The day before America made history by electing the first president who still probably couldn’t hail a cab in New York City, a group of Maryland high-school students got a revealing lesson in how politics works.
To be brief: It’s all about the money, the moolah, the “cheddar,” as the youngsters might say.
Here’s what happened: On Monday students from three Baltimore high schools — Doris M. Johnson, Edmondson-Westside and Baltimore Talent Development — and students from Laurel High School in Prince George’s County took a field trip to the Maryland Historical Society located on Monument Street in downtown Baltimore. About 130 spent the day learning about public financing of political campaigns and Maryland’s history of voting rights for blacks and women.
State school Superintendent Nancy Grasmick started things off by giving the opening speech, in which she told students that voting was the most precious right Americans had. Sen. Ben Cardin concluded the session with a speech in which he was gracious enough to take questions from the students.
Cardin’s response to a question about slots was, for me, the most interesting, since it was about money and pertinent to this column. Cardin said that as a private citizen he was against slots, and that elected officials should have “the courage” to raise taxes if more money for education is needed.
The courage? For more than 40 years, elected officials at the local, state and federal levels of government have displayed no shortage of courage when it’s come to raiding the pockets of taxpayers for education dollars. They’ve displayed such courage whether that money has produced quality education or not. In fact, when it’s been shown that the money — read “federal” here — has had little or no effect, our noble legislators in Congress have asked for even MORE of our money.
When it comes to education, elected officials have shown no shortage of “courage” in taxing us. In fact, they’ve been downright intrepid. But it’s easy to be intrepid with money that’s not yours. I’m still looking for the elected official on whom I can bestow the Royal Order of the Poltroon when it comes to our tax dollars.
The students had no follow-up questions for Cardin about why he feels elected officials are entitled to spend our tax money as if its their own, and none asked him about public financing for political campaigns, even though most of them attended Meg Heubeck’s session on public financing. Heubeck works with the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Heubeck gave students two exercises. In the first students had to buy newspaper, radio and television advertising for congressional candidates who had campaign chests ranging from $10 million down to a paltry $500,000. The goal was to buy ad spots that would reach at least 250,000 potential voters. The youngsters soon learned that the candidates with the most money reached the most people. The candidates with the least money — no matter their qualifications or their platforms — reached the least.
I was thinking about Heubeck’s exercise when I went to vote on Tuesday and noticed that there were not two presidential candidates on the ballot, but six. In addition to Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain — you don’t know the restraint I’m showing by not referring to them, respectively, as “Bracko” and “Johnny Mac” — there was Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, Charles Baldwin of the Constitution Party and Ralph Nader running as an independent. Rounding out the field was Cindy Mac — er, uh, I mean ex-Rep. Cynthia McKinney — of the Green Party.
During the 2008 presidential campaign I heard little mention of these other four candidates in the media. It’s as if our newspaper, radio and television moguls decided for the American people which candidates’ ideas get to be heard and which ones don’t. I think a better arrangement is for the press to let us hear from all candidates and then let us decide which one’s ideas are wacky or out of the mainstream.
But those unequal dollars that Heubeck told students about were no doubt a factor as well. Once again, one of the two candidates who raised the most money got the job in the Oval Office.
In spite of all this talk about change, when it comes to “the cheddar,” it’s still business as usual in American politics.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years. Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
