered campaign must sell the
entire ticket, not just a particular
name.”
Stop the “wrongheaded” reform
effort to curb or eliminate the “soft
money” contributions that pay for
party registration and get-out-the
vote efforts, they urge. Give public
subsidies to the parties, not to
individual presidential candidates.
The evidence is strong. The
conclusions strike me as being dead
right.
© 1996, Washington Post Writers Group
P.S.
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